Track Listing

1. MaryJane
2. When Doves Cry
3. Venus di Milo
4. Think that your the one
5. Saturday AM
6. Boredom
7. Ten Minutes
8. Wedding Guests
9. Green walls
10. Divided
11. .High Tonight
12. Regardless

Product Details

• Released on: 2000-09-26
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Import

From the Artist
Hi there people. My name is Robert Wilson. I play the guitar and my astrological sign is Cancer. I hope you have a nice day, and I hope you buy this album.

About the Artist
Hummable melodies. Spare guitar arrangements. Bittersweet, clever lyrics with themes such as love, loss, and green walls. Above all, a powerful tenor voice with the technical range and emotional sweep of a jazz singer's. These are the elements that have made 26-year-old singer-songwriter Robert Wilson one of Vancouver's most popular acoustic performers.

Wilson's solid fan base, developed over seven years of performing in the area, includes one group who hasn't missed a show in two years. Three hundred of his closest followers packed the Gate, a Vancouver club, for his April '98 CD release party. The show celebrated his first full-length recording, Thin Man.

Surprisingly, though, the musician did not get his start in Canada, but in Asia. He was 18. He had just graduated from high school and had taken off traveling. He brought his guitar, a desire to write songs, and a set of vocal chords honed from years in musical theater and choir. "I ended up in a little tourist town on the east coast of Malaysia," he recalls. "I ran into this odd collection of ex-patriots, a bunch of musicians from all over the place At night we'd head off to this little beach-side bar that had an open mic. You could get up and play. If the crowd liked you they'd come up and place drinks at the base of your stool." The crowd liked him--enough so that he stayed for two weeks, drinking for free every night.

When Wilson returned home to Canada, he entered the vocal jazz program at Vancouver Community College. He started writing songs and producing his own shows, first as a member of the band, Monday House, then as a solo performer. It wasn't easy. His style-harder than folk, not quite rock, spiced up with the odd jazz chord didn't fall neatly into any category. But soon he was performing as much as three times a week. From tiny cafes to the kind of community halls where the walls are hung with moose heads, from punk bars to more established venues such as the Railway Club, the Starfish Room, and the Town Pump. "Once I went on after a band dressed in chicken outfits. They gave eggs to the audience and the audience threw them at the chicken band."

Along with a few chicken-band stories, he began to collect a devoted band of fans. Songs such as the melodic, darkly funny Wedding Guests (which he later recorded as a track on Thin Man) became favorites at live shows. In 1995, he played the Vancouver Folk Festival. In 1996, he released Far off places, an EP of five original songs. In 1997 he headlined at the Kispiox Valley Music Festival. He has performed throughout British Columbia, as well as Alberta, Germany, Spain, and England.

In April 1998, Wilson released Thin Man, the result of a very long year's worth of work. He co-produced it with Craig Zurba, and recruited many top-notch Canadian musicians for the album, including Randall Stoll (k.d. lang), Jason Clarke (Coco Love Alcorn), and members of the Matthew Good Band.

Thin Man reflects his move toward more rock and less folk in his style; there's even an electric guitar or two. But while the songs have a harder edge than some of his earlier work, they are always heartfelt, from the haunting "Venus de Milo" to the nostalgic "Green Walls" to the slightly acidic "Think You're the One." His one cover song, "When Doves Cry," is a crisp, minimalist rendition of the Prince classic. All are anchored by Wilson's expressive voice.