Biography
From Grandpa I got my storytelling. His visits were rare, as he and grandma lived in St. Catherines Ontario, and we lived just outside Calgary, Alberta. They spoiled all 8 of us children (according to my dad) but the biggest gift Grandpa always gave us was to tell us bedtime stories of the “olden days”.

Grandpa’s stories usually involved exciting stuff like runaway teams of horses, shooting at wolves, or somebody getting body parts torn off. His tales were filled with gestures and sound effects. He really had a way of bringing them to life. And he listened when a kid told him a story. He made you feel your stories were important.

From Mom and Dad I got music. My Dad and my other Grandpa were both musicians. Grandpa Hubele (of whom I knew very little) was a very good organ player. My dad played fiddle in his early years, touring around southern Alberta with a country dance band. He and Mom would, very occasionally, play duets on fiddle and piano when we were little kids.

I can remember waiting til my parents went out. Since I was the oldest, I often babysat my brothers and sisters. I would sneak into Dad’s fiddle case to take out the fiddle and play it. Except I was always trying to make it sound like a guitar, and I played it like one.

We moved back and forth across the country, from Ontario to Alberta and back many times as I grew up. Dad kept trading up for jobs, and I was in a new school almost every year. I became a loner and a rebel. I turned to humor to make up for my small size. I’d find the biggest kid in class, figure out how to make him laugh, and I didn’t have to worry about the rest of the bullies. It pays to have friends in high places.

I believe I had an undiagnosed hearing problem caused by a trauma (now confirmed as a severe hearing loss). I never could quite understand the lyrics on the radio which was always on in our house, so I made up my own.

My earliest memories were of crossing the big empty fields which made up the neighborhoods of my youth, singing at the top of my lungs and making up words as I went along. My mom says she could pick me out of the flocks of kids coming home from school. I’d be waving my arms and singing to myself as I walked across the prairie.

I started writing songs in a serious way when I was 21 years old. A friend, who had been showing me how to play guitar, and I went out to live on the beach on Vancouver Island at Pacific Rim Park. I was picking away when a simple line kept repeating itself in my head. I wrote it down, and in ten minutes I had a song. It seemed to open flood gates, and for the next 2 or 3 years I wrote a song or two a week. I average about a song a month now. But, they are better songs.

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Biography, page 2

To write successfully, I usually have to be alone, have all my chores done and time on my hands. Words and melody most often develop at the same time. It takes from 10 minutes to 1 hour to write a song. It takes me two weeks to learn it. I like to wrap a song around a good story line. They always come from my own experiences.

I was fascinated with the blues from the get-go. I came in through the back door. J.J. Cale, then Hot Tuna. Then B.B. King, Freddy King, and Muddy Waters.

When I heard Bonnie Raitt play slide guitar, I was gone. I had to learn how to do that. I followed her trail back to Mississippi Fred McDowell. “You want rock, you gonna have to put me in a rockin’ chair. I plays the straight and natural blues.”

I also paid attention to the songwriters, my favorites being Paul Simon, Harry Nillson, Willie Dixon, and Tom Waits.

My interest in jazz developed through my association with other musicians like Calgary’s late Chuck Tracy, a gruff, funny, kind of crazy lounge musician. He introduced me to Tom Waits, Mose Allison, and Fats Waller amongst others.

As well, it became a habit to listen to the great Alberta radio station CKUA on Saturdays. Bill Coull’s Jazz Show was a fifteen year course in ‘Everything You Should Know About Jazz’.

I also have a life-long addiction to comedy movies and comic books. One of my Dad’s jobs was as a projectionist in a small town. Once a week on Saturday night the local community hall was turned into a theatre. I was very young (3 years til 7 years old) but those old black and white 16mm movies of the Marx Bros, Chaplin, and W.C. Fields remain deep in my psyche.

I think this was a great influence on my writing. Most of my songs have a little humor and a strange twist to them.

I have worked as a laborer and heavy equipment operator and truck driver since leaving the University of Calgary after 4 years of unrelated courses and wandering interests. Previous to that, I had worked at the CPR as a ticket clerk. I began working at age 14 at the steel mill where my father worked. I did not graduate from high school.

I have written songs for 32 years. Recording began for me in 1978 with the Acme Sausage Company with Holger Petersen broadcast on CKUA. Since then, I have been on countless radio and tv programs. I have recorded 6 albums of original material, and I just finished recording my demo for the 7th, and most exciting, CD - ‘Down In Davis Bay’.

•  Somewhere down the midnight cafe

Spygirl plays lush, melodic, elegant, and dark pop/rock. If Spygirl were a martini, they’d be equal parts sonic assault, naked duets and lush harmonies with a dash of drum & bass, and garnished with a twist of Canadiana - shaken vigorously, of course. If Spygirl were an outfit, you’d look geek-slick, full in all the right places and your ass would look hot.

Spygirl recently completed their second full-length album, pieces of evidence, slated for national release March 2008.

Spygirl was overjoyed to work once again with favourite musical wizard Tom Rothrock, who mixed a few songs on their 2000 self-titled debut. This time he came on board as Producer in full. Mr. Rothrock (who has also created records with some of popular music’s great recent innovators such as Beck, Elliott Smith, Elbow, Sloan, Badly Drawn Boy and James Blunt) helped the band create a spontaneous, relaxed and raw recording, due in part to his laid back mix of confidence, spontaneity, knowledge and love of music, and in part to recording much of the album live off the floor. The result is a group of songs that belong together, sharing a landscape that is lush, melodic, elegant and dark.

