Tim's first new recording release in nearly 3 years goes live on Friday, May 22, 2026.
PRE SAVE “NOT DARK YET” HERE
“Not Dark Yet” was recorded in Detroit at Milkwood Studios in spring 2026. Produced by Scott Farago, it will be released to streaming services in advance of Bob Dylan's 85th birthday (May 24th, 2026) and the birthday salute show at Phog Lounge in Windsor, Ontario on Saturday May 23rd.
Tim performed 13 songs for the opening set of the $2 Bill & his Bad Pennies show at the Richmond Tavern in London on May Day 2026. The solo acoustic performance was the first of its kind for Tim in London.
Setlist notes included three live debuts - the Grayson & Whitter variation of the traditional song “I've Always Been A Rambler” (which dates back several hundred years as “The Girl I Left Behind”), Bruce Springsteen's “The Ghost Of Tom Joad” and a cover of another traditional song with a shorter history, “Deep Elem Blues”. A cover of Hank Williams' “Ramblin' Man” was performed for just the second time ever and the first time since August 7th, 2021.
Additionally, Manifests album track “Little Timmy” was performed for the first since September 21, 2024.
Read the full setlist here.
Tim was back at the Jazzbah in downtown Chatham but this time as a solo performer who, along with Mike Houston's solo performance, opened for $2 Bill and his Bad Pennies show.
The nine song solo set once again included four songs never previously performed - The Nashville Bluegrass Band's “Blue Train”, Johnny Cash's “Home Of The Blues”, The Grateful Dead's “Dire Wolf” and Rabbit Brown's “James Alley Blues”.
The Mississippi Sheiks' “World Gone Wrong” was performed for the first time since 2019.
Read the full setlist here.
Photograph by Claudia Rae.
$2 Bill & his Bad Pennies show was back in town as part of their annual Ontario visit, which sees Bill performing in Windsor, Chatham, Wheatley, London, Guelph, Ottawa and Dryden. Last night started that run of shows for Bill at Villain's Beastro in downtown Windsor. Parker Ouellette opened the show and Tim performed a surprise solo set comprised of traditional material covers.
Tim's set included four songs never previously performed - the Roud folk song “Jack-A-Roe”, The Grateful Dead's “New Speedway Boogie”, Buddy Woods' “Don't Sell It, Don't Give It Away” and the Memphis Jug Band's “On The Road Again”.
Additional performances of songs Tim has not played since 2019 included Willie Brown's “Ragged & Dirty” and Pee Wee King's pop ballad “You Belong To Me”.
See the full setlist here.
Tim sat in with the band during Bill's set. Photo by Dave Tesolin:
Three new shows are on the schedule for Tim in late April and May.
April 25th Tim will return to the Jazzbah in Chatham, Ontario for a solo acoustic performance as well as performing with headliner $2 Bill & The Bad Pennies. This will be $2 Bill's first show at the Jazzbah in Chatham. Also featured will be Chatham native Mike Houston. This show is part of a string of 3 shows in the region for Bill - April 24th @ Villains Beastro in Windsor, April 25th @ Jazzbah in Chatham, April 26th at Wheatley Two Creeks Indoors. Bill will then be heading northeast to London, Guelph, Toronto and beyond.
May 15th finds Tim at the Bank Theatre in Leamington for the Monarch Cafe's Songs & Stories in the Round. Hosted by Artist In Residence Justin Latam, Tim will be joined by songwriters Claudia Rae and Leanne Hayes as they perform their songs and discuss songwriting. This will be a ticketed event. Details on ticket availability will be published at a later date.
May 23rd will have Tim back at Phog Lounge (now known as “PhogHeads”) for a very special one night only 85th birthday salute to Bob Dylan. The show will also feature solo acoustic performances by Allison Brown and Ron Leary, both regional folk legends. Throughout the evening, performances of Bob songs will cover all 6 decades of his career. Arrive early for best seating.
Spring was brought in with style at the Jazzbah in Chatham last night with a triple bill show featuring The Ford City Ramblers, Tim & his Tar Heel Rattlers and Mike Houston & The Kent County Boys.
Tim's setlist featured a few Bob Dylan covers, a possible indicator of an upcoming show in May. Among them, The Wicked Messenger, a first ever performance by Tim and his band, opened the show. Gotta Serve Somebody made only its second ever appearance - the first performance of it by Tim in nearly 5 years and the first in front of an audience. The previous performance was back in May 2021's Facebook Live Bob Dylan 80th birthday tribute performance. Check out that show's setlist here. Not Dark Yet returned to the setlist after the Two Creeks Indoors show in Wheatley back on February 22nd.
