Myk Gordon
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Myk Gordon

Nashville, Tennessee, United States | INDIE

Nashville, Tennessee, United States | INDIE
Band Americana Singer/Songwriter

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""Ethereal and timeless...""

"...A classic country soul hybrid...ethereal and timeless." - MusicFog.com


""...A posterchild for the potential of the Americana genre.""

Set Free could stand as a poster child for the potential of the Americana genre….What separates (the album) from becoming another notch in the Roots music chain is its use of the familiar as a challenge to grow and expand on origins. Myk Gordon’s voice drips soul and emotion whether sliding into the role of the lover who is trying to find his way out of the wreckage of a relationship on the title track ‘Hurting One” or looking at the world through the eyes of a fast-paced shuffle riding traveler in “Greenwich Mean Time." - Alternate Root Magazine


""...echos of everything from southwestern border-town flavor to NYC song circle sophistication""

"Myk Gordon's warm and resonant Set Free, is a testament to both
the production expertise of Los Lobos' Steve Berlin and the humble
virtuosity of Gordon and his band. Recorded in Portland, Oregon with
...echos of everything from southwestern border-town flavor to NYC song
circle sophistication, Set Free is a cast iron pot of homemade gumbo, bubbling and churning with rich layers of rootsy goodness." - No Depression Magazine


"Myk Gordon Brings Ron Sexsmith To His Feet!"

October 3rd 2009, Toronto--

Ron Sexsmith not only made a point of notably attending rising star Myk Gordon's October Toronto Showcase, he grooved along to the stellar performance, jumping to his feet to give standing applause as the set finished. Praise doesn't come higher.

Influential music blogger and veteran recording artist Bob Segarini of fyimusic.ca writes about the spectacular night and all-star band--featuring Blue Rodeo's Bazil Donovan; Kurt Swinghammer (Ron Sexsmith) on guitar, Michelle Josef (Prairie Oyster, Etta James, Taj Mahal) and pedal steel ace Burke Carroll (George Fox, Shania Twain)--and Myk's new CD Set Free, giving all a glowing review in his weekly column:

"See this man live as soon as you get a chance. There is a depth andpassion here that raises the material into the same stratosphere asartsts as disparate as Dylan, Paul Simon, and early Springsteen, yetsounds like none of them."
-Bob Segarini, fyimusic.ca

http://fyimusic.ca/opinion/dont-believe-a-word-i-say-with-bob-segarini-93#more-10994 - Bob Segarini, fyimusic.ca


""Stunning...Nothing short of brilliant.""

“Stunning…Nothing short of brilliant. Music in it’s purest form. In my top 10 list of CD's this year. ”- Jade Sperry, NXEW

Full review: http://www.nxew.ca/2009/10/myk-gordon-photo-courtesy-of-artist.html - nxew.ca


""Nothing short of a classic country-soul tour de force.""

When time came for Myk Gordon to record a new album, the Vancouver singer-songwriter conjured up a grand vision: to hit the road and revisit the haunts of Highway 61, following the trail of his musical forebears all the way down to Louisiana.

Somewhere along the way, thanks to the restrictions and obligations of normal day-to-day life, the idea was scrapped, deemed unfeasible.

Instead, in a strange twist of fate, Gordon found himself in Portland, Ore., recording at a place called, oddly enough, Mississippi Studios.

This serendipitous turn of events probably worked out for the best, and Gordon’s fifth album, Set Free, encapsulates the spirit of the “crossroads” in more ways than one.

Gordon has many people to thank for the way Set Free turned out: His pal Steve Berlin (of Los Lobos) acted as producer and multi-instrumentalist, Neko Case guitarist Paul Rigby, and a host of seasoned veterans including bassist Jim Brunberg and drummer Drew Shoals joined Gordon on the recording.

The result is nothing short of a classic country-soul tour de force.

“It’s all about the vibe among the musicians,” Gordon says.

“You don’t always get that magic. It’s all about the right group of people and the space.

“(Set Free) is simple and uncluttered and it has depth to it,” he adds. “I feel like we made the absolute best of the opportunity we had, and there’s nothing on here I can’t stand 100 per cent behind, or in front of. It all feels authentic, and that’s what any musician really wants. To me, that’s success.”

