REGINA, Sask. — Before Canadian country star Tim Hicks was filling festival stages with hit songs and high-energy performances, he was spending his nights playing three or four sets in bars, wondering whether a career in music would ever take off.
Nearly two decades of performing came before his first major break. Now, with a successful Canadian country career behind him and new music to bring to the stage, Hicks is looking forward to returning to Country Thunder Saskatchewan.
The Niagara Falls, Ont., singer is part of the 2027 lineup for the festival's 44th edition, running July 8 to 11 in Craven. He is scheduled to perform Saturday, July 10, alongside acts including Blue Rodeo and Collective Soul.
For Hicks, the Saskatchewan crowd has made a lasting impression.
“The first time we played, it was 2013, and I'll never forget two things,” he said. “Seeing all the kids running to get to the front of the stage was life altering.”
He also remembers a more unpredictable part of that first performance: oversized beach balls he was throwing into the crowd kept getting swept away by strong winds.
The memories have stuck with him. After returning to Craven in 2026, he said he and his band are eager to play the festival again.
“We're really looking forward to coming back, man,” Hicks said. “It's our show, it's a high energy show. We play all the hits, we play all the songs that everybody is expecting to hear.”
He believes Saskatchewan audiences understand exactly what his performances are about.
“They seem to get it,” he said. “Those are our people.”
A career built on Canadian stages
Hicks' path to country music success was anything but overnight.
He spent 18 years playing bars before getting his opportunity as a recording artist. By the time he began attracting attention, he was 33, had a young family and had already experienced the uncertainty of trying to make a living as a musician.
At one particularly difficult point around 2006 or 2007, Hicks had returned to Ontario after playing in a tribute band on cruise ships. His contacts from years of bar gigs had moved on or finished booking their schedules, leaving him without work.
He was so discouraged that he asked his future wife, then a public health nurse, to help him get an interview for a job.
Instead, a conversation with her changed his perspective.
“She goes, before I do this, I want you to think about it,” Hicks recalled. “And it was like, through her eyes that I was like, oh, my God, she's right.”
He decided to keep working at music and enjoy the opportunity to perform rather than focus on the frustrations.
Not long afterward, he was discovered and began making trips to Nashville.
“And this has been a constant theme through my career, that when I stopped trying so hard, good things happen,” he said.
His family remained central to the decisions that followed. Hicks eventually tried living in Nashville with his wife and two children for six months while working on his third record, but the arrangement was not right for them.
He said the support of relatives and friends back home was important while he was touring and raising a young family.
“The only way it was going to work for me was if I could have a career at home,” he said.
Hicks had no ambition to relocate permanently to the United States. Instead, he wanted to follow the example of Canadian acts such as Blue Rodeo and The Tragically Hip, building a successful career without having to leave the country.
He still spends time in Nashville, but said he loves returning to his home in St. Catharines, Ont.
New music reflects a changing artist
Hicks has not abandoned the energetic country-rock sound that first connected him with audiences, but he says his songwriting has evolved alongside his life.
His early music was shaped by years of entertaining bar crowds, where keeping people on their feet was part of the job.
“If I was going to play my own stuff in a bar, it had to fit in between ‘Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy’ and ‘Chicken Fried,’” he said.
“Those songs really fit who I was and who I am.”
Now, with more life experience and children growing up, he finds himself drawn to more reflective material.
He pointed to songs such as “The Pilot” and “She Rides Away” as examples of the more substantial storytelling appearing alongside the high-energy tracks.
“You can't stay the same all the time,” Hicks said. “You've got to kind of get outside.”
That evolution is reflected in his sixth studio album, Going Somewhere, released May 22, 2026. The record includes the title track, which reached the Top 10 at Canadian country radio, and “The Pilot,” released as a single alongside the album.
Hicks said the title track has become one of his most-streamed songs, putting it alongside some of the party anthems that helped establish his career.
The challenge, he explained, is finding ways to give longtime fans something familiar while continuing to grow as a songwriter.
Experience remains the key to performing
After years on the road, Hicks also has advice for musicians hoping to follow a similar path.
He believes aspiring performers need to spend time in front of live audiences, learning how to handle the unexpected rather than relying entirely on recordings or online instruction.
“Get comfortable playing in front of people, because that's the one thing that AI isn't going to take away is the show,” he said.
He remembers how his years in bars prepared him for his first major arena opportunity, opening the CMT Hit List Tour with just three songs.
“After 18 years of playing three, four sets a night, my first gig was opening the CMT Hit List tour,” Hicks said. “And I'll tell you what, I was ready.”
For him, that experience is what separates preparation from opportunity.
“There's no YouTube video that's going to give you instruction on that,” he said, referring to the unpredictable moments of live performance. “The only way to do it is to go out and do it.”
That same approach will be on display when he returns to Craven on July 10, where he expects another energetic reception from Saskatchewan fans.
