Emm Gryner Original Leap Year CD

Although The Original Leap Year was Emm Gryner's debut effort, it was an indie release and never found its way to a major label. Consequently it was her next album, Public, which would serve as her major introduction and for which she would become most well known. Nevertheless, seven songs from this record did find their way onto the brilliant Public album and that should be your first clue as to the strength of its content. The production on The Original Leap Year is considerably less elaborate than on Public, but it is an enjoyable experience nonetheless. This disc relies on the pure elegance of Gryner's writing and the beauty of her voice. Good songs will always stand up to different interpretations and this collection most certainly does. The seven songs which would eventually make the jump to Public are no less worthy than their more polished versions and the remaining five display, just as clearly, the undeniable songwriting skill of the young Canadian. The 12 tracks, really 12 months in the life of a young songwriter, represent a diary of sorts, which is very intimate and at times deeply moving. The package brought about the interest of Lilith Fair organizers and no doubt led to Gryner's first major label signing with Mercury Records. Simple in its approach and running the gamut from raw power to quiet simplicity, The Original Leap Year proves its beauty without the makeup of a major studio effort. ~ Alan Ticheler

A passionate love for music can give birth to the most radiant of artists, but it's an obsession with music's mystifying potential to inspire which keeps only a few artists thriving and intensifying. Emm Gryner is one of those artists. Gryner makes no effort to hide her animated duality. Her songs are as unique as the way she makes her records. One moment she might deliver the dark and maddened diary entries of a restless twenty-something, and the next she might sing an optimistic triumph of summer melody. Fearless and uncompromising, Emm Gryner's songs speak to the lonely, the devilish and the daydreamers.

In 1983, just outside Forest, Ontario (pop. 2800) a quiet revolution was being forged. Raised on a strict diet of classical piano lessons and creative writing, eight year-old Gryner made a formidable discovery that year - pop music. Radio stations beamed across the St. Clair River from Detroit and changed the landscape of quiet rural life and two years later, Gryner wrote her first song.

Gryner spent her teenage years playing bass in garage bands, writing songs and learning to use a four-track. By 16, she had recorded her first demos, and only a few years later, she won the top prize in Standard Broadcasting Radio's National Songwriting Competition. With this money, she recorded her first album "The Original Leap Year" released on her own label, Dead Daisy Records."The Original Leap Year" caught the attention of Violent Femmes producer Warren Bruleigh, who passed it on to Mercury Records, and in 1997 the label offered Gryner a worldwide record deal. Inspired by Brit-pop bands The Stone Roses and The Verve, Gryner recorded "Public", a lush re-interpretation of "The Original Leap Year," produced by Warne Livesey (The The, Midnight Oil, Talk Talk) and recorded in London. Gryner embarked on tours with The Cardigans, Alanis Morissette, Sarah McLachlan and Bernard Butler, with whom she opened the first show at New York's City Bowery Ballroom in 1998.

When Universal bought Mercury's parent company, Polygram, Gryner and hundreds of other artists lost their staff and record deals. However, Gryner turned corporate takeover into creative opportunity and rejuvenated her own Dead Daisy Records. Inspired by her fans who hoped she might release an album that echoed the intensity of her live solo performances, Gryner produced and recorded an album on her eight-track recorder, called "Science Fair". eye Magazine called "Science Fair" "the best album of her career."Meanwhile, a Toronto fan launched emmgryner , introdu