New Song Releases For Last Year

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Last year (2025), I promised to release a new song every month. Creatively, it was a good year for me as I did managed to write and release a song a month. Thank you for joining me on this journey. I hope you enjoyed the music.

Brian Island

About me

I was born in West Lothian Scotland.  I was an only child when my parents decided to immigrate to Canada.  We landed in Quebec headed west by train and settled in Winnipeg Canada . I would not realize till I was much older that this city was one of the hubs of music in Canada and was the home to many of my musical peers such as Randy Bachman, Neil Young and others that had their start in the city.  It was a struggle as a young boy with a strange accent in a new country, and because of this I turned to music and a guitar that was given to me for Christmas as a way to pass my time at home alone.  In High School after several years of teaching myself guitar, learning and writing songs did I take the leap and decide to start playing out.  It started with small gigs, coffee houses, school dances and eventually the local folk circuit.

I traveled as a solo act playing folk music until I met up with Robert Bartlett and Graham Jones.  We formed the Winnipeg based band Bootleg, playing bars and eventually releasing a single “Queen of Hearts".   From there I played and sang with several other bands such as Prototype releasing top 40 songs "Video Kids", "Sorry" and the band IO.  After several years playing and working as a studio vocal arranger and bass player I released my self titled solo Album in 1989.

Now many years later after a long departure from the spotlight I released “Looking Back”.  A few of the tracks on this album are songs that were written in the 70s that were never recorded.  I felt they needed their time to shine along with newer songs that were written in 2019.  These songs are a retrospective of my music career from the early years to current day. 

Since my move to Nova Scotia in 2020, I've been writing more songs than at any point in my career. I going to be sharing those songs with you, one a month, over this year.

Enjoy

Brian

New Music for 2024 and 2025

Across That Bridge

Brian Island

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There are times in life when you experience the loss of someone. The first time I went through this was in my teen years. I wasn’t mature enough to deal with the emotional significance of this event, or how it changed me. Read more

There are times in life when you experience the loss of someone. The first time I went through this was in my teen years. I wasn’t mature enough to deal with the emotional significance of this event, or how it changed me. Back then I couldn’t find the words to express the grief I was going through. It’s only recently I felt comfortable enough to put the experience to song.

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    Across That Bridge 5:20
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Life Will Carry On

Brian Island

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This song was inspired by my Covid isolation experience. There was a significant change in the world that really opened my eyes. I noticed, with humans out of the way, nature came to life. I was in Comox BC at the time. Read more

This song was inspired by my Covid isolation experience. There was a significant change in the world that really opened my eyes. I noticed, with humans out of the way, nature came to life. I was in Comox BC at the time. All around me, in the ocean, on the land, in the air, wildlife came out of hiding. I got a picture of what the world would be like if we didn’t exist. It wasn’t bad at all. Much quieter, more alive. It was really eye opening.

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    Life Will Carry On 4:11
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Born Brothers

Brian Island

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I’ve been playing music since I was in high school. I connected with other like-minded souls and created lifelong friendships. Our common bond was our love of music. Over the years I was lucky enough to have worked with some incredible musicians, singers and songwriters. I wrote this song to celebrate those connections.

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    Born Brothers 4:47
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A Long Road

Brian Island

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A song about life's journey.

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    A Long Road 5:38
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Where Have All The Good Folks Gone

Brian Island

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There’s a lot of trouble in the world these days. We’ve given power to those who want to weaken and divide us. We can’t expect our leaders, political or religious, to solve this. The answer is within us. We need to find empathy and compassion for our fellow human beings and see them as ourselves.

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    Where Have All The Good Folks Gone 4:16
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You're Walking Away

Brian Island

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A song encouraging freedom from a bad relationship using the ocean as the relationship metaphor, and sailing as the choices you make in that relationship.

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    You're Walking Away 4:37
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Nova Scotia Blue

Brian Island

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I moved to Nova Scotia 3 years ago. I love the people, the culture, and the beauty of the province. All this inspired me to write this song.

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    Nova Scotia Blue 2:42
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To Forget You

Brian Island

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A song of a narcissistic relationship. This relationship can be personal or political.

