I've got a kinda special post this week. It is going to feature three female artists who are all from P.E.I, I know kinda weird, opposite ends of the country and all. They're all pretty sweet, and they've all got a unique style that a lot of people might not like. I'll start with the smallest reputation.

Tanya Davis. Tanya Davis is unique because shes not a songwriter, she's a poet, which really changes her music style from the usual one person act. Tanya's music is all recorded in Hallifax, but she is P.E.I raised. I don't really want to fake knowing a lot about her by reading her bio and then re writing because that's cheating. So I'm just going quote the whole thing. There aren't really any videos of hers on youtube as shes not well enough known yet, so to hear her music you have to go to her site and you can listen to full versions of a couple of her songs off her album "Gorgeous Morning" I recommend listening to the songs Art and Fortress.

"Tanya Davis celebrates the everyday with her sophomore release Gorgeous Morning. Based in Halifax, she's up with the birds most days and can be often found scribbling thoughts in her notebook at neighbouring cafes. Over the course of the past few years, the Prince Edward Island-native has earned the reputation of being a black coffee drinker who colours outside the lines.

Part poet, part songwriter, all performer, she dabbles in all aspects of art-making. Gorgeous Morning is a kaleidoscopic insight into a multi-dimensional creative. She poetically addresses the dark notes of herself, nurses her sentiments through sad-luck serenades about her late cat Henry, rekindles faith while paying witness to a festival of night bugs and wards off poem-promising knights and lovelorn princesses with quirky pop songs. Davis' creativity is as fluid as her sexuality and as eclectic as her work. She writes and loves from the same place - her hopeful heart.

Recorded over the wintry months in Halifax at Echo Chamber Audio with renowned engineer Charles Austin, Gorgeous Morning portrays Davis through a paradigm of bravery and vulnerability. With an instinctual ear and the vernacular of a poet, she makes wordy music built on unique arrangements that fend off genre and highlight both musicianship and passion.

Davis self-released Make A List in 2006, which garnered 4 nominations for both the PEI and Nova Scotia Music Awards. She was the regional winner of the 2006 RadioStar songwriting competition and was recently awarded Best Author/Poet in The Coast's Best of Halifax readers' survey in 2007. Her music and poetry has been featured locally and nationally on CBC Radio and campus community stations. She's toured extensively through Central and Eastern Canada with several shows in the Northeastern United States in the fall of 2007." -www.tanyadavis.ca

Second up is Jenn Grant. Jenn Grant is probably my favourite out of these three, and I'm not going to lie, it's just because I think she's really cute. I really couldn't find out much about her, but I did like her music. Plus one of her videos has a cruiser bike gang scene which is just awesome. She is again a P.E.I native and thats all I really know about her. So again I'll just copy her sites bio which I didn't really find very helpful anyways...

"From her debut record, Orchestra for the Moon, Jenn Grant's name has surfaced in four star reviews from Harp and The Globe and Mail, earned her several East Coast Music Awards nominations, and landed her on tours with the Great Lake Swimmers, Hayden, Justin Rutledge, Martin Tielli, Danny Michel, and The Weakerthans.

There are traces of Orchestra for the Moon in her latest offering, elements that helped shape Jenn’s sound into what it has become. Producer/pianist Jonathan Goldsmith (Bruce Cockburn) leads a heart-on-sleeve band through Echoes: Kinley Dowling on violin, David Christensen on bass clarinet, Sean MacGillivray on bass, Gary Craig on drums/percussion, and Jenn herself on guitar. These are all sincere songs captured in the moment, on tape. Echoes was recorded and mixed with a fully analogue process at Puck’s Farm.

Without the songs being old or feeling old, Echoes’ analog heart reflects the art and the heart of Jenn herself, inciting a familiarity that connects the listener with the roots of music." -- www.jenngrant.com

Here's a couple songs.






Last up is Catherine MacLellan, Catherine is also from P.E.I. Catherine Maclellan is one of the fastest rising new Canadian Singer/Songwriters. She released her first album in 2004 and has since released two others. With her latest being released just this year, titled "Water in the Ground". So with that little tiny bit said heres a couple songs. Theres also a few songs from past albums that you can listen to on her website which is www.catherinemaclellan.com

First up this time is Zee Avi.

This girl has a fantastic back story. I found out about her on youtube when she started posting simple her playing acoustic guitar infront of a webcam style videos, which was about 2 years ago. She's a girl from Malaysia who's got a cute face and a wonderful voice. Mid fall last year I got a message from her (as well as everyone else thats friends with her on youtube, so no i'm not special) saying she was going to be on Brushfires christmas album "This Warm December". Which I was prety stoked for. After that album was released on November 17th I found out that with Jack Johnsons help she would be recording her first album in the US under Brushfire Records, and she is now officially a Brushfire artist. She's been doin the odd show in L.A and New York, but no actual tours or anything yet. Heres a couple of her songs.

This first one is her first single "Bitter Heart" which includes an apearance by Matt Costa on Trumpet.



and this second one has a few songs in one video, which are the songs "Honey Bee" "Bitter Heart" "Kantoi" which I believe is a Malay folk song, and "Monte"



Second I think will be a composer. Joe Hisaishi.

Joe Hisaishi has been around for a pretty long time now, but being Japanese most people don't know who he is. His music is mostly heard in movie soundtracks, But then again there isn't really a big enough classical orchestra market to not sell your music for movies. His music was first seen in Studio Ghibli's 1986 hit movie "Kaze no Tani no Naushika" (Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind). Sinc that movie Hisaishi has been a constant contributer to Hayao Miyazaki's films, but he did lend his talents to other movies as well, like 1999's "Kikujiro". One of the best things about Joe hisaishi's music is his instrumental diversity with his orchestra. While all of his music can be listened to or performed solo on piano. He is known to use Chello's, Saxaphones, Violins, and Drums as leading instruments and does so quite often. So Here's a couple videos showing his music performed live, and don't blame me if they don't work, being foreign they quite often violate audio laws and stuff so they get takin off of youtube, and then re-uploaded by someone else.

First one is the theme song from the first movie I mentioned Nausicaa



Second one is "Summer" from the movie Kikujiro




And Third is Don Ross

I don't know what to say about Don Ross, so I'll just tell you two thing, He's Canadian, and is on of our top solo guitarists. Check him out, he's just so funky.

Michael Michael Michael



Loaded, Leather, Moonroof



Tight Trite Night with Andy Mckee (i'll talk about him next week)





And here's a bonus Canadian Guitarist, Kelly Valleau.

Kelly Valleau is a really good classical guitarist. He has near perfect flamenco picking and writes some really awesome covers.

Pink Floyd cover of "Another Brick in the Wall"



"Hommage to Barios"



and one more this one is an origional song of his that shows of his flamenco skills.

"Imperial March" (yeah I know awesome)