Hobo Jim to set the tone for AWG 2006

JOHN THOMPSON

When athletes from Nunavut arrive in Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula this weekend to compete in the Arctic Winter Games, they’ll be greeted by a man with a big belt buckle and cowboy hat who some residents just call “Hobo.”

That’s “Hobo” Jim Varsos, and he’s held the title of Alaska’s official balladeer since 1994. He wrote the theme song to this year’s games, “Spirit,” which he says could be one of his best ever.

“It’s the spirit of the North that makes us who we are,” he sings. “It’s the challenges we face beneath a common star. Faster… stronger… reach higher… go longer… if you really want to win… release the spirit within.

“From across the northern lands where the spirit never rests we welcome all the ones who dare to be the best. How far can you go? There’s no limits when you try. So let that spirit soar like an eagle when she flies.”

On Tuesday morning Varsos drove his minivan, stuffed full of musical equipment, through Alaska’s scenic Turnagain Arm, where Dall sheep can be seen climbing the rocky mountains, bound for Kenai. About 30 miles south of Anchorage, he pulled over on the road’s shoulder for an interview with Nunatsiaq News.

Asked about his stage name, he explained: “It’s been a nickname way before it became a stage name.”

He said he followed a wandering, precarious life as a young man, riding the rails and hitching rides from town to town as he worked as a logger, commercial fisherman and rodeo cowboy.

“Pretty soon people would want to hear me sing, rather than have me work,” he said.

He still sings about his old rustic lifestyle, although Varsos splits his time between Kenai, Alaska and Nashville, Tennessee these days, and doesn’t spend much time felling trees and shooting bears any more.

“I don’t live in a cabin anymore. I live in a nice house now,” he said.

He said he looks forward to seeing the Inuit games being played the most.

Hobo Jim will play at the opening ceremonies in Kenai on Sunday at 7 p.m. This spring he also plans to release a new album, “Songs of the Alaskan Commercial Fisherman.”