The next single release is set for midnight, June 4th, 2026.
PRE-SAVE “GOTTA SERVE SOMEBODY” HERE
“Gotta Serve Somebody” was recorded in Detroit at Milkwood Studios in spring 2026. Produced by Scott Farago, “Gotta Serve Somebody” follows “Not Dark Yet” as a series of releases celebrating Bob Dylan's 85th birthday.
Tim & his band hosted an 85th birthday salute to Bob Dylan at Phog Lounge in downtown Windsor, featuring acoustic sets from Ron Leary, Allison Brown, special guest Steve Deasy as well as some veteran Bobcats in the audience from Ohio, Michigan and southern Ontario.
Steve Deasy opened the show with a 3 song solo acoustic set that included “Po' Boy” from “Love & Theft”.
Ron Leary performed 5 solo acoustic songs which included the deep cut “Going Going Gone” from Planet Waves and a rousing crowd sing-a-long of “The Times They Are A-Changin'”.
Allison Brown started solo acoustic and then had special guest Linda McDonald from Columbus, Ohio join on flute for 3 songs. Tim and bassist Josh Zalev then also joined for several songs, which included the Hearts Of Fire soundtrack nugget “Night After Night”.
Tim and his band performed a 16 song setlist of Bob Dylan songs that included 11 live debuts for Tim, the most ever for a single show with his band. Performing for the first time with Tim was drummer Phil Charrette and bassist Josh Zalev.
The 2025 / 2026 season of the Monarch Cafe's Songwriters In The Round Series wrapped up last night at the Bank Theatre in Leamington, ON. Host Justin Latam welcomed guest songwriters Leanne Hayes, Claudia Rae and Tim to the series. Each songwriter played a song in rotation. In the first set, two songs from Manifests were performed. In the second set, one of the two originals Tim performed was “Riverside” - only the second performance ever of the song, it was last played on May 11, 2024. “Riverside” now sports a mostly different lyric than how it was performed in 2024. Read the complete setlist here.
Tim also lead the group through a version of Bob Dylan's “I Shall Be Released”, a first time performing it for Tim as a solo performer, but not the first ever - Tim made his lead vocal live debut singing that song at Leamington Marina in the summer of 2001 as part of a performance of a band he was in at the time called No Moose.
The next show is the much anticipated Bob Dylan Birthday Tribute Show at Phog Lounge on May 23rd. Arrive early for best seating.
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.