Hobo Jim serenades Swanson Elementary, prepares for new album’s release

ALASKA — Despite a few gig cancellations this month, Hobo Jim isn’t likely to have much downtime before the summer singin’ season begins.

After performing Friday evening at Swanson Elementary School’s annual Family/Alaska Native Night, “Our Alaskan Balladeer” said he plans to release his new album, “My Wild and Wolfen Ways,” on his and his wife Cindy’s 35-year anniversary, May 1.

It will be his seventh album, and includes a duet with singer-songwriter Janis Ian, who performed on the very first episode of NBC’s Saturday Night Live in 1975.

“That I’m really excited about,” Hobo Jim said, of the duet.

About 75 percent of the songs on the album were written about Alaska and the rest are more “introspective,” he said.

In what could be considered an example of either type of song, he referenced his inspiration for the song “Woodsmoke” on his most recent album of the same name.

“I was driving down the highway and I smelled wood smoke,” he said. “It reminded me of the cabin life.”

Alaska’s essential troubadour plays about 300 shows a year, 7 days a week in the summer, he said. Though he spends most of his time between Nashville, the Mat-Su Valley and the Kenai Peninsula, Hobo Jim often tours the world.

But while he has many places to be on an annual basis, the author of “The Iditarod Trail Song” and “Redington’s Run” usually has one thing in mind this time of year: the Last Great Race.

Since 1982, Hobo Jim has provided performances of the Iditarod’s theme song all around Alaska.

This year is a bit different, however. The Alaskan icon had planned to play at the Iditarod restart in Willow, as he has in the past, but the relocation to Fairbanks took the wind out of those sails, he said.

“I lost a lot of my work because of the move,” Hobo Jim said.

He also cancelled his McGrath show because of the reroute, he said, but intends to keep his commitment to Rainy Pass — a favorite Iditarod stop of his — and play at the end-of-race banquet in Anchorage, as well as Fur Rendezvous’ Running of the Reindeer March 7.

“I’m gonna make the best of my time before the summer,” he said.

And that includes performing for even the smallest of crowds, in the meantime.

“I love playing for kids, that’s one of the most fulfilling things for me,” he said after the Swanson Elementary performance, where students joined him in singing “I did, I did, I did the Iditarod Trail” at the top of their lungs.

“I love making people happy,” he said.

Contact Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.