Welcome to the website. It's been a long time coming.
This one primarily has two components. One is the recorded music in which I've been involved, from Bruno Gerussi's Medallion in 1989 to the current Lumpy. I aim to tell stories about the bands and songs.
Two is my writing. This comes in blog form and either are columns I've written for The Province that, for one reason or another, the newspaper didn't publish, pieces intended as editorials, or short examples of absurd humour I wrote on a whim. For now, these blogs are old but here, too, I aim to write more. Unless someone stops me.
Tom
My latest article
I have tried to use care in making this list. As I was making it, more and more titles came to me, encompassing a wide variety of styles. For instance there is credible reggae by the Daniel Wesley Band and Empire Alley, bluegrass by Shearwater, singer songwriter material by Christa Couture, mergers (ok, worldmusic) by Tambura Rasa.
In the end, I just named records that made a good first impression and continued to grow.
1. Wyckham Porteous: 3am
The first word that came to mind when I fondly thought of this album was "solitude." That might not be Porteous's intention but this folk-rock is reflective and quietly evocative of a dark but warm night.
2.Green Hour Band: Green Hour Band
Sure, 60s psychedelia apparently exerts a strong influence on the sound of this band, but the Green Hour Band does this so well that the results are more authentic than a slavish retroactive copy. It's following in the spirit of invention, not a blueprint.
3. Top Drawers: You're So Fine
Both delightful and a guilty pleasure, Top Drawers' album finds the narrow period just after Merseybeat and before freakbeat, when innocence gave way to curiosity. Just after rock left home and supposedly came of age. The band sounds authentic without a trace of irony.
4. Veda Hille: This Riot Life
Listening to a Veda Hille album is like accepting a challenge. This album's lyrics are derived from biblical tracts and drawn from personal tragedy, but the difference is that this time Hille makes it easier to take the test by providing her most lush and elegant music.
5. Orchid Highway: Orchid Highway
Yet another band that takes from the past but uses it as a resource. Melodic power-pop of unusually broad scope and awareness.
6. Big Joe Burke
7. Black Mountain
8. Cinderpop
9. Connor McGuire: Different After Dark.
I had to wrestle with this one as I was close to the circumstances in which it developed. However, I like the potential it shows and the thought that went into a sparse production.
10.
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