Islander gets off to solid beginning

One of the most rewarding aspects of this job is the opportunity it provides to discover emerging local and regional artists.

It also provides me with a unique vantage point to monitor the growth of those artists as their music evolves.

From that vantage point I have, over the past three decades, seen a number of East Coast artists grow successful careers on both the national and the international stage.

Singer-songwriter John Connolly, I believe, is destined to join their ranks.

That the Charlottetown-born artist has everything he needs to take his career to the next level is evident from his recently released debut album.

The self-titled release, distributed by Charlottetown-based Sandbar Music Group, showcases the talents of a songwriter and a performer who has grown by leaps and bounds, pushing his own personal musical envelope as his influences expand and his willingness to work with other artists opens new doors for him.

Produced and engineered by Paul Millner at Shell Lane Studios in P.E.I. and CBC Studio 211 in Toronto, the album features seven Connolly originals, plus a co-write with Patty Rossiter and a fine cover of the late, great Gene MacLellens Hard As I Try.

His originals embrace a number of different styles of music from Springsteen-esque rock and folk to roots- rock, country, jazz and blues and he appears equally at home with all of them.

Connolly, who was featured this past summer in the Charlottetown Festival production The Ballad of Stompin Tom as the younger Tom, has a very flexible voice that lends itself well to this kind of diversity.

He also brings an honesty and a sincerity to his music that simply makes you want to listen to what he has to say, a quality that at times seems in short supply out there.

Connolly, whos also written a musical about Terry Fox, is very much on the right track with this set, which features guest appearances by some of P.E.I.s best side players, most notably guitarists Chris Corrigan and Ian Toms, bass player Ross MacDonald and drummer Rich Knox.

Choice cuts here include Miramichi, From Now On, Great Fire, Indian Summer and Connollys cover of Hard As I Try.

It should be noted that earlier this week Connolly received three Music P.E.I. Awards nominations for this record.

Rating: 3 1/2 stars out of 5



New DVD?set of Lynyrd Skynyrd

shows true southern rock roots

With the possible exception of The Allman Brothers, no band has played a larger role in defining the sound of southern rock and keeping that sound alive than Lynyrd Skynyrd.

If you include the 10 years they spent on hiatus after the tragic 1977 plane crash that killed three band members, theyve been cranking out their hard-hitting blend of blues, rock and country for appreciative audiences now for 40 years.

The band enjoys a broad following not just in North America but in Europe where theyve been touring since the early 1970s.

It was during one of those European tours in 1997 that the band played the highly regarded Loreley Festival in Hamburg.

Footage of that stellar performance, originally broadcast in Europe as part of Germanys long-running concert series Rockpalast, recently made the transition to DVD and is now available in North America courtesy of Eagle Rock Entertainment as Lynyrd Skynyrd: Sweet Home Alabama.

This concert, released in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and DTS Digital Surround, borders on the must-have for Skynyrd fans.

There are 14 tracks on this set, many of them classics from the Skynyrd songbook.

Among the gems served up here are Workin For MCA, Double Trouble, Free Bird, Saturday Night Special, Swamp Music and of course the title track with its instantly recognizable opening riffs.

The three-guitar thrust of Gary Rossington, Hughie Thomasson and Rickey Medlocke delivers the kind of power weve come to expect from Skynyrd and lead singer Johnny Van Zant has

seldom sounded better, gloriously carrying the torch first lifted

on high by his late brother, Ronnie.

Long-time Skynyrd fans should be particularly interested in the three bonus tracks included with this disc.

What youve got here are versions of Workin For MCA, Free Bird and Sweet Home Alabama recorded in the same German city 22 years earlier with the original Skynyrd lineup.

The audio and video quality

of those three tracks leaves a little something to be desired but the opportunity to see everybody

out there making things happen still makes it worth seeing and hearing.

Rating: 3 1/2 stars out of 5



Doug Gallant, a Guardian reporter, writes his music review column for The Guardian every week. He welcomes comments at dgallant@theguardian.pe.ca.