Opening for Gord Bamford at his town’s centennial concert is about the best birthday present Bashaw country-rock singer Ty Christian Wilson could have hoped for.
“It’s pretty cool,” said the crooner, who will turn 22 on Saturday. That’s when he performs at Bashaw’s Agricultural Grounds just before headliner Bamford takes the stage to help celebrate Bashaw’s 100th birthday.
Wilson is a big fan of the Lacombe country singer — and any performers who write their own music. “I miss the days of Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings, where guys wrote their own songs,” said Wilson, who recently put out an album of 15 of his own tunes.
He calls his humorous ditties, such as Just Another Country Song, “farmboy music.”
The recording of Wilson’s more serious ballad, Wagon Wheel, was paid for by Olds radio station 96.5 CKFM, which sponsored a Star Search contest that he won. The tune is about a dying cowboy whose religious faith wavered in his lifetime but who tells his son, “it’s easier to believe in something. It makes your life easier,” said Wilson.
“I think that when you write a song, you believe it and you sing it better,” added the singer who uses his middle name to distinguish himself from a U.S. rapper who’s also named Ty Wilson.
So far, he has performed mostly in the Olds area and at last year’s Daines Country Music Picknic, but Wilson looks forward to expanding his country audience.
“I was raised in Bashaw on a black Angus beef farm, so I have lots of (rural) inspiration to draw from,” he added with a chuckle.
“I remember being knee deep in manure and thinking to myself, by God, I’m gonna be a rockstar. So I sold a heifer, bought a guitar, got a tattoo and set out to take over the music world.”
Tickets for the 7:30 p.m. concert are $25 and are available at the gate. Former Bashaw resident Jalayne Tradler is also opening for Bamford.