"Prodigy" is not a word easily applied but in this case it may be true.... born in Winterpeg in 1973 this weeks Tunesday artist showed the signs early; at the tender age of three she started composing her own little ditties on the family piano. When she was old enough her parents shunned the public school system and instead sent her to the Royal Conservatory of Music and altho she LOVED music and collected MANY awards she often longed to be a "normal" girl. Eventually the powers that be granted her wish, sending her to a public high school where along the way she seemed to give up the idea of ever pursuing her music career. High school over she was lost for direction.... luckily for us the call of the piano returned and she entered the University of Manitoba with a major in Art studies.

Life seemed back on track....

Then during a trip to Italy before her Junior year she was SERIOUSLY injured in a moped accident, breaking her jaw, left femur and severly mangling her left arm. She spent the next three months in an Italian hospital with the fear that not only would she have to learn to walk again but the reality that her musical career may be over before it began. Determined to NOT let that happen she spent her rehabilitaion time back in Winnipeg writing songs that she HOPED would be included.....

.. in her first album.

Strength regained she joined forces with producers Danny Schur and Chris Burke-Gaffney for work on her DEMO CD but almost immediatly after it went in the can she developed an abcess in her reconstructed jaw and was rushed in for emergency surgery....

...and was STUNNED to find out that while she was recovering Schur and Burke-Gaffney has sent her disc to Sony Canada who met her at hospital door with contract in hand.

UNDER THESE ROCKS AND STONES dropped in the fall of 1997 and was met with both critical and public praise; the singles "God Made Me" and "Believer" spent enough time on the charts to...

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[align=center]TURN IT LOUD![/align]

This weeks Tunesday group actually started out as a "side project" - Chilliwacks Brian (Too Loud) MacLeod and Ab Bryant needed an extra little something to keep themselves occupied and when they ran the idea past drummer Bernie Aubin and Darby Mills, one of the West Coasts Hottest singers, they didnt have to be asked twice.

Their impact was immediate - they kicked off their musical career opening for Blackmore's Rainbow in their home town of Vancouver and even tho their sets consisted mostly of covers and the odd Chillwack tune thrown in the band's live magnetism was rivalled by few and they soon became one of the hottest commodities in Canadian rock.

In 1982 TURN IT LOUD was release on the independent Solid Gold Records; Co-produced by Bill Henderson (my dads name BTW) it had the fortune of an experienced master behind the controls and made its presence known on the charts the day it dropped. "Don't It Make Ya Feel" was an instant hit and along with the title track and the heart wrenching "Breakin' Down", a ballad about one band members personal dealing dealings with suicide helped TURN IT LOUD hit platinum even BEFORE the band left on their first cross-continent tour. It would go on to sell a quarter-million copies in Canada alone and be certified double platinum, making it one of the most successful debut albums by a Canadian group ever.

Not resting on their laurals they released LINE OF FIRE in early 1983; "Feel It (Feel My Body)" and "Don't Stand In The Line Of Fire" were the first two singles and proved without a doubt that this band was ANYTHING but a "one hit wonder". "Mine All Mine" and "Celebration" and this weeks featured song helped LINE OF FIRE reach platinum status and another extended tour ensued, including dates with the likes of KISS, Billy Squier, Canadas own Helix, Quiet Riot and Whitesnake.

It would be a full two years...

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[align=center].....has to go out to this weeks Tunesday Band - not only for the music they gave us but the fact that one of my all time favorite Canadian performers "cut his teeth" in this group.

They started out in Sarnia in the early 70s - the aformentioned performer had just left his first group, Zoom, and talked high school buddy Terry Watkinson out of leaving HIS band, The Rock Show of The Yeoman. They then hooked up with Mike Tilka and Paul Kersey and together they hit the Ontario Pub circuit, soon becoming as well known for their crazy onstage antics and attire as they were for their music.

In '76 they took a leap of faith, leaving Sarnia for T.O. and soon met up with lyricist Pye Dubois, whom you may remember from a previous TUNESDAY. (Dubois also worked with Canadas own RUSH and is credited with writing one of their most popular songs, Tom Sawyer) A poet at heart, Dubois was often accused of jumbling words together that just happened to rhyme in the end; non the less a partnership was formed, one that was soon noticed by Anthem Records who signed the group to their first record deal, sans demo.