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    To Forget You 3:29
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We Give Our Souls Away

Brian Island

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There are times when we don’t feel in complete control of our lives. It’s like we’re a pawn in a larger game that someone else is playing. In search of direction and purpose, we too easily give our souls and personal power away to groups or organizations that don’t necessarily have our best interest in mind.

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    We Give Our Souls Away 3:58
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Sometimes I Miss The Desert

Brian Island

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I've travelled a lot in my life. I've lived in a lot of different places. I’ve found it’s not the places that create memories; it’s the people you share those places with that create the memories.

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    Sometimes I Miss The Desert 3:16
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Things Are Gonna Change

Brian Island

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Humanity seems to have a dysfunctional relationship with the earth and nature. I thought, wouldn’t it be interesting if the earth and nature wrote a song about this relationship and the consequences for the lack of respect for our planet.

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    Things Are Gonna Change 5:05
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PURCHASE MUSIC

Looking Back

Brian Island

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2020 Album Release of songs representing the various genres of my musical journey.

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    Beyond My Reach 3:00
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    Turn Back Time 4:38
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    Running Into The Night 4:38
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    William 4:43
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    I Was Your Man 4:23
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    So Fine 3:16
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    Home 4:36
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    You'll Be Free 3:56
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    Until Your Breath Is Gone 3:27
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Brian Island

Brian Island

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First Solo Album (1989,1990)

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    In Spite Of What You Do 4:01
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    Treat Me Like A Lover 4:46
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    No Surrender 3:42
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    Walk On Water 4:32
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    I'm Your Hero 3:46
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    Night After Night 3:52
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    Major Motion 4:57
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    When You Lose Your Love 4:35
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    Draw The Line 4:47
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Photos

Brian Island

"Looking Back"

Retrospective

The album “Looking Back” is a retrospective on my diverse musical career. I wanted to start the album at my current state of musical evolution, and look back in time from there. The songs weren’t written in order from the present to the past, but they represent musical genres I have passed though in my career. From Rock, Pop, Country Rock and Folk Rock to Folk music.

Beyond My Reach The album starts with a song I wrote early in my career, but I lacked the ability to take the song where I wanted it to go at the time. I’m glad I waited, as the song has now arrived. It’s a better representation, musically, of where I am now.

Turn Back Time This is one of my more recent creations. I have a deep respect for the indigenous community and the hardships colonization brought upon it. As things come to light over these injustices, I felt compelled to write this song to honour and express the shame of what the white man has done and continues to do. This is a time for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada and it is my wish that we put an end to these injustices and find a way to heal the past and move forward together.

Running Into The Night This song is another recent creation. I have always had a strong bond with my horses right from the day they were born. As my animal partners grow older, I have to face the realization that we won’t be together forever.

William Another one of my more recent writings. I’ve always had a lingering need to explore my relationship with my father. Through the process of writing this song I was able to better understand who he was, and how it affected my relationship with him.

I Was Your Man This is one of my songs from my Country Rock past. I never had a recording of this song that did it justice. I wanted to re-record it in the Country Rock vein that it was written in.

So Fine Another song written during my Country Rock past. I wanted to re-record this song - a humorous musing on the human tendency to continually look for more instead of appreciating what you already have.

Home This recently-written song nevertheless fits well into my Folk Rock past. It was written out of regret for the sale of the acreage that was my home for many years. A lot of memories are tied to that land, and the song was a born of the misgivings I had about letting it go.

You’ll Be Free This song that fits well with my history in Folk music. After years of not writing or playing music, all the lyrics for this song came to me at once in the middle of the night. I got up in the morning and wrote the music to fit the lyrics. The song was inspired by my grandson who lived a good portion of his youth with us.

Until Your Breath Is Gone This is a song written recently, but that arises from my Folk roots. It reminds us to live every moment as if it were our last. As I get older I am constantly faced with the fact that we’re not here forever, and it’s important to use our time well.

Things Are Gonna Change If the earth and mother nature were to send us a blunt message, in song, about our treatment of our home planet. I suspect it would go like this. 

Brian Island - Looking Back - Retrospective - 2

This Retrospective and a complete Press Kit containing Bios' are available in PDF format by request to brianislandmusic@gmail.com or filling out the Contact Form on this Page.

 

Press Photos

Looking Back 2020

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