Alcohol And Other Drugs

Rob Bryanton has spent more than five decades working at the intersection of music, theatre, television and sound production in Saskatchewan. A songwriter, vocalist, keyboardist, bassist, composer, producer and studio owner, Bryanton began recording while still a child and went on to become an important behind-the-scenes figure in Saskatchewan's film and television industry while continuing to create music of his own.

Bryanton made his first record at the age of twelve. By 1974, at only twenty, he was working as host and music director for the CBC-TV music series Easy Chair, produced in Moose Jaw. His early musical activities soon connected him with a circle of Saskatchewan writers and performers who were developing distinctly prairie-based original music during the 1970s.

In 1975 Bryanton played bass on Roberta Nichol and Georgina Betts' album Prairie Grass, Prairie Sky. More significantly, he contributed three original compositions to the record: 'Let It Grow', 'Mountain Song' and 'Moose Jaw Woman'. The album brought him together with musicians including Roberta Nichol, Connie Kaldor, Bob Evans, Glenn Koudelka and others active in Saskatchewan's emerging independent music community.

Bryanton subsequently became part of the Regina group Cloudburst, performing vocals, piano, organ and synthesizers alongside Jack Semple on vocals, guitars and mandolin, Roberta Nichol on vocals, percussion and acoustic guitar, and Brent Burlingham on drums and percussion. Cloudburst worked as a recording and backing ensemble on several Saskatchewan projects, including albums by The Allan Sisters and Jackie and Coralie. The association with Semple in particular would continue through several later stages of Bryanton's career.

Beginning in 1979, Bryanton established another major creative relationship as an in-house composer and sound designer for Regina's Globe Theatre. Over the following years he wrote music for numerous productions and developed several original musical projects, including The Good Life, Mandarin Oranges, Mandarin Oranges II and The Resuscitation of a Dying Mouse.

That theatre work became the foundation for Bryanton's 1983 solo album Alcohol and Other Drugs. Most of the album's eleven songs had originally been written for The Good Life, a Globe Theatre production directed by Ken Kramer and toured to Saskatchewan high schools during the 1983–84 season. More than 30,000 students reportedly saw the production, which addressed alcohol, drugs, social pressure and personal responsibility through original music and theatre.

For Alcohol and Other Drugs, Bryanton handled vocals and keyboards and was joined by longtime collaborator Jack Semple on guitar and bass and Cal Harle on drums. Bryanton wrote, arranged and produced the album, recording much of it himself using Tascam Portastudios before the material was remixed at Parasound Recording Studio in Regina. Released through his Pinnacle Productions imprint, the album combined new wave, pop and rock with unusually direct subject matter on songs including 'We Are All Chemicals', 'Just A Shy Guy', 'Insidious Trends', 'Gimme A Beer!' and 'Who's Got A Hold Of The Wheel?'. The record received local radio exposure, with 'Just A Shy Guy' among the songs heard on Regina radio.

Bryanton's involvement with Canadian television expanded significantly during the mid-1980s. From 1984 through 1987 he served as music director, band leader and audio-post supervisor for CBC's nationally broadcast Country West, hosted by Deborah Lauren. The program featured an extraordinary cross-section of Canadian talent, including k.d. lang, Colin James, Connie Kaldor, Prairie Oyster, Shari Ulrich, The Good Brothers, Spirit of the West, Ian Tyson, Valdy, Murray McLauchlan and Ronnie Hawkins.

The associated Deborah Lauren and the Country West Band included Bryanton alongside familiar collaborators Jack Semple and Cal Harle, as well as Bob Evans, further illustrating the continuity among the musicians who had worked together throughout Saskatchewan's recording and television scene. The group also appeared on the 1985 Saskatchewan After Dark collection.

During this period Bryanton's composing work extended well beyond conventional recording projects. He created music for more than one hundred pieces associated with Sesame Street and its Canadian counterpart Sesame Park, and his music was featured in The Big Story, presented repeatedly each day at the Saskatchewan Pavilion during Expo 86. He also continued composing for Globe Theatre and later worked on television productions including Puttnam's Prairie Emporium.

In 1989 Bryanton entered into a production partnership with composer Jim Folk under the name Audio Image, creating music, sound design and final mixes for Saskatchewan film and television productions. Their work eventually developed into Talking Dog Studios, established in Regina during the 1990s and subsequently built into one of Canada's substantial audio post-production facilities.

Through Talking Dog, Bryanton became deeply involved in Canadian film and television production. His work encompassed composition, sound design, mixing and post-production for projects including Corner Gas, Incredible Story Studio, Prairie Giant: The Tommy Douglas Story, The Englishman's Boy and CBC's Canadian Antiques Roadshow. His work received ten Gemini Award nominations, divided between original dramatic music and dramatic sound.

Despite the increasingly demanding world of film and television post-production, Bryanton continued pursuing independent musical ideas. His later creative work also expanded into science and philosophy through his book and multimedia project Imagining the Tenth Dimension, exploring concepts involving dimensionality, cosmology and the nature of reality. Music remained part of the project, and in 2018 he released a thirteen-track album also titled Imagining the Tenth Dimension.

That same year Bryanton returned Alcohol and Other Drugs to circulation as a digital release, introducing the 1983 recordings to a new audience. In 2020 he revisited an even earlier piece of his songwriting history with 'Moose Jaw Woman 111110', returning to a song whose origins stretched back to Prairie Grass, Prairie Sky in 1975.

-Robert Williston