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Shelter From The Storm, by Double Edge, was written in 1992 and recorded in 1993, at Master’s Workshop in Toronto. It was produced by Mark Wright (who was working with Kim Mitchell at the time, and has since gone on to work on projects with with artists such as Sheryl Crowe, Moby, Kid Rock and Sting).

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I wrote the song ONCE in 2001. I am singing and playing piano on it, with some friends helping out: John Russell on guitar, Sharon Tiessen on cello, Dave Geldart on bass, and David White on back up vocals. ONCE was written as part of a three song CD called “Painting The Sky Behind Me”. It was written to honour my friends on the street – as I sent out copies that Christmas to my supporters through Youth Unlimited. Many years later I had a request for its use at a national assembly – so, I had my friend Mike Leney put some significant visuals to it. The visuals used were provided by various street-ministries and outreaches across Canada that attended the Street Level 2006 Conference in Ottawa . Since then, it has been used by many agencies across Canada for all kinds of advocacy events and receptions.

ONCE – lyrics and music by T.J. Huff, copyright T.J. Huff 2001

For permission to use this music/visual piece, please contact: juliakb@youthunlimitedgta.com?

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It’s Only Rock n Roll, but I like it…

OUTRIDER is a “classic rock” band, fronted by Tim Huff. Rounded out by John Russell of Kingston on guitar, Steve Kennedy of Hamilton on bass, and Peter Bowman of Barrie on drums.

Tim: “When you’re young it’s hard enough to keep a band together if you aren’t living in the same neighbourhood, never less all over the map. Interesting – at this point, we live in 4 different cities, nowhere near each other, and aren’t afraid to use actual gigs as practices. Some would say that’s a lack of discipline and preparedness. We justify it as rock and roll. Okay, okay – we do practice some – I have a small practice studio in my home, and the guys will drive in from all directions to jam and work on new songs. But, it’s no joke – many a live gig comes down with the same vibe as a warm-up in my basement. Funny – those ones always seem to be the gigs that go best too.”

Outrider came together in the spring of 1995, when Double Edge (the Christian hard rock band that Tim was the lead singer of) disbanded. Over a 15 year period, Double Edge had gigged throughout eastern Canada, the northeastern United States, and all the way to St. Petersburg, Russia – and shared stages with the likes of The Resurrection Band, White Cross, White Heart, Darryl Mansfield, Bloodgood, and the Daniel Band.

Tim: “The Double Edge days were great for me. I am not sure they meant much to anyone else – but the guys in the band sure got lots out of it. Those were strange times. Good times for sure – but a bit strange. Looking back on the whole 80’s Christian hard rock/heavy metal scene – well, one thing I know for sure is that there’s a Spinal Tap adaptation that could surely be made about it. We were teenagers when we started into it all, and our hearts were in the right place. We bounced around a bit in our sound – moving from Van Halen sounding stuff to Iron Maiden sounding stuff, and later on to some interesting Queensryche influenced sounds. We were an ‘all originals’ band, so we spent a lot of time writing and practising. A lot of time. But likely not enough time creating our own original sound. We wrote, recorded and sent out demos to record companies and music magazines like crazy too. Places we had never imagined knowing anything about us were responding – but not much in our own backyard. I have framed royalty cheques from regular airplay in Japan and great magazine reviews from Holland and Germany… Oh ya, and lots of rejection letters from all over North America. And thank goodness we hung in there with an old AC/DC look and never ventured into the big hair and spandex thing. I have a lot of friends from bands of that era photoshopping a lot of old pictures…”

Outrider is a classic 4 piece line up, a la Led Zeppelin. It is not a Christian band”, but is 4 Christians in a band.

