If I had to answer, under the threat of death, which album is my most favourable one, it is very possible that the answer would be “Shylingo”. And I would not be very wrong, because, even when I am the most relaxed, it is among the top five. And then, you listen to everything that Tim Gibbons made before and after this album, and there is no trace whatsoever of what so closely tied me to “Shylingo”.
It turned out that “Shylingo” is a connection of moments as Gibbons was getting off alcohol and complete devastation he had been heading to, as well as the production influence of Mark Howard, who then provided him with spiritual and physical shelter, along with Daniel Lanois.
It was in Los Angeles, in 1996, when the two of them recorded the soundtrack for “Sling Blade” movie, in their Teatro studio, located in the rubbles of the former Mexican porn movie. Decades earlier, in 1982, Gibbons had been the one who introduced Lanois to Howard and was the godfather to their decades long cooperation.
I persistently waited for something like “Shylingo” album to happen again, and instead I came across a guy whose name was Tim Gibbons and he would not let his banjo out of his hands. And I could not be persuaded that it was the same man. And it was. Later he named himself Cootes Leland and this phase lasted for an album, “Trail Of Smoke”, which was released by the Cowboy Junkies’ recording company. The version of the song “Medicine Girl” from this album was sung by Lee Harvey Osmond.
His most recent reincarnation was the band TG & Swampbusters, he finally hung his banjo on the wall, and took an electric guitar in his hands. The return to the roots, to rock’n’roll and blues, and playing in inns – the vagrant and musician has been riding again