Ottawa singer-songwriter Jim Bryson faces the kind of choices most of us only dream of making
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It must have been a difficult decision. Last fall, Ottawa singer-songwriter Jim Bryson faced a choice between two options, either one of which any independent artist would have darn near killed for — opening for the Tragically Hip on their eastern U.S. tour, or touring the U.S. and Europe with The Weakerthans, opening for the group and playing as a member of the band during their headlining set. “It was one of those things where two really great opportunities came along the same week,” says Bryson. “The inbox isn’t usually raging like that.”
In the end, the decision was a pragmatic one. “I chose to play in the Weakerthans and open those shows,” he says. “I would do it solo and it would be a money-earning proposition, versus going out and opening for the Hip with a full band [where] I would lose a fair amount of money. In hindsight, it was the right thing to do, and as it turned out, the shows I did with The Weakerthans were amazing.”
Anyone who caught the Calgary show at MacEwan Hall can attest to how amazing it was. For Bryson, warming up the crowd and then coming out blazing with the headliners was a perfect match. He sums it all up with a very Canadian analogy, saying “It’s sort of like going for a skate before you play the game.”
Bryson is also a full-on member of Canadian alt-country chanteuse Kathleen Edwards’s backup band, with whom he’s toured extensively and appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and The Late Show with David Letterman. Despite the choices he’s had to make of late, so far, he hasn’t had to choose between Edwards’s band and his solo career.
“I really like doing both of those things,” he says. “They both have all these amazing, positive attributes and they both work well off of what I’m doing as far as making music and keeping me interested in what I do. I find the more other things I do away from my music, the more interested I am in my own music.”
When it comes to his own music, Bryson is surprisingly modest and self-effacing. He claims to have never co-written a song and says he is uncomfortable even having close friends around when he is working out new songs. In the odd weeks and days between touring with others, Bryson found the time to turn some demos into his third solo record. Where the Bungalows Roam is a laid-back collection of the catchiest choruses, coolest instrumental arrangements and most intimate, almost confessional vocals the songwriter’s ever compiled. Aside from some string parts and the rhythm section, Bryson plays virtually all of the instruments himself.
“I had made two records where you sit in a room with a band and play, and I just wanted to try something that was a little more a statement of what it’s like when I just make music around the house,” he explains. “You know, it’s great to have a band and it’s great to record, but the reality of it is that you spend so much time as a solo artist without anybody around you. [I wanted] to make a representation of what it’s like when you don’t have your ideal band.”
For his current tour, Bryson has joined forces with another friend, Saskatoon’s Shuyler Jansen, from prairie roots rock favourites Old Reliable. Bryson describes the upcoming shows with typical modesty. “We’re both playing solo, but we’re bringing a bunch of instruments, and we’re gonna back each other up. We’re going to stand onstage together and go back and forth between songs. It’s been a long time in the conversational making, and we’re gonna take a swing at it, anyway.”
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