An engaging Easy Listening mixture of pop, reggae, and rock.

13 MP3 Songs in this album (52:39) !
Related styles: EASY LISTENING: Soft Rock, REGGAE: Pop-Reggae

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Details:
I am a singer/songwriter/guitarist, who has performed professionally in the Toronto, Ontario area for about 15 years. I was offered opening act opportunities during these years, in various venues, with Phobe Snow, (Poetry Man,) Jerry Jeff Walker, (Mr. Bojangles,) Roberta Flack, (Killing me Softly,) Emmy Lou Harris and Melanie. I put my musical toys away in the late 1980âs however, to get married and raise a family. Recently though, my 19 year old son, 15 year old daughter, my wife of 22 years and many of my friends encouraged me to record a bunch of the songs I wrote in the 1980âs. These tunes were inspired by spending many summer months at the family cottage on Skelteton Lake in the Muskoka Region, where, as a single 'Mann,' I sowed a few wild oats, fell in and out of love several times and vented various frustrations by playing guitar and writing a diary,â (which later became the basis for the tunes on Northbound.)
Brian Gauci (the Producer and lead guitarist on the album,) and I have worked on Northbound for about 2 years. We gave this project considerable thought before embarking. We pondered the idea of taking these older songs and contemporizing (is this a word?) them, by using younger musicians, more âin tuneâ with todayâs musical demands and/or tastes. In the final analysis, we decided against this approach and although we did contract a few young studs, (Jason Wilson on Hammond B3, Michael Herring on Acoustic Bass and âBrownmanâ on trumpet/flugelhorn,) we felt that the lyrics and melodies on these tracks were strong enough to stand alone, - to be considered âtimeless tunesâ and not current top 40 hits, likely to be forgotten and put on the shelf months later. We hope you agree ! CBC Radio Canada did. Mark Rheaume and Jeff Goodes picked Northbound, as the album of the Month for June, 2008. They compared the tunes to those recorded by David Gates (Bread) and Seals & Crofts. They added that âTHESE SONGS STAND THE TEST OF TIME.â
Anyway, once or twice a week for between 6 - 8 months, we got together in Brianâs basement (The Home Studio,) and with help from his computer we were able to generate a âdemo discâ that we hoped could be used to recruit the more mature members of the musical ensemble that we believed were necessary, and that thankfully, proved to be available and willing to contribute their rather prodigious skill sets to Northbound. They are identified on the back of the jacket. We all hope you enjoy the music.