Nathan Wiley is a musician and singer from Summerside

Summerside, Prince Edward Island

Summerside is a Canadian city in Prince County, Prince Edward Island. It is the second largest city in the province and the principal municipality for the western part of the island.- History :...

, Prince Edward Island

Prince Edward Island

Prince Edward Island is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. His music is generally a blend of modern rock and blues.

History

Wiley started out as a guitarist in a handful of local independent projects, including The Plan, Space Opera and Evil Agents. He was also a member of The Tubetracks during a brief period when he lived in British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

. His unique guitar style always contributed to the sound of the groups he worked with, most notably his adept skill at surf music

Surf music

Surf music is a genre of popular music associated with surf culture, particularly as found in Orange County and other areas of Southern California. It was particularly popular between 1961 and 1965, has subsequently been revived and was highly influential on subsequent rock music...

, being heavily influenced by Dick Dale

Dick Dale

Dick Dale is an American surf rock guitarist, known as The King of the Surf Guitar. He experimented with reverberation and made use of custom made Fender amplifiers, including the first-ever 100-watt guitar amplifier.-Early life:Dale was born in South Boston, Massachusetts and lived in nearby...

, among others. During his involvement in these groups, he didn't do any vocal work, with the exception of a few songs from Space Opera, which mostly consisted of talking or yelling, but no actual singing.

Solo

In 2002, he released his first solo project, Bottom Dollar. Not only was it his first solo effort, but it was a fully professionally produced CD, as opposed to the low-tech cassettes produced by all of his previous projects. While the surf influence wasn't evident, his talents as a singer and songwriter were startling, after so many years of being known as primarily a lead guitarist rather than a frontman. Some media reviews drew a comparison to Tom Waits

Tom Waits

Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...

, but most fans seem to agree that, while some of the lyrics are similar to Waits' style, a closer comparison in lyric style would be Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...

.

Bottom Dollar gained much critical acclaim: Wiley won Definitely Not the Opera

Definitely Not the Opera

Definitely Not the Opera is a magazine-style radio program focusing on aspects of pop culture. The program is broadcast on CBC Radio One on Saturday afternoons, 1 p.m. – 3 p.m. . An abridged version of each weekly program is available for download as a weekly podcast...

s Big Break Contest in 2002, and then won awards from the East Coast Music Association and SOCAN. Tracks from the album received repeated airplay on CBC Radio

CBC Radio

CBC Radio generally refers to the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which are outlined below.-English:CBC Radio operates three English language...

. The video for the lead single "Bottom Dollar Baby" was played in rotation on the Canadian muic station MuchMoreMusic

MuchMoreMusic

MuchMore is a Canadian English language Category A specialty channel owned by Bell Media, based at 299 Queen Street West in Toronto, Ontario....

, and remained in their Top 40 for several weeks. The album was released through the indie-friendly group Sonic, and was eventually picked up for distribution by Warner Bros. Records

Warner Bros. Records

Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...

.

The follow-up High Low was released in 2004, also gaining similar awards and acclaim.

As stated on Wiley's website, "Wiley has shared the stage with such artists as Steve Earle

Steve Earle

Stephen Fain "Steve" Earle is an American singer-songwriter known for his rock and Texas Country as well as his political views. He is also a producer, author, a political activist, and an actor, and has written and directed a play....

, Sarah Harmer

Sarah Harmer

Sarah Harmer is a Canadian singer-songwriter and activist.-Biography:Born and raised in Burlington, Ontario, Harmer gained her first exposure to the musician's lifestyle as a teenager, when her older sister Mary started taking her to concerts by the well-known Tragically Hip. At the age of 17, she...

, Blue Rodeo

Blue Rodeo

Blue Rodeo is a Canadian pop and country rock band, which was formed in 1984 in Toronto, Ontario. They have been signed with Warner Music Group since their debut album Outskirts in March 1987...

, Ron Sexsmith

Ron Sexsmith

Ronald Eldon "Ron" Sexsmith is a Canadian singer-songwriter from St. Catharines, Ontario, currently based in Toronto. He started his own band when he was fourteen years old, and released the first recordings of his own material seven years later, in 1985...

, Gord Downie, The Skydiggers

Skydiggers

Skydiggers are a Canadian roots rock band from Toronto, Ontario.-Biography:Formed in 1987 by singer Andy Maize and lead guitarist Josh Finlayson, the band soon added rhythm guitarist Peter Cash, drummer Wayne Stokes and bassist Ron Macey to their lineup...

, Dan Bern

Dan Bern

Dan Bern is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, novelist and painter. His music is often compared to that of Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, Bruce Springsteen, Phil Ochs and Elvis Costello....

, Kathleen Edwards

Kathleen Edwards

Kathleen Edwards is a Canadian singer-songwriter and musician. Her 2003 debut album, Failer, contained the singles "Six O'Clock News" and "Hockey Skates".- Personal life :...

, Danny Michel

Danny Michel

Danny Michel is a singer-songwriter from Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario.- Biography :Danny Michel was born in 1970 next to the "Smiles n' Chuckles" chocolate factory in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada...

, Crush and Sarah Slean

Sarah Slean

Sarah Hope Slean is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet, and occasional actress from Pickering, Ontario. She has released eleven albums to date .-Major recordings:...

."

Band

His band consists of his uncles Dale DesRoches (drums) and Tom DesRoches (bass). Occasionally James Phillips

James Phillips (Canadian musician)

James Phillips is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist, producer and engineer hailing from Tyne Valley, Prince Edward Island. He has performed as a member of many acclaimed Island acts including the Saddle River Stringband, the James Phillips Trio, Sweetheart Jim and the Brothers Grim, The New Drifts,...

 is also featured on lead guitar. Together these musicians also perform as Sweetheart Jim and the Brothers Grim, performing original material written by Phillips as well as cover songs.

Discography

• Bottom Dollar
  Bottom Dollar (album)
  Bottom Dollar is the debut solo album by Canadian recording artist Nathan Wiley, released in 2002.-Track listing:#Bottom Dollar Baby#Comeback#Black Bones#Home#I Come Down#Renegade#Long Gone#Till I'm Better#Straight and Sober...
  
   (2002)
• High Low (2004)
• The City Destroyed Me
  The City Destroyed Me
  The City Destroyed Me is the third solo album by Canadian recording artist Nathan Wiley, released May 29, 2007 on Sonic Records.-Track listing:# One of the Worst Ones# The City Destroyed Me# Sick Side# Seven Reasons# Needle in the Groove# Back to Bed...
  
  (2007)

External links

• Nathan Wiley official site