Mayor McCa 
Style: freaky folk fantastic
Line-Up:C.A. Smith (bass drum, tambourine shoe, acoustic guitar, kazoo, vocals)
Contact: Sonic Unyon, P.O. Box 57347, Jackson Station, Hamilton, ON L8P 4X2 (905) 777-1223, .

The world is his. Freaky folkster Mayor McCa (C.A. Smith) might be a guy you’d meet in the tall grass, chewing on a stalk of corn when he’s not playing kazoo and strumming the acoustic with a tambourine stuck on the sole of his sneaker. The former lead singer for Hamilton, ON’s Gorp, now a self-proclaimed "one-man-band singing sensation", is quirky, no doubt, but tuneful too. The album, Busboy, is not as weird as ya’d think. For "Cotton Candy World", McCa might have sucked back a little bit of helium on this one, but it’s wonderfully catchy. There’s parts you’d swear he was gonna break into a yodel, but he just seems too tired from the trek up the mountain. "Coffee Tim" is a picture of romance if ever there was a doo-wop, Sha Na Na ode to the steamy brew. "Tuesday Night...At...Sometime" is a gentle lullaby and “21” a less than celebratory birthday wish. "Aah" is a deep-sleep psychedelic folk song, zippidity doo-daa gruff and cool and "Jagermeister Boogie" is a drunken anthem for all Peter Pan frat boys. Busboy was produced by Major McCa and Tobias Link, and "created at various times and states" by Christian Anderson Smith at Whizbang Studios in Hamilton. It was co-engineered and mixed by Link and mastered at Number 9 by George Rondina. 

Kathy Cramer
Style: country
Line-Up: Kathy Cramer (vocals); Dennis Manuel (steel guitar); Raynie Gervais (fiddle); Darren Collier (electric and acoustic guitar); Earl Green and Nat Cade (electric guitars); Wayne Morgan (bass); Pete Martin (drums); John E. Walker (keyboards); Judy Wiebe, Chad Cazes, Winston Cazes (background vocals)
Contact: Kathy Cramer P.O. Box 2, Omega Site, RR#4 Quesnel, B.C., Canada, V2J 3H8 (250) 962-0654.M4X 1K2; Clint (204) 237-6502

Country gal Kathy Cramer’s debut CD was delayed by tragic circumstances when her mentor/producer/songwriter Ed LaFave died suddenly of a heart attack. The recording, partially completed at Blue Ridge Mountain Studios, a 32-track digital recording facility in Quesnel, BC, then moved, studio and all, to Cramer’s native Prince George with BRM owner Darren Collier taking over the board. The eponymously-titled album begins with the sprightly "A Hundred Miles From You" injected with some hoe-down fiddle. The song was picked up by U.S. radio syndicates The Best Of Country, which claims 78 markets and several million listeners. "Money Talks" and "I Was A Fool" are funkier country numbers, while the 27-year old singer is most tender on the pretty "We Were In Love" and earnest ballad "What’s Wrong With This Picture". Cramer ends up using four LaFave originals on the album; she doesn’t receive a co-write on any of the album’s nine songs. Keeping the production and instrumentation sparse, the focus is put on Cramer’s sweet voice, which has country leanings without an affected twang. 

69 Duster
Style: glam grease lightening
Line-Up: Dale Martindale (lead vocals); Sean Kelly (guitar, vocals); Craig McConnell (bass, keyboards, vocals); Chris Lamont (drums, percussion)
Contact: 1005-3266 Yonge St., Toronto, ON M4N 3P6 (416) 698-2080, FAX (416) 698-5836.

On Mania!, 69 Duster has a roaring punk edge and touch of glam - and an ability to laugh at this rock ‘n’ roll circus, evident by the album’s splashy cover art. There, Dale Martindale, the former singer of Images In Vogue (one of Canada’s best-selling pop acts of the ’80s) appears wearing white shades, white silky kerchief and white furry boa. He used to dye his hair black and cake on the eye liner, and his achy-pop voice once mirrored Robert Smith’s, but now he’s not mirroring anyone. Named after a cheesy muscle car, 69 Duster just rips out of the parking lot like its namesake, exhaust fumes wafting and tires burning, chrome hub caps sparkling. That’s Mania!’s mix of punk and glam. "Dead" is all that and more. While most of the album tracks rock with intensity ("Start To Crawl", "TV 101"), "If I Looked At The World" adds some New Wave keyboards to its fuel injection system. The one true stand-out cut is "Candy Girl", which starts off cool and dark, followed briefly by luscious harmonies and an obscenely breathy sung "candy girl", before the song explodes, then, of course, subsides again. Produced by band members Craig McConnell and Sean Kelly, and engineered and mixed by Tim Branton and McConnell, Mania! was recorded, mixed and mastered at Greenpail Productions.

Credit: Karen Bliss is a Toronto-based freelance writer.

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