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I first met Tim Gibbons in his current regular gig as guitarist with Hamilton's Little Red Blues Gang. I had no idea he and Little Red Blues Gang drummer Claude Desroches were members of the semi-legendary Hamilton rock band, The Shakers. All I knew was that this musician had something special going on for himself, both vocally and instrumentally. When he told me about his solo recordings, Shylingo, Whiskey Priest and Dead Guy Won a Muffin, I was immediately interested in hearing them. I have yet to obtain the latter two recordings. Tim has also toured with Deadman, an alt-country band from Texas who named their CD after Paramour, a mansion in California, which houses Real Music Records, where Shylingo was recorded.
I bought this 1998 CD early in June 2003 (which strangely registers the songlist of U2's Beautiful Day CD on my PC), with only the vaguest notion of what sort of music I would hear. Whoa! Just as Louis L'Amour nailed the gunslinger theme in countless novels, Mr. Gibbons has scored a "bullseye" in capturing the essence of "Mescalero blues", not unlike Bob Dylan's "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" (featuring Roger McGuinn, Booker T and Bruce Langhorn) or Dire Straits' (Mark Knopfler) "Brothers in Arms". That's not to say you should be getting out your favourite Stetson or sombrero, as it's not strictly country-flavoured, but close enough.
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