Artist: One, Album: A Matter Of Truth, Song: Do You Feel My Love

"How do you feel my love?  Do you feel it as I walk away?"  One were a reggae/ska band from Toronto.  They formed in 1990 and released their indie debut in 1992 entitled, A Matter Of Truth.  I remember them getting a lot of airplay on a local Toronto alternative station, CFNY 102.1, as a result of their New Music Search contest.  The band had a couple of very catchy singles called, Magdelin and Time For A Change.  This was a very good indie release and it featured local artists, Chris Murray from King Apparatus (see blog 7/19/11) and Maria Del Mar from National Velvet (see blog 12/16/10).  The album was a mix of original tunes as well as covers from artists as diverse as Dr. John and Eddy Grant.  The album was actually partially recorded at Eddy Grant's Blue Wave Studio in the Barbados and Eddy plays guitar on the band's cover of his song, Do You Feel My Love.  Anyone listening to music during the 80's would be familiar with Eddy's big hits like Electric Avenue, I Don't Wanna Dance or Romancing The Stone but his catalogue both as a member of The Equals and later, as a solo artist, are top notch in my books.  The song, Do You Feel My Love, is actually one of my all time favourite tracks and One does a bang up job with it here.  You can check out the tune on You Tube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zC1HN4ngbk&list=UUppSJ2-WmKhVgELd07MXO3w&index=1&feature=plcp).  The band would eventually go on to sign with EMI for their final release in 1994 entitled, Smokin' The Goats, before breaking up permanently in 1995.  Front man, Chris Taylor, who had already graduated from law school before starting the band, returned to law and is now one of the biggest entertainment lawyers in Canada.  He represents some big time artists like Nelly Furtado, Drake and Billy Talent to name a few.  He also founded Last Gang Records with another partner when he had a difficult time getting a record deal for a little known band named, Metric.  That band and the label seem to be doing fine now!  Taylor is a true visionary and it's great to see someone with such passion and drive who also came from such humble beginnings to achieve success and use that success to further independent music in Canada.  Unfortunately, this debut CD from One is a very rare commodity these days and at the time of this blog, there were no copies available on-line.  However, their EMI release, Smokin' The Goats, is available for download on Itunes and I did notice that it includes one of their earlier singles entitled, Magdelin, which is also worth seeking out.  Thanks for reading and enjoy!