Homegrown McMahon to light it up with Ontarian Cardiff

Ryan McMahon

Hanging out on the edges of country just enough to say he isn’t, Ryan McMahon is both a whisper and a scream — a storytelling hustler.

For the past decade, McMahon has been writing and performing his music in relative obscurity while splitting time between Vancouver and his hometown of Ladysmith.

Over that time, he has toured Canada 10 times, released four full-length albums, seen his music licensed both nationally and abroad and heard his music on both commercial and college radio Canada-wide.

2012 is shaping up to be an exciting year, as McMahon has three tours in the works, and he just received five Vancouver Island Music Award nominations. McMahon is up for Artist of the Year, Male Vocalist of the Year, Male Songwriter of the Year, Album of the Year for All Good Stories, and Music Video of the Year for One Way.

McMahon and his small management company, Mission Management Group — which is run by his fiancée Cathleen Lundgren — released two full albums in the last year.

The first, All Good Stories, was recorded at legendary guitar technician Richard Leighton’s home studio in Lantzville.

“All Good Stories is exactly that: a collection of stripped-down material that I needed to record in a very organic environment,” said McMahon. “Richard’s house, man ... It’s located right on the water — big vaulted ceilings, huge fireplace and a view that looks like a Rockwell painting. To me, it meant not having to cut my vocals in an isolation booth like a machine.

It’s so beautiful there, no matter what time of day, what kind of weather, or what kind of mood you’re in. The experience went so well, it was immediately apparent to me that we needed to do a full-band, full-scale production of the next record in the same setting.”

Enter producer Andre Wahl (Hawksley Workman, Luke Doucet, Mudvayne).

For the months of November and December of 2010, Wahl, Leighton and the four members who make up the Company Damn holed up in the big house on the beach in Lantzville, building songs up, tearing songs down and constructing a new product that would sound “timeless.”

“After spending time on the songs themselves and getting to know the guys, I knew it was gonna be a blast," said Wahl. "Ryan sings to someone and everyone who has ever got drunk, smoked, cried, loved or been loved.”

Wahl was also involved in the most recent album by Ontario singer-songwriter Craig Cardiff.

Floods & Fires, released in November, has just been nominated for a Juno Award as Solo Roots and Traditional Album of the Year. It is Cardiff’s 16th album and his most ambitious in scope, both musically and lyrically.

Noted as one of Canada’s most impressive musical workhorses, Cardiff is constantly releasing recordings and experimenting with that process — his one release, Kissing Songs, was recorded entirely on an iPod touch.

Hailed as the Che or Kerouac of indie music, Cardiff is a pioneer in alternate venue touring, often appearing in churches, basements, festivals, prisons, camps and even the occasional theatre or festival appearance.

Cardiff builds landscapes of sound using live digital loops and brings the room to a hush. Edged, folk, beautiful, melancholy and left-leaning, one song breaks your heart, and the next one puts it back together.

Cardiff, whose voice has been described as "warm, scratched, sad and sleepy," has played with and opened for some of the best artists around, including Sarah Harmer, Kathleen Edwards, Blue Rodeo, Gord Downie (Tragically Hip), Hawksley Workman, 54-40 and more.

McMahon and Cardiff are joining forces this month for two Vancouver Island dates only. They'll play the Duncan Garage Showroom Thurs., Feb. 23 at 8 p.m. Doors open at 7:30 p.m., and tickets are $18 in advance at Ten Old Books (250-715-1383) and $20 at the door.

For more information about McMahon, visit www.ryanmcmahon.com. Learn more about Cardiff at www.craigcardiff.com.