Songwriter Gerald O'Brien Shares Sons of Sylvia's Revelation

Revelation is not only the title of the Sons of Sylvia's hot new debut album but also a word that applies to songwriter Gerald O'Brien's pleasing discovery that he would have five cuts on the 11-track recording including "The Song of Solomon," "The War Within," "Ghost Town," "John Wayne" and "50 Ways." The songs, which fall under O'Brien's five year deal with ole signed in the spring of 2005, were primarily co-written with frequent collaborator Catt Gravitt with whom he also co-produced a number of the tracks. Also under the deal, there is an O'Brien, Gravitt and Tania Hancheroff co-write on Martina McBride's latest album, Shine, titled "Lies," as well as a co-write with Gravitt and Pamela Rose on "My Life," the title track of Ronnie Milsap's 24th studio album.

The genre-defying album and the lead-off single, "Love Left to Lose," have received a major boost from the group's extensive tour dates with Carrie Underwood and, in particular, a guest appearance by brothers Ashley, Austin and Adam Clark of the band on American Idol in late April. The 19 Recordings/Interscope album subsequently debuted on the Billboard Rock Albums chart at number nine, at number six on the Digital Albums chart and a respectable number 33 on the Top 200 Albums chart.

"The only instruction we were given, as we began working on this project about a year and a half ago, was not to push the envelope but to make a new one," reveals O'Brien, a native of St. Catherines, Ontario but currently a resident of Nashville, Tennessee. "Stylistically, we could do whatever we wanted so it was a lot of fun in that way; we took the word 'genre' out of our vocabulary. It makes Revelation an interesting hybrid. There's some stuff in which you can obviously hear the country influence but then there are other things, like '50 Ways,' that just rock out. The more we got into it, the more we found these guys had more rock roots in their bones than we ever thought. It was a really interesting blend."

Award-winning songwriter and two-time Juno Award nominee Gerald O'Brien started out in St. Catherines in the late '70s playing in a "progressive, Genesis kind of band" know as Nightwinds with his brother Terry. The group recorded an album produced by Terry Draper and Dee Long of "mystery group" Klaatu before O'Brien moved on to play in a succession of Toronto-area groups including the instrumental duo Exchange, which he formed with Steve Sexton. As a writer, he has worked in all genres of music and written extensively for film, television and a number of notable sports events including the Tour de France, Calgary Stampede, the 1998 Nagano Olympics, the NFL Super Bowl, the World Series, ABC's Wide World of Sports and the PGA. Among the artists who have recorded his songs are Martina McBride, Hall & Oates, Manhattan Transfer, Loverboy, Trace Adkins, Amanda Marshall, The Guess Who, Deborah Harry, Michelle Wright, Glass Tiger and Ronnie Milsap.

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