In working to modernize a rich history of North American folk and blues Bryan Arcand emerges as a fresh voice to roots music.
As a lyric driven song-smith Arcand is strikingly more akin to the troubadours of another time than to the flood of beach balladeers and sad-sack songwriters working today. With winding tales of lovers, squatters and city streets, Arcand reaches for the ideals of freedom with songs that are staggering in theme and eclectic in sound.
Through a vagabonding youth, that took him from his birthplace in the Southern US, to New York, then Toronto, and a number of places in between, Arcand listened to anyone living to be heard whether they be musicians, painters, preachers or poets. During this time he learned to play guitar from street performers and honed his skills busking where he could and playing in any stale barroom or old café that would have him.
Armed with a DIY ethos and a realist view, Arcand’s songs reach far beyond his years, deep into the dark heart of American music and into a realm of naked honesty unparalleled by many artists working today.