Tim: “Ya. I was ready for a real change after Double Edge. The whole ‘Christian band’ notion became an odd thing for me as I got older – and especially as I worked more and more with people living in the rough margins of society. I was never embarrassed by the term ‘Christian rock’ because for every really sorry band out there, I at least knew another one that I thought was pretty good. But the whole genre and terminology just seemed to strike people outside of that scene as though – ‘oh, it mustn’t be for me.’ And I don’t like things that don’t feel inclusive. Plus I wanted to play gigs where people just came to hear a decent rock and roll band – and then somewhere in it, hopefully, they would sense something kind of different going on.”

Outrider performs in a wide variety of venues: street parties, festivals, bars, prisons, biker rallies and at lots of charity events. Outrider chooses classic rock songs that they like to listen to on the radio and uses them as staples in their live set. Famous songs by famous bands that either have an uplifting or thought-provoking message, and that don’t oppose the band members’ faith.

Tim: “You know, some of the tunes are just good safe party classics like Kim Mitchell’s ‘ Go for a soda’. Some are real thinker tunes like Soul Asylum’s ‘Black Gold’, or ‘Runaway Train’. Some are hard truth songs like Pearl Jam’s ‘Jeremy’. Some are where-is-life-at tunes, like U2’s ‘I Still haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’, the Rolling Stones ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’, or Queen’s ‘Under Pressure’. And some, well most really, are just good old rock and roll tunes with positive messages, like Aerosmith’s ‘Dream on’, Triumph’s ‘Fight the Good Fight’ or Boston’s ‘Peace of Mind’. Songs with great hooks, great lyrics and that people can sing along to. Hey – we aren’t in it to make money, be stars, or to get a recording contract, or do anything like that. For me, those days were left behind with Double Edge. We just want to play where people might enjoy some of the same music we dig, and where they can hear songs that make them smile, or that make them feel a bit hopeful about whatever’s going on in their world.”

Outrider does write, record and perform some of their own material as well.

Tim: “When John (guitar) and I first got together we wrote a song called ‘Something New.’ And even though the song is now something kind of old, it is still a regular part of our set. I don’t know any guys in bands that don’t like to write their own stuff. It’s part of the fun of playing as a unit. Sometimes part of the agony too – but mostly fun. But when it comes to a live set, we know what people want to hear and we are glad to give it to them. It’s a bit of a slam dunk if you pick timeless rock and roll tunes, because even if someone thinks the band stinks, they’ll still think we’ve done something right if we know how to pick great songs. Hopefully no one thinks we are killing the classics – if they do, they have been kind enough not to tell us. And so we keep on doing our thing.”

Outrider is a road band that will paly any gig where the basic details are sorted out and where the organizers know what they are trying to make happen.

Tim: “Hey – Steve (bass) and I have been playing in bands together since I was 15 years old. He was in Double Edge with me, and playing in the ‘original’ – or should I say ‘first’ Third Day at the same time, while still in high school. Steve toured with them up and down the west coast. Pete (drums) was in a central Ontario band called RXN. And John – well John has picked up a guitar and jammed everywhere, with everyone. Now we all have full time jobs and families. Two of the guys are school teachers. But we still make it happen, where most of our buddies have bailed for one reason or another. We’re glad to still be at it. And we’re still willing to lug all the gear at some crazy hour of the night and get lost en route to places we’ve never been – if the gig is decent and the people behind it know what they are doing. If we get gas money, chicken wings and a crowd that wants us to be there – well, that will do. Prison, street party, pub – whatever. But we are long past the guesswork of road tripping to nowhere for broken promises. We have all paid our dues many times over on that kind of thing.”

Outrider always gives their best, but is not trying to prove themselves to anyone.

Tim: “Back in the Double Edge days we were mostly trying to reach a ‘young audience’. That was cool when we were young ourselves… but it got harder and harder as we got older and older. When we started up Outrider, I said to the guys – ‘Let’s not try too hard to be relevant, let’s just have some fun and play the stuff that fits us best.’ Crazy thing is, as soon as we did that, the younger audiences loved it. ‘Classic Rock’ became kind of cool. Not sure how long that’ll last – but I am guessing it will outlast us.”

For more information about Outrider, click here.

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