This is the band’s 12th year. The Vancouver-based 6 piece group was born out of a musical bond between founders Koralee Tonack (lead vocals, guitar) and Jane Gowan (trumpet, keyboards). The two initially formed Time Waits - the acoustically charming mother of today’s luscious pop child. The group included Jon Roper (guitar), performing mostly original songs written by Gowan. Several recordings were released on cassette. Now those are hidden away in boxes...somewhere. Eventually James Ong (keyboards) and Eduardo Ottoni (drums) joined, and with a fuller sound developing, the band released their debut CD entitled This Thin Disguise.

A collective desire to streamline the sound resulted in a less acoustic, more pop/rock sound. The viola da gamba and accordion, previously played by Ong and Gowan respectively, were abandoned in favour of keyboards, fender rhodes and trumpet. By this time other band members had begun contributing to the songwriting, creating excitement and freshness. As the direction of the music changed, so did the name, and the band’s self-titled debut (informally known as The Yellow Album) was recorded just as the transformation to Spygirl took place. The disc was nominated for a West Coast Music Award and also gained much positive media attention.

In 2005 Al MacInnes (bass) joined the band to add substance to the style. Now with a full line-up to carry the tunes, Spygirl released a 5-song EP as a precursor to the full-length album in August, 2005. The songs on this disc are homages to the band’s constant quest for the perfect pop epic. All the tracks from this disc were re-recorded on pieces of evidence.

Spygirl has toured in Canada and the UK, and plans to be out on the road again in early 2008 to support the new album.

•  Powerful voice. Melancholic sounds.
•  Hauntingly powerful
•  honey and sugar

Playing the compositions of Cam May, Sandy Barron, and Lara White, Remote Kid is a seven piece pop-rock band based in Calgary. An enjoyment of carefully controlled noise, vocal harmonies, and difficult arrangements is their hallmark.

•  They're back!
•  Another great one from Remote...
•  Really great stuff!

With life spinning out of control on tour in the UK as "The Ryecatchers," Danny and Mark decided it was time for a change… Returning to Vancouver, Danny bumped into an old flame, Shannon, and after a few drinks she decided she would rather be in a band than a relationship with him. Danny reluctantly agreed, phoned Mark, and formed Danny Echo in the fall of 2005! Since then the Vancouver music scene has embraced the incredible vibe of Danny Echos’ rock and rollio presence. “Half the audience knows the words better than I do,” Danny said at a recent Railway club show. And even if they don’t know the songs, audiences still get into the energy and sounds of Danny Echo. With influences drawing from the greats like The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Beatles, Radiohead, Oasis, and U2, Danny Echo reverberates with all that is melodic, all that is catchy, and all that is rock and roll. As Mark observed, "it's all that it should be, damn it!! In between rockin' out around Western Canada and playing around Vancouver, a 5 song EP has been recorded and is now available for download at dannyecho.com. The full length album is currently being written and arranged, and will be out in time for Christmas - but only if you behave yourselves, you spoiled little brats!

Ryan McMahon grew up in Ladysmith, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, where he began playing in local bars on Vancouver Island at the age of 17, under the moniker “Citizen Strange.”

There, he befriended several promoters that allowed him opening support slots for bands coming through town such as Nickelback and Wide Mouth Mason, allowing him the opportunity to hone his craft alongside those already established.

In 2003, Ryan moved to Vancouver and began playing with two musicians who would become his best friends, Mike Rogerson (who produces all of Ryan’s material) and Dustin Young, both of whom still play guitars for him to this day. Together they formed the band, “Ryan McMahon & the Dirty Five,” along with drummer Jesse Smith and bassist Thomas Dowding, and the band toured throughout British Columbia and Alberta, but was never really afforded the opportunity to take it further.

Wanting change, and a more diversified sound, Ryan, Mike, and Dustin stuck together and headed to Baker Street Studios in North Vancouver, to begin work on what would become Ryan’s first solo album, “Better Days Gone By.” They recruited several friends throughout the music industry, including Hamish Thomson (the Hermit), Jon Frederiksen (the Hermit), Doug Elliott (the Odds), Pat Steward (Bryan Adams, Matthew Good, the Odds), Jesse Smith (Jeff Johnson, the Dirty Five), Thomas Dowding (the Dirty Five), and Craig Northey (the Odds).

The result? A 12-song rock n’roll roots album that showcases Ryan’s love for playing rough, honest music, which people of all walks can easily relate to.

With themes ranging from infidelities (“Liar”) to the music industry itself (“Song Says So”), “Better Days Gone By” is a well-rounded honest album that will surely communicate well in both the rock and acoustic formats.

Rye’s dynamic, genuine personality, combined with his unique emotional style will definitely offer fans of roots rock a true kindred spirit.

For a better tomorrow, vote Ryan McMahon.

Contact Information:
Geoff Goddard @ Fronstide Promotions - 604-648-2782
Ryan McMahon - 778-892-6974

www.ryanmcmahon.com
www.myspace.com/mcmahonryan

•  Like it lots
•  just found it again
•  This scratches my musical itch
•  A wonderful song!
•  Catchy