The road to Myk Gordon’s latest album, The Real Thing, has been a long and varied one. It has led to the last place the Vancouver singer-songwriter might have expected: a new beginning… musical and artistic self-reinvention.

As well as a musician, Myk has been a truck driver, a social worker, a journalist, a waiter, a film set dresser, a youth educator, a producer and director of film and video, and a mental health counselor. He teaches Aikido, a defensive art of mind/body coordination.

He has been a committed social activist on issues such as homelessness, native justice/autonomy, prisoners’ rights, environmentalism and anti-globalization, performing at dozens of events and speaking on various issues.

This kaleidoscope of life experiences has informed his musical development in fascinating ways.Myk grew up in a musical family – his father once sat in on upright bass with Dave Brubeck, his aunt was a concert pianist at age 12. The sountrack then was as varied as his own life would prove: West coast jazz, Bach, the 60s spiritual blues of Odetta and Richie Havens, 70’s singer-songwriters like David Bowie, Cat Stevens and Paul Simon… and later the giants of soul and R&B that would resurface so unexpectedly in his creative mind: Stevie Wonder, Al Greene, Sam & Dave.

He first picked up a guitar at age ten, and was in his first garage band by 13, when the Vancouver punk scene was in its heyday. His teenage years were spent practicing guitar, sneaking into bars to watch the bands, and going to live shows. At a Peter Tosh concert, he got backstage, walked past a cluster of journalists waiting their turn, and sat right down next to the reggae legend. With a tape recorder and mic thrust in his hand, the ensuing conversation turned into an impromptu interview (one of many to follow in Myk’s career) with the cagey singer just before his shooting death in Kingston, Jamaica.

Myk began writing, performing and recording his own songs as a student at McGill in Montreal. A move to Toronto in 1987 saw him spend a few years on the Queen St. circuit, where he recorded a full-length cassette, The Emperor’s Got No Clothes (1990). His first two official CD releases, Seventh Candle (1994) and Lonely (1998), were solid folk-rock outings that garnered positive reviews and strong airplay across Canada and in the United States, the UK, Europe and Australia.

Since he started playing professionally, Myk has shared the stage with such greats as Guy Davis, Joan Osborne, Emmylou Harris, and Ron Sexsmith. He has attracted an impressive roster of musicians to his bands and recordings, including BJ Cole (Elton John, Sting, Richard Ashcroft), Charlie Quintana (Bob Dylan, Social Distortion), and Bazil Donovan and James Gray (Blue Rodeo).

The Real Thing, however – perhaps appropriately for a new musical beginning – was recorded entirely by Myk himself in a whirlwind four weeks of studio time. Tapping into a deep-seated love of soul and R&B, Myk opened a flood-gate of musical inspiration. The Real Thing’s ten new songs combine his continuing social awareness with a new emotional open-ness, and a vintage 70’s soul sound that speaks directly and joyously to the heart.