Brian Byrne 
Who: Brian Byrne
What: country cool
Where: Toronto, ON
To Contact: The Management Trust, 411 Queen St. W., 3rd Fl., Toronto, ON M5V 2A5 (416) 979-7070, FAX (416) 979-0505.

Tuesdays, Thursdays And If It Rains marks Brian Byrne's first solo venture and it's a surprising departure from his last gig - fronting hard rock band I Mother Earth. He's gone cool country and that has little to do with his sleeve tattoos or lack of cowboy hat. It's the instrumentation - mandolin, dobro, lapsteel, Hammond B3 and drums played, mostly brushes - and the fact that his lyrical stories are touching, funny, and charming, filled with foibles. In I Mother Earth, Byrne never wrote his own lyrics so the fact he does this so well is remarkable. His are filled with love, whether it be for his wife ("Jen's Song", "Sweet Love" - two of the best cuts), his grandparents ("Century Old"), or his local pub ("Tuesdays, Thursdays And If It Rains"). Byrne wrote all the tracks, co-producing with engineer Peter Hamilton at his Wreck Chord Factory in Toronto. Byrne plays acoustic guitar, and enlists a band that includes David Usher playmates Kevin Young (keyboards) and Gerry Finn (electric guitar, banjo). Damhnait Doyle sings backup on five tracks. The album is due in 2005.

Dan Politano
Who: Dan Politano
What: light rock
Where: Victoria, BC
To Contact: 994 Snowdrop Ave., Victoria, BC V8Z 2N4 (250) 881-2838, , www.danpolitano.com.

The 24-year-old self-taught guitarist readily admits in his bio that he's influenced by fellow Canadian Bryan Adams and one can hear it in his raspy voice. He thanks Adams, as well as Goo Goo Dolls and The Beatles in the liner notes of his debut album, Back Where I Started. Self-produced at Scott Henderson's Collwood, BC basement studio, charmingly called Sea Of Shit Studios, the singer-songwriter rounded up his twin brother, Mike, on drums, but handles all the guitars and bass himself. Essentially mild rockers, "Smile" and "Ready To Go", are fairly straight-ahead, while the next, "Innocence Arose", steps it up a little and if reproduced could have some fierce pop/rock power. Lyrically, he covers everything from a long-distance love affair ("New Zealand") to the life of an HIV-infected street kid ("Givin' It All"). Politano, whose father, Bryan, fronted Roxxlyde and now That '70s Band, received his first guitar and Beatles songbook from his grandparents, which lead to him writing his first song at age 10. All the songs on Back Where I Started could benefit from a producer and better recording to pump them up.

Kellylee Evans 
Who: Kellylee Evans
What: global-influenced jazz
Where: Ottawa, ON
To Contact: KAE MEDIA, PO Box 75, Ottawa, ON K0A 1B0 (613) 253-2017, FAX (613) 253-6398, .

Since recording this CD, Fight Or Flight?, Kellylee Evans won second place at the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocals Competition. The contest, open to singers under the age of 30, received 167 applications globally. The Toronto-born, Ottawa-based vocalist performed three standards at the semi-finals before a panel of judges at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC. She achieved the highest position for a Canadian vocalist in the competition's 17-year history. On her CD, however, Evans wrote all 10 original songs from the rhythmic opener "I Don't Want You To Love Me" and whimsical "Who Knows?" to the island-vibed "Let's Call A Truce Tonight". All 12 songs, including covers of "Round' Midnight" and "Climb Ev'ry Mountain", were produced in New York by bassist Lonnie Plaxico (Chet Baker, Dexter Gordon, Wynton Marsalis). Laid down in just two days, her backing band included pianist George Colligan (Cassandra Wilson, Ravi Coltrane), guitarist Marvin Sewell (Cassandra Wilson, George Benson), drummer Steve Hass (Art Garfunkel, Billy Joel), and percussionist Kahlil Kwame Bell (Erykah Badu, Roberta Flack).

Credit: Toronto-based music journalist Karen Bliss is the Canadian news correspondent for Rollingstone.com, and operates a Canadian music industry news column, Lowdown, at http://jam.canoe.ca/JamColumnBliss/home.html. She also edits Gasoline, and contributes to Elle Canada, Audience, Tribute, Words & Music and others.

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