Calgary roots/ blues musician Tim Williams has always maintained a busy schedule. But it has got busier since winning the Memphis Blues Challenge in 2014.
“ I’m busier than a one armed paper hanger,” said Williams, who has a busy day, Sept. 26. He will host his afternoon jam at the Blues Can in Calgary, then come down to Lethbridge to open the Lethbridge Folk Club’s season at the Lethbridge College Cave, Sept. 26 at 8 p.m..
“Last summer I added eight or nine extra festivals to a season that was already busy. This summer was slower. I’m not complaining though,” Williams said. He played festivals from Portland, Oregon to West Virginia and everywhere in between.
“I played three festivals in Italy and I’ve also been teaching at guitar camps in Slovenia. I do a lot of those. It’s where people come and spend three to six days learning fingerpicking and slide guitar,” he said adding he has done similar camps around Canada as well including camps in Port Townsend, Washington, Bragg Creek and the Hornby island Blues Workshop.
He has also found time to record new material.
It’s been about four years since ‘Blue Highway,’ but I’m making up for that this year because i have two of them coming out,” he said.
The first one, entitled “So Low” out on Nov. 2, will be a stripped down affair, influenced by his solo performances at the Memphis Blues Challenge.
“For people who still record CDs for a really small niche market like I do, people respond to something that is more honest. So this sounds like John Hammond’s earlier stuff. I just brought a guitar, a new National Steel guitar which I had to buy to replace a vintage National Steel guitar which met with catastrophe, a 12 string guitar and Hawaiian lap steel guitar,” he said noting he also plays five string banjo and lap steel guitar and a little bit of a button accordion.
“ It’s very stripped down and vintage sounding,” he said.
He recorded the other CD in Whitehorse with Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne and Brandon Isaak under the name Blue Note Express.
“ I was playing a gig with them up there and had such a lovely time that we decided to spend a lovely three days in the studio just to see what would come of it,” he said, adding he plans to release that next year.
He is excited to return to Lethbridge to play for the Lethbridge Folk club to play the blues and share his encyclopedic knowledge of blues music and blues musicians.
“I always have a good time there. And with two new discs on the way, that’s pretty much two sets right there,” he said.
The show begins at 8 p.m., Sept. 26 in the Cave at Lethbridge College. Wayne Thordarson will be opening. Tickets cost $25 for members, $30 for guests which includes a year long membership.