Set Free sounds loose and effortless, jumping from the road-weary country-rock of Trouble to the tempestuous ballad Come Down (From The Mountain), and from the existential shuffle of the album’s title track to a bittersweet, reggaefied Honey.

Gordon admits the album came after a turbulent period in his life and deals, like most classic country and R&B albums, with separation and heartbreak.

“I wanted to have something that was a little more positive but also evocative of the theme that runs through it, which is about dealing with life’s changes,” Gordon, who is 43, says.

“Yeah, in a way, ‘redemption.’ Sure.

“When I think ‘set free,’ it’s not literal in the sense that you’re bound by any particular thing. It’s just liberating oneself from one’s limitations.”

Similarly, working with Berlin was also a way for Gordon to break away from the restrictions or pre-conceived ideas he had about the songs that would end up on Set Free.

Working with such an intuitive bunch of musicians, he says, allowed Gordon’s songs to take on a life of their own.

“[Berlin] is a true artist and musician. He was going for the most authentic expression of the material at hand. He didn’t have a fixed idea of what it was going to sound like, and that was very refreshing.”

While Gordon’s “normal” life remains a priority, he can now allow himself to dream.

The album has generated such a buzz that Gordon has been selected to be featured live on the Billy Block Show in Nashville on Feb. 23, a show broadcast on the city’s No. 1 country radio station.

For Gordon, it’s a fantasy become reality.

“Nashville is the Mecca of songwriting, and not just country songwriting,” he says. “To me, it’s one of the Seven Wonders of the modern world.” Gordon says he wouldn’t mind exploring the possibility of obtaining songwriting deals and being able to offer his material to some of the industry’s most influential players, but he also is very aware of the pitfalls involved in making a name for yourself in Nashville.

“It takes a little humility,” he says. “[Nashville] definitely has that expression of southern hospitality, but also that weariness of outsiders. So I’m going in confident, but, at the same time, I have to earn their trust.”

And while we’re at it, why not dream of a potential duet, somewhere down the road?

“The first person that comes to mind right away is Bonnie Raitt,” Gordon says. “People ask what my favourite music is and it’s obviously the great songwriters. But I love singers. She just encapsulates that honey-soaked, bourbon-edged heartache in a way that nobody else does. She’s got so much soul and so much class — it would just be fantastic.”

fmarchand@vancouversun.com - Vancouver Sun


"Myk Gordon Finds His Soul Groove"

The Vancouver Courier
Myk Gordon feature (CD release party: Tuesday, July 16, Roxy)
July 2/02
By Greg Potter

When a white guy sits across a barroom table from you and says, “Yeah, so I made a soul album,” your first impulse should be to get up and move. With all due respect to David Bowie’s Young Americans, Van Morrison’s latter-day catalogue and even the Talking Heads’ cover of Al Green’s “Take Me to the River,” white folk just ain’t fly, as they say in some parts.

Thus, when Vancouver singer/songwriter Myk Gordon announced that he’d made a soul album, I inwardly groaned. Here was a guy I’d first encountered in 1994 on the strength of his debut CD, Seventh Candle. A bracing burst of acoustic guitars, martial snare drums and hard-wrought wordplay, the album, an exuberant examination of Gordon’s own faith and heritage, was reminiscent of Peter Case, John Wesley Harding and Billy Bragg: smart singer/songwriters working a row first hoed by Lightnin’ Hopkins and Woody Guthrie, and later harvested by the likes of Bob Dylan and Neil Young.

Why would a white boy with a folk-rock bent suddenly take on R ’n’ B-infused soul music informed by the likes of Green, Marvin Gaye, Gil Scott-Heron and Stevie Wonder? Well, for starters, because you can draw a straight line between songs such as Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” and Young’s “Southern Man” to Gaye’s “What’s Going On” and Wonder’s “Living for the City.”

As Gordon puts it: “Whether you’re Woody Guthrie or Leadbelly, you’re dealing with the same issues — specifically the duress of poverty on people, their relationships and their experiences. Besides, most musicians would be pretty remiss to say they weren’t influenced by deep blues and gospel. You can bring those feelings of struggle, determination and suffering to music, and not just through a cognitive lyrical approach. The music itself can evoke those things, as well.”

