TimGibbons& The Swampbusters

Hamilton's Tim Gibbons plays swamp blues, soul and greasy rock and roll with nothing faked. He played on Daniel Lanois' Oscar-winning Sling Blade soundtrack, made records with Mark Howard and Cowboy Junkies' Michael Timmins, and took The Swampbusters to the International Blues Challenge in Memphis. The latest album is Boogalator (2023).

Tim Gibbons is as real as it gets. A Hamilton, Ontario original, he's a writer, actor and musician steeped in a timeless blues tradition, playing solo or with his band The Swampbusters.

He started as a teenage garage-band drummer, switched to banjo and guitar, and got his first paying job backing the dancers at a Hamilton burlesque theatre. Through the '80s he played with The Shakers and The Trouble Boys.

In the '90s Daniel Lanois brought him to Los Angeles to play bass, drums and organ on the soundtrack for Billy Bob Thornton's Oscar-winning Sling Blade, which features Tim's song “Lonely One.” He toured Texas with Chris Whitley and released Shylingo (1999) with producer Mark Howard.

Back in Ontario he won three Hamilton Music Awards in 2006 and released Trail of Smoke (2011) as Cootes Leland, with Michael Timmins of Cowboy Junkies. The Swampbusters followed with Swamp Tooth Comb (2014), Swamp Rock Country Blues (2017) and Boogalator (2023), and Tim represented the Grand River Blues Society at the 2018 International Blues Challenge in Memphis.

Along the way he's worked alongside Daniel Lanois, Billy Bob Thornton, Dwight Yoakam, Robert Gordon, Johnny Winter, Teenage Head, Emmylou Harris and Sonny Rhodes.