They released their self-titled debut album later that same year and three singles soon found their way to the charts; "Hangover", "Here Among The Cats" and "Blowing The Blues Away" all spent time climbing the musical ladder here in THE GREAT WHITE NORTH and quickly established this group as one of Canadas finest at the time.

HIGH CLASS IN BORROWED SHOES dropped in late 1977 and featured a small changing of the guards - Gary McCracken replaced Kersey on drums and the band was joined in the control booth by producer Terry Brown, most noted for his work with Rush and Klaatu. The album not only produced four singles, "Diamonds Diamonds" and "Gravity", "America's Veins" and the title track, it also kicked off their first tour, one where their onstage antics and bizarre appearance only helped...

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Born in Montreal in 1958 his weeks Tunesday artist set her sights on being a singer early; she not onlystudied voice, guitar, flute, and piano and spent her summers travelling across Canada to perform traditional Ukrainian folk songs at weddings and social gatherings. Eager to move mainstream she hired a back up band - drummer Peter Marunzak, guitarist Mark Lyman, bassist Mike Zwonok, guitarist John Nestorowich, and keyboardist Doug Short and hit the bar scene playing mostly covers while trying to find their "own sound"

Find it they did.

In 1980 she released the independant single "Every Time I See Your Picture I Cry" and took the Canadian Charts by STORM; Capitol Records Canada knew a good thing when they saw it and instantly signed her to her first record deal and 2 months later released her first EP. While the world may have been ready for them it was not the same the other way around; it took 4 years to their first album to drop.

SECRETS AND SINS hit the stores in 1984... produced by Daniel Lanois it not only stole the charts with the singles "Let it go", which reached #1 all across the GWN, and this weeks featured song, it also garnered this artist a Juno Award in 1985 for Best Female Vocalist.

Her second album dropped in the spring of 1986; BETWEEN THE EARTH AND SKY produced two top ten singles, "How Many" and "Innocent" and earned her her first Platinum album! The afterglow was short lived tho.. shortly after its release, the band was involved in a serious accident (she was not on board the bus at the time) that nearly killed several members, leading this artist to take some time off.


She returned to the music scene in 1988 with OVER 60 MINUTES,a compilation of her best hits of the day and followed that up in 1990 with ALL OR NOTHING; the singles "Giving Away A Miracle," "I'll Watch Over You," and on of MY favorites "Little Salvation" helped make it her second album...

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They began as a circuit band in the late 70s in the cold confines of Winnipeg Manitoba... singer George Belanger, guitarist John Hannah and Gary Golden on keyboards, along with drummer David Budzak and Ralph James on bass were the earliest inception. Tired of the same faces and the bleak witner months they hit the roda, touring across central and eastern Canada where they were EVENTUALLY spotted by an Epic Records exec who quickly signed them to a 2 album deal.

They gladly waved BYE BYE to "Winterpeg", hitting Toronto to record their first disc VICTIM OF A SONG, an instant hit with both fans and critics alike that bore two top ten singles; "Sweet Things In Life" and "You Are The Light" were instant hits across the country and helped push "VICTIM" to double Gold status.

Not bad for a bunch of boys from "the Peg" and the caparisons to ANOTHER famous band from The Red River Valley (The Guess Who) began in ernest.... and many say that COULD have led to their "flash in the pan" status. And as in many cases even success does not translate to stability; in early 1980, just before the release of their second album, John Hannah left to join ANOTHER Canadian group spending tip at the top of the charts, Streetheart.

Enter Glen Willows and drop LOVE CRIMES and you have a STELLAR sohpomore album.... "Take This Heart", "Thinking Of You" and this weeks featured tune helped put to rest the notion this group couldnt function thru personel changes.... done and in the box they set out cross Canada, even doubling up on gigs with old member Hannah and the boys from Streetheart who were riding the wave of their OWN hit album QUICKSAND SHOES!

Tired from the road it would be almost two full years till their next offering but ONE FALSE MOVE was worth the wait; "I Did It For Love", "Superstitious Feeling" and the ballad "Heart Gone Cold" put them into and ELITE catagory.......

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