Also returning to the setlist after getting a live debut in Wheatley was the standard That Lucky Old Sun.
Other setlist notes included the first full band take on Wreck On The C&O 1965, a new song from Tim which debuted at the Two Creeks Indoor show.
Read the full setlist from the Jazzbah Spring Equinox show here.
Tim made his Detroit debut performing a rare solo acoustic set to open for the Detroit Dylan Revue. Performing to a packed Cadieux Cafe, Tim's set consisted of a few originals, two Bob Dylan songs (Things Have Changed and Abandoned Love, two Bob songs Tim had not performed since the Taloola Cafe solo show years in 2018 and 2019) and a selection of covers that showcased some of Bob Dylan's musical DNA. Among them, a few first ever performances of some songs for Tim were in the mix: Hank Snow's “Moanin'”, Blind Willie McTell's “Broke Down Engine” and the traditional English-Irish-Canadian folk ballad “The Rovin' Blade” (Roud Folk Song Index #490), which dates back to being first published in 1788.
The Detroit Dylan Revue show followed, covering a wide array of Bob Dylan's live career. The DDR plays the live re-arrangements from different periods of Bob Dylan's live performing career. Notable versions last night included the 1978 version of One More Cup Of Coffee, the 1988 version of Driftin' Too Far From Shore, the early 2000s version of Cold Irons Bound and the 2019 version of Can't Wait.
Tim joined the DDR for the second half of their show on acoustic rhythm guitar and contributed some backing vocals to some songs as well as some lead vocals on Baby Let Me Follow You Down, Hard Rain and Forever Young.
Read the full setlist of both Tim's set and the Detroit Dylan Revue set here.
At the Two Creeks Indoor Concert series in Wheatley, Ontario, plenty of rare performances were offered up by Tim and his bands. Tim performed a 19 song setlist show full of rare selections and live debuts with his regular “Red Hot 78s” band, the Cedar Island Quartet as well as some rare solo performances. Special guest Alison Corbett, who appears on 7 of the 8 tracks on the Manifests album, guested with the bands on fiddle for several songs.
Of the 19 songs, 10 of them were live debuts for a Tim Swaddling show. Of those, 4 were Tim originals ("Night On The Town", “On The Streets”, “Wreck On The C&O, 1965” and “Marcie's Medicine Drag”) and 5 were covers (Tiny Parham's “Black Cat Moan”, Jackson C. Frank's “Blues Run The Game”, the traditional folk song “Handsome Molly”, Bob Dylan's “Not Dark Yet”, Ray Manzerolle's “Letter From Bechet” and “That Lucky Old Sun”, originally a hit record for Frankie Laine in 1949).
Tim performed the Son House / Robert Johnson song “Walkin' Blues” on slide guitar for the first time in front of an audience, previously only having been played as part of a “Facebook Live” show on August 12th, 2020 during the pandemic.
Tim's solo performance of Bob Dylan's “Blind Willie McTell” was the first performance of that song since the Bob Dylan birthday tribute show at Taloola Cafe in Walkverille / Windsor on May 24th, 2019.
The Cedar Island Quartet songs that have been played previously under that band's header, were performed for the first time as part of a “Tim Swaddling Show” and are marked as such on the setlist for the day.
The two bands performed together on the final song of the show, “That Lucky Old Sun”, marking the first time Tim's two different bands have played together.
Photo by Scott Farago.
New March dates are now posted in the live listings.
March 7th sees Tim open for the premier Bob Dylan revue band, Before The Flood: A Detroit Dylan Revue. Tim helps curate their live arrangements of Bob Dylan material that they perform from. This will be Tim's debut in Detroit and at the famed Cadieux Cafe venue. Full details here.
On March 21st, celebrate the spring equinox as Tim and his band along with Mike Houston and The Ford City Ramblers perform at The Jazzbah in downtown Chatham, Ontario. The Tim and Mike show returns to The Jazzbah by popular demand after packing the venue the first time they performed there in November. Full details here.
Additional dates for April and May coming soon, featuring the return of $2 Bill & his Bad Pennies as well as more special performances for Bob Dylan fans.