The Tonight Album

From West to East and pole to pole, there's nothing like Johnny Favourite's Big-Eyed Soul! Best throw some ice in the glass and set up to knock back Johnny Favourite's The Tonight Album (Alert Music), a unique distillation of elements from all over the musical spectrum that, blended with sophisticated horn arrangements and Johnny's patented smooth-as sharkskin vocals, powerfully delivers a much-needed musical tonic. Deftly framed by the detailed production work of Toronto's David Baxter, it is indeed an exquisite creation, the very definition, like a ride with any good intoxicant, of rough and tumble beauty.

You may know Johnny Favourite from his last project, the sleeper CD Holiday Romance (featuring the Johnny Favourite Swing Orchestra) that garnered a Juno award and a dozen East Coast Music Award nominations. This success also allowed the band to tour for a year non-stop from New Orleans, Louisiana to St. John's Newfoundland and from Los Angeles, California to Nassau, Bahamas, generating a happening at each and every venue. Having the word "swing" in one's moniker, however, leads to a certain perception, and like the rest of Johnny's big life his musical boundaries encompass much broader territory. Johnny left the Orchestra determined to explore the possibilities of pop music from, as he says, "Tommy Dorsey to David Bowie, from Bobby Darin to Morrissey."

Allowing himself to engage in the excitement of ignoring musical boundaries and labels in such a fashion resulted in the creation of The Tonight Album, a voyage into uncharted area, much like Johnny's life-story.

Ask Fave and he'll tell you: he took the scenic route. We weren't kidding when we said West to East, pole to pole. The journey started at Jasper Park Lodge, Alberta, where he was a bicycle waiter, among other stunts. Then a gig in the green paradise of Jamaica in the hospitality trade; a pleasure merchant as it were. Next he decided to try his hand at minding a store. It happened to be a Hudson's Bay outpost on Baffin Island - much closer to the North Pole than most of us will ever get - for about fourteen months without a break. But soon he hungered for new things to satisfy his exotic taste for adventure, and travelling the continent of Europe seemed like a great idea, so off he went.

Many European escapades ensued (just ask him!) but it is after a complicated motorcycle journey from the Scandinavian countries to the sandy tip of a beach in Greece when Johnny's ballad really began. It was time to go home to Canada when he was faced with an acute shortage of cash, so Favourite accompanied a busking musician with his crooning. Before long he had realized his calling as an entertainer in song. Eventually getting the jack to swing the flight, Johnny came home with an idea for the biggest, best adventure yet: his own exotic musical safari.

Back in Canada, his career advanced in an 'overnight success' style; he laid his foundation in Ottawa with Johnny Vegas and created a small tidal wave in the Atlantic coast music scene as the mastermind and leader of the Johnny Favourite Swing Orchestra. In three short years he had recorded the independent album Life Desire and the internationally distributed recording Holiday Romance (Universal) which brings us to the summer of a new Millennium and another creative juncture.

The 12 new tracks of The Tonight Album, Johnny Favourite's first solo effort, in his words is "the perfect companion for happy lonely people." This sense of comradeship is attributed in part to Johnny's many friends who joined him in the studio like his chum from "down-home" Natalie MacMaster, Dawn Hatfield and Dean Drouillard from the Orchestra and Tom MacKay of Joydrop. Favourite ingeniously fuses the inconspicuous with his already unrivaled musical design, ending up with the creases sharp and his demeanor unruffled.

The Tonight Album's tracks highlight Johnny Favourite's eclectic tastes and all twelve are rendered with his classic flair. As stylistically diverse as it may seem at first glance, the sound flows seamlessly from A to Z. A recording of great and salacious appetite, Johnny Favourite's The Tonight Album alternately blazes and glows; a coruscate gem cut to reflect the wonders of the world as seen through Johnny's Big-Eyed Soul.

For more information contact:

Management: W. Tom Berry /Alert Music Inc.
Promotion and Publicity: Natasha Warren
Ph: 416-364-4200 Fax: 416-364-8632
alert@inforamp.net / www.alertmusic.com

Booking information: Jeff Craib at S.L. Feldman & Associates
Phone: 416-598-0067

Record Publicity: Elana Rabinovitch (Universal Music)
Ph: 905-415-7357 Fax: 905-415-0839

E-mail Johnny at simoncrunch@hotmail.com