Grande Prairie Herald-Tribune-Encore section(Grande Prairie,AB)
05/26/06
By Diana Rinne/Encore!

Rob Szabo hits the road with new CD/DVD

Rob Szabo returns to Grande Prairie next week with a new album in tow for a couple of shows at Sharks. The Toronto-based singer/songwriter was last in the Swan City in January and is looking forward to sharing some of his new tunes from the album Like A Metaphor, with local music lovers.

"I'll be playing mostly stuff from the new album, but it will be a bit different because it's just me and a guitar," said Szabo in a recent interview from his home in Toronto.

The album itself is both retrospective and an announcement as it revisits and reinvents several of the best songs of his 13-year recording career.

Like a Metaphor is Szabo's third solo CD, and eighth overall, having fronted such bands as Plasticine and The Groove Daddys in the course of his career.

The album is a bit different in that it's a CD/DVD and features three music videos and a short documentary of his winter 2005 tour, said Szabo.

The first video is a animated mini-feature for the song Breaking Even, while the second is a live-action vignette for No One, and the third a tour video for the song Good Son. The DVD was directed by Szabo's friend Cal Brunker, who is currently working on the story team for the new Dr. Seuss film Horton Hears a Who.

"We worked artistically together on them," explained Szabo. "It was great, he worked on one of the songs for me. It was a really cool sort of creative process and I'd love to work more with him."

For now, however, Szabo is busy touring across the country getting the word out about his new album.

Last year, the artist toured alone in his van from Toronto across the Canadian prairies up to the Alaska Highway, down the west coast to San Francisco, and back across the U.S. midwest over the summer.

On the road on his own for two to three weeks at a time, Szabo admitted it gets kind of lonely on tour. "Things can get a little weird when you're alone for a long time," he chuckled. "Don't get me wrong, you're always meeting people. But so many strange things happen because you meet all kinds of crazy people who do these neat art things."

On the road again this summer, Szabo is looking forward to many new experiences. "It's cool, it's what I live for," he enthused adding he plans to "tour my ass off.

"I would like to play 200 dates a year. I just want to get the word out and keep doing it."

Rob Szabo play Sharks in Grande Prairie, May 26-27. For more info on Rob Szabo and his music, check out www.robszabo.com.