From: owner-headline-girl-digest@smoe.org (headline-girl-digest) To: headline-girl-digest@smoe.org Subject: headline-girl-digest V5 #228 Reply-To: headline-girl@smoe.org Sender: owner-headline-girl-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-headline-girl-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk headline-girl-digest Monday, October 28 2002 Volume 05 : Number 228 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Calgary Sun: Gryner blasts off again [Paul Schreiber ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 27 Oct 2002 01:56:56 -0700 From: Paul Schreiber Subject: Calgary Sun: Gryner blasts off again http://www.canoe.ca/JamMusic/oct26_emm-sun.html Gryner blasts off again By MIKE BELL -- Calgary Sun In the world of show business, you take it where you can get it. That's especially true if that "it" is accolades and interest. Canadian singer-songwriter Emm Gryner, for example, was more than happy for the boost her career received last year when she released the independent record Girl Versions, an album featuring covers of distinctly male songs by artists such as The Clash and Ozzy Osbourne. "Who knew that taking Def Leppard (Pour Some Sugar on Me) and making into a piano ballad would be so interesting to so many people?" says Gryner, who performs tonight at MRC's Liberty Lounge. "That album opened up for a few doors, especially with it being nominated for a Juno (for best pop album), which was unexpected. "And the thing that I realized about doing it is that you need to really make a statement with something in order for people to get excited about it." Gryner's latest statement is Asianblue, her first album of her new, original material since 1999's Science Fair. It's another pretty pop effort from the performer, who has over the course of her career drawn favourable comparisons to Tori Amos, and it features a number of memorable tracks. One of the best is the the truly ethereal Christopher, which Gryner wrote in order to commemorate Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield's first free-float in space. When she was first approached to do the song, the thought crossed her mind to decline, but a couple of things eventually swayed her. "I don't really write songs for people as a task like that, but I did look into his life and accomplishments, and the fact that he is from my hometown (Sarnia, Ont.) kind of resonated," she says. "His stories about space are just amazing because as you can probably tell from a lot of my songs I'm space obsessed ... "The notion that you can go somewhere else besides this Earth is really, really mindblowing to me." Her attraction to space is one of the things she has in common with someone else she's often tied with -- David Bowie. Gryner spent a couple of years in the rock legend's touring band and struck up a friendship with him. In fact, she was invited out with him again, but chose instead to pursue the making and touring of Asianblue. "It's a very difficult decision to walk away from something so larger than life, but my heart was really with this album and I didn't want to fall into the trap of being hired guy forever and ever," she says. "Hence I decided to bust out on my own. But we keep in touch -- we e-mail and we still talk about music and I hand him my records and he tells me what he thinks about them." And what does the Thin White Duke think about her latest album? "He told me he really, really likes it ...," she says before laughing. "He must have good taste. I've got to hand it to the guy." ------------------------------ End of headline-girl-digest V5 #228 ***********************************