MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: AMOS JOANNIDES - KEEP WRITING SONGS

Good advice, that title, and Montreal's Joannides has been working on it hard for a decade, even though he'll be a new name for most of us. He actually started out on a musical path by hitting the road to see the world, playing his way from Europe to the Far East to Florida, actually recording and then scrapping an album in process in the States. When the world traveler got back to Montreal, he had experience, and obviously a work ethic to keep him pushing. An earlier album called My Name Is Amos built the Montreal base, but now he's heading out to the wider world with this one.

What to call it, a re-debut? Anyway, Keep Writing Songs is an E.P., five cuts mostly to showcase his new single, Even Though.  That's where the focus is, on a song that will break him, and it is a winner.  Joannides has a strong, mellow, attractive voice, sweet enough to put him in the radio-friendly league.  He also has that acoustic-jam thing going, an obvious attraction for the Jack Johnson fan base, and he's certainly got that potential.  Even Though shows he can come up with a catchy sound, based on what he calls beach rhythm, an acoustic guitar groove with a reggae flavour you can imagine the gang enjoying down at the dunes, beer in one hand, something else smoking in the other.  It's good times, infectious, smells like a hit.

The rest of the mini-disc shows a few more sides, including some pretty good jazz chops on Hiding In A Shell.  Horns on that track and Even Though suggest there's lots of potential for stretching on a full album.  The single is out now, the EP comes out in June, and Amos hits the road now, playing Toronto at Free Times Cafe Thursday June 2nd, and booking dates for the summer exposure season.