For the 35-year-old Gordon — who celebrates the release of his fourth full-length album, The Real Thing, Tuesday, July 16, at the Roxy — music has always been the conduit connecting the man to his emotional and intellectual temperaments. Never one to stray too far from matters he feels should be addressed (a four-song 1997 release was titled, This Machine Kills Mike Harris), Gordon, surprisingly, took a step back from the industry after the release of 1998’s Lonely.

“I decided to take a break,” he says, after the album garnered more headaches than airplay as the result of a botched promotional job by a Toronto-based indie label. “I felt overwhelmed; like I’d lost control over what I was trying to accomplish.”

Following a year-and-a-half hiatus, during which time he produced and directed an as-yet-unreleased documentary film on circus/street performer Tom Comet, Gordon finally got the bug to sing and write again in 2000.

“I went to England that summer to attend a seminar and get my black belt in Ki Aikido, a Japanese defensive art that teaches coordination of the mind and body,” he says. “I ended up staying for nine months, putting a band together and even playing with B.J. Cole, the guy who played steel guitar on Elton John’s ‘Tiny Dancer.’ ”

Returning to Vancouver last year, he prepared to enter the studio with a new band and fresh material. When it came time to lay tracks, however, he realized that his time spent abroad, listening to the Verve, Radiohead, David Gray and Coldplay, had influenced him in another direction.

“The songs were heading toward more of a drum-bass, electronic feel,” he says. “After talking to a couple of producers I wanted to work with — Todd Simko [who produced ex-Pure vocalist Jordy Birch’s Fun Machine] and [former-Odds singer/guitarist] Steven Drake — they encouraged me to just go ahead and do it myself. I’d been keyed into computer recording for a few years and finally decided to just do everything myself.”

Renting a workspace for a month, Gordon rode the crest of a creative tsunami, writing, performing and producing The Real Thing in four weeks. His most compelling and cohesive work to date, the album drips with the sounds of mid-’70s inner-city soul: huge grooves and hallelujah harmonies bolster playful melodies, while vintage keyboards swirl in the warm and spacious production. With at least two drop-dead singles, “Do Your Thing” (video in the works) and “All That We Own,” Gordon has come into his own by stepping outside of himself.

“Up until now,” he says, “I’ve been strongly influenced by folk music, taking a more intellectual approach to the songs. This time, I really opened up emotionally and stylistically, and it allowed me to capture the urgency of what I feel. Plus, I just really liked the vibe.”

As does this scribe, who, no longer skeptical, places the album alongside some of the best to come out of this city in a while, worthy of a place alongside recent works by Bocephus King, Graham Brown, and Neko Case. “While you can bring issues of life and society to your work, it really comes down to what moves you and grooves you,” Gordon says. “Ultimately, every musician wants to groove.”
- Vancouver Courier, July 2/02


""Soul Firestarter""

Issue 59, April 2003

Recalling the AM radio that influenced him in his youth, Myk Gordon finds a new direction on his latest solo offering, The Real Thing, veering through blues, R&B, soul, and funk to come up with a groove-laden, danceable, rich sound that will instantly move you. Gordon musters up all he has to make his voice resonate with you, while the diversity of his playing - from the blues-y "Poor Poor Woman", the funky "Real World Melody", and the opening soul fire-starter "Do Your Thing" - makes you cheer him on.

With Gordon at the core of the songwriting, and in the producer's seat, his vision is fully realized. From start to finish, he conjures up the golden days of AM radio and creates a record that mirrors the early, exciting days of AM radio, making it equally accessible, and even more coherent. This is a golden album that aims high with its vision and lands right on its mark. I'll give it a B+. - inmusicwetrust.com


"True connection to soul, gospel and classic pop..."

