Dan Sinasac

A local studio owner and Hammond B3 organ enthusiast will soon make his way to the Festival Place Patio Series.

Dan Sinasac is the owner of DanLyn Studios in Strathcona County, and also plays funky and soulful rhythm and blues with the Dan Sinasac Band.

Sinasac said he’s always had a keen interest in music, and grew up listening to a lot of the Motown coming out of Detroit, near his hometown of Windsor, Ont.

“It’s just a certain rhythm or feel, that’s where your roots are,” Sinasac said. “The stuff that I was listening to in that really impressionable age, from about 12 to 20 years old, there’s a big window in there that the music and culture really influences you, and stays with you. You’d have to go back to the old Motown stuff, The Temptations, even James Brown, that funky stuff (really influenced me).”

Sinasac said that during that impressionable time, he was exposed to a legendary radio station in his hometown.

“There was a radio station called CKLW in Windsor, Ontario, where Rosalie (Trombley) started out as a receptionist, and then she was taking records by people that would just come in and drop them off,” he said. “People like Alice Cooper, The Supremes and Elton John. All these kinds of people would actually go in there, and we’re talking mid- to late-’60s, that kind of thing.

“(Trombley) would determine what got played on the radio, and they ended up calling her the lady with the golden ears. Bob Seger ended up writing that tune about her,” he said, referring to Seger’s song “Rosalie” from his Back in ’72 album. “So, everybody’s going, ‘Oh, Detroit Motown.’ But it was actually CKLW on the Canadian side that was (making a big impact).

“We didn’t realize how much of a musical education we had. That was the best place for listening to stuff on the radio on the planet.”

Sinasac is also a noted fan of the Hammond B3 organ.

“They quit making them back in ’74 when the factory burned down, and it’s got a tonewheel generator,” he explained. “It was the first electromechanical keyboard ever made, by Mr. Hammond in Chicago. It’s got grit with the tube amplifiers, and you can get a bit of distortion out of it. You can make it groan and grunt and growl at you.

“The B3, still to this day, you see them everywhere. Any award show you watch on TV, you look, and there’s probably a B3 on stage. You can’t duplicate it, because it’s got too many flaws in it.”

Sinasac designed, built and equipped DanLyn Studios, after selling off a business in 2007, which he said began with his passion for recording.

“I was always fascinated with being able to preserve something that otherwise would disappear,” he said.

Operating DanLyn Studios has given Sinasac the opportunity to work with a number of prolific musicians, and he said working with Canadian blues musician Jack Semple was not only a highlight, but an eye opener.

“Watching him communicate musically with Dave Shabott, another amazing musician, these guys didn’t have to use their mouths to say anything. They use their instruments, and start talking to each other, and laughing, saying ‘Check this chord out.’ You’re not supposed to go from an A7 to a diminished ninth, it just doesn’t sound right, so there are rules.

“So these guys are breaking the rules musically to see if the other guy catches on. Watching guys like that, I realized there’s a whole other level of not only talent, but skill.”

As for his own music, Sinasac has been composing and performing original material for years. His next album, Street Corner History, will be officially released on Sept. 21.

Sinasac will be joined by Randy Forsberg, Gerald Moellering, Dean Pierno and Kelly Nall for his Patio Series performance on Wednesday, Aug. 6. The Dan Sinasac Band will perform along with Jessica Denise. Admission to both shows costs $8.

Visit www.dansinasac.com or www.danlynstudios.com for more information about Dan Sinasac or DanLyn Studios.

david.becker@sunmedia.ca - Sun Media - Sherwood Park News

Sherwood Park Musician and Studio Owner continues to bring most of Edmonton's top musicians into his musical world. - Shaw TV - Go Edmonton

EDMONTON - Dan Sinasac spent much of the past year recording a sprawling, grooving double-CD, Street Corner History. But in a sense, he’s been working on it most of his life.

The street corner in the title refers to the intersection of King and South streets, west Windsor, Ont., where Sinasac’s family lived throughout his childhood. As musical influences go, rhythm and blues grooves were a big part of the neighbourhood soundtrack.

In shaping his tastes, Sinasac credits Windsor’s influential radio CKLW, free college concerts, the many music acts — like Ike and Tina Turner — who lived just over the border in Detroit, and his good friends, most of whom were black.

“My mom always jokes about looking out the back door when I was about seven as one of my black buddies was trying to teach me how to dance, insisting ‘Man, you’ve got to groove.’ ”

The keyboard player-multi-instrumentalist wound up in a nine-piece funk band by high school, but music hit the back burner as he apprenticed in electronics. A resident here since the early 1990s, Sinasac retired from his first career as owner of an industrial electrical shop in 2007 to create his labour of love, Sherwood Park’s DanLyn Studios. Thirty-five records have been made there since he switched on the power in 2009, including projects with Tommy Banks and Jack Semple. The studio is also the site of regular house concerts.

Owning his own studio helped as he nailed down a great sound, strolling memory lane for the upbeat grooves and original songs that fill out Street Corner History. The final track, Days Gone By, is one of the first songs he wrote when he was around 16, trying to teach himself piano. Other tunes are brand-new but still a nod to his musical origins, like Walkin’ To Work, the album’s only a cappella tune (with his multi-tracked vocals), offering echoes of doo-wop.

Sinasac admits Street Corner History isn’t the easiest project to market, with one “acoustified” album and a contrasting, “electrified” disc that share elements of blues, jazz and pop between them.

“I don’t think about genres. I just try to make the best music I can. It’s all just music, honest and straight from the heart. This is really the story of my life.” - Edmonton Journal

There is a case to be made for the benefits derived from gargling with broken glass and razor blades. Exhibit A-Dan Sinisac. His voice ranges from a tad smoother Tom Waits to a less spastic sounding Joe Cocker. It sure works within his framework of all original R&B that takes chances. And oh those herky-jerky horn arrangements! Dan also plays Hammond B3 organ and/or piano on most tracks and producing as well as writing all the songs. He was raised in Windsor, Ontario, Canada absorbing the sounds of Motown, across the river. He paid his dues in the blues project Jack Shadow.

His raspy vocals and dramatic delivery blend in well with the interesting horn arrangement on “Tow The Line”. “Her Spell” recounts being mesmerized by feminine charms. It also includes some nifty rock guitar. “Born With A Heartache” packs a horn-fueled punch reminiscent of Blood, Sweat & Tears.

“Wonderin’” eschews the horns in favor of a melody carried by guitars that sound like they were supplied by Jeff Beck and David Gilmour in an aching melancholy approach. Girl vocals and guitar fill in the spaces left by the missing horns on “When My Heart Breaks” as the Joe Cocker similarity comes in the vocal. The dramatic tension builds up in “For Goodness Sake”, leading up to Robert Walsh’s slide guitar workout. Dan offers up some nice late night piano on “Honeybee” a slow tender ballad again with a Cocker-ish vibe. The title track starts off as a ringer for the piano part of Eric Clapton’s “Layla”. It’s just Dan at his piano pouring his heart out.

This R&B offering has creativity and imagination written all over it. He takes the best parts of his favorite music and rearranges them into something refreshing and familiar at the same time. He isn’t afraid to interject some soaring fusion guitar soloing into an R&B song. Every aspect of the music is in the right place at the right time. The female vocals serve a vital purpose, rather than just being used for window dressing. He wrings every ounce of emotion out of his weather-beaten voice. This is a fully realized project.

Reviewer Greg “Bluesdog” Szalony hails from the New Jersey Delta. - Blues Blast Magazine