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The Cream of Atlantic Canada
Manchester Evening News Preview Nov 07
November 2007
By Mike Butler

This package tour of three Canadian artists goes under the banner The Cream of Atlantic Canada and does what it says on the label. For quality and diversity the triple bill of Jessica Rhaye, Matt Andersen and Dave Gunning can’t be topped. Whether the trio are well-matched stylistically is another question.

Jessica Rhaye, luscious when splashing in a river in her nightie (as in the diverting booklet of her CD, Short Stories), is equally dazzling singing womanly songs of romance and rapture. The songs are rich with hooks and the voice has a husky, breathy quality that signposts raw sensuality. A daunting beauty, it’s a voice that sounds like it actually belongs to the face. Short Stories is much better than might be expected and comes as a blow to anyone who thinks that life’s gifts should be fairly distributed.

At the other end of the aesthetic sectrum, Matt Andersen is an acoustic bluesman whose latest CD, Second Time Around, is as cheerful and relaxed as a conversation with an old friend. The sharp picking is a blues fancier’s dream, and his voice has a restrained fervour that shines on strong original material. If Andersen sounds this comfortable in a sterile studio, what might he be like live? Aware of his optimal environment, Andersen’s other albums are both live recordings - Solo At Sessions and Live At Liberty House.

Dave Gunning is a singer/songwriter from Nova Scotia who embodies the manly presence, honest sentiment and strong-jawed virtue of the genre. On the evidence of his new album, House For Sale, he seems quite capable of sweeping up Rhaye in his burly arms and carrying her off to a rocky East Coast promontory. Rhaye, a patently modern girl, might have ideas of her own.