By Libby C. Alcock

While surfing the internet
for new music I was
grateful to discover
Myk Gordon’s new CD The Real
Thing which reflects his true
connection to soul, gospel and
classic pop. Myk Gordon’s vocals
resonate pure 70’s soul while
his original grooves entice you,
leaving you wanting more!
Favorite tracks are Feel Like
Love and Poor Poor Women. Recently I asked Myk to describe
what inspired him to write Feels Like Love and here’s what he
told me: “I had just returned from London, England, where I’d
been performing and training in Aikido for 9 months. (I have been
practicing Aikido for many years, and am now a teacher.) The song
Feels Like Love represents the influence of British songwriters
and it has that Annie Lennox (Eurhythmics) kind of phrasing.
I think that pop approach kept the lyrics very direct. I had begun
a new relationship, and that song reflects my opening up to new
love and learning. I especially like the chord change into the prechorus.
It just felt like classic pop writing, like Motown. I think it’s
a great melody and a positive song. It sure gets people grooving!”
As for Poor Poor Women, Myk informed me he wrote it out of
sympathy, outrage and solidarity. Living in Vancouver he was
outraged by the tragic murders of mostly Native sex trade workers in
the Downtown Eastside whose grisly remains were discovered on the
Willie Picton farm in British Columbia’s Tri-City area. His emotions
compelled him to write the song spontaneously during a studio
session. Myk describes the experience: “A producer friend encouraged
me to self-produce and suggested I try out a dobro on the recording,
which is an old-style steel string resonator guitar, with a steel pie-plate
gadget in the front. It produces that distinctive traditional blues tone. I
started to fool around with it, and soon was playing what became the
riff of that song. The words just tumbled out...I was in a little candlelit
studio space on my own, it was very spooky, with that cajun/reggae
beat pounding out loud. It gave me shivers.”
Many well-known songwriters have referred to the process of writing
music as therapeutic. I asked Myk if this was true in his experience
and if so how music has balanced his life. He responded: “I’ve really
grown up through my recordings, both personally and politically, in
the sense of my contribution to public discourse on issues, and as a
social observer. That’s the intellectual side. Emotionally, I’ve worked
through a lot of difficult changes within myself through my lyrics by
feeling it out, wrenching it out through the music, whether it’s been
celebration or feeling defeated. I’m grateful to have this outlet and to
share it in a way that moves people who might not have the same kind
of outlet for their experience.” - Balanced Life Magazine


"A skilled singer...."

"...A steady hand when mixing pop, folk, emotion and intelligence and squeezing the likes of Lonely out the other end. Gordon is a skilled singer with a range capable of delivering the emotional needs of a song." - Toronto Star, 1997


"Deep, down and loaded"

“This year Myk Gordon found his groove thang and his inner super fly started buzzing big time. The result is The Real Thing, a deep-down and loaded platter of greasy keyboards, raise-your-hands-up choruses and Motown and Stax Volt melodic lines.”

Stuart Derdeyn
- The Province


Discography

Full Length CDs: Set Free (2010); The Real Thing (2004, MMC/Burnside); Lonely (1998, Cordova Bay); 27 (1995, unreleased); Seventh Candle (1994, Festival); The Emperor's Got No Clothes (1990).

EPs: This Machine Kills Mike Harris (1996)

Photos

Bio

For singer-songwriter Myk Gordon and Grammy-award winning producer Steve Berlin (Los Lobos, Jackie Greene), the magic in their recent musical collaboration, SET FREE, is the result of a winning combination of stellar songwriting, unbeatable supporting talent, and irrepressible vision.

“The whole project has been amazing,” says Berlin. “It has certainly been one of the best I can remember, in terms of everyone coming together, capturing the moment, getting great performances quickly.”

In an abandoned Masonic temple in Portland,OR Gordon, Berlin, featured players Paul Rigby on guitar/mandolin, and Jon Rauhouse on pedal steel and banjo (both from Jakob Dylan, Neko Case, New Pornographers) put their considerable creative prowess to work on 10 tracks for SET FREE.

"Myk Gordon's warm and resonant Set Free, is a testament to both the production expertise of Los Lobos' Steve Berlin and the humble virtuosity of Gordon and his band...With echos of everything from southwestern border-town flavor to NYC song circle sophistication, Set Free is a cast iron pot of homemade gumbo, bubbling and churning with rich layers of rootsy goodness."

“...[SET FREE] is nothing short of a classic country-soul tour de force.” Francois Marchand, Vancouver Sun (click to see full article)

Gordon, who hails from Vancouver, B.C., has built a respected following over a span of six independent releases for having “a steady hand when mixing pop, folk, emotion and intelligence,” (Toronto Star). He is an “accomplished performer” (TimeOut, London) who has shared stages with artists including Emmylou Harris and Ron Sexsmith.

Myk was recently profiled by American Songwriter Magazine as Writer Of The Week (http://www.americansongwriter.com/2010/06/myk-gordon/), and kicked off his debut US tour in Nashville, New York, Philadelphia and selected West Coast dates.