Jeremie Albino

When Jeremie Albino was a teenager, he started busking around Toronto, setting up

along the boardwalk or on a street corner downtown, wherever he thought he might find

some passersby. “Usually nobody was listening,” he says, “but occasionally one or two

people would tell me it sounded great. They had places to be and things to do, but they

would stop and listen for a little while. That kind of interaction felt very special to me,

and that’s when I realized I really do love performing. That’s when I realized I could hold

a listener’s interest and give something back to them.”

That experience set Albino on his path, and it showed him how much joy can be found

in the simple act of connecting with a listener, whether it’s an entire crowd or just one

person in that crowd. Since then, he has refined a vital and idiosyncratic mix of styles

and sounds that are rooted in tradition but grasping toward the future: His songs are

grounded in the gritty storytelling of classic country music, propelled by the rhythms of

old-school R&B, played with the wild abandon of early rock ’n’ roll, and sung with the

deep feeling of southern soul. Thanks to his sweaty, livewire concerts, he has been

steadily growing his audience from a few passersby to packed houses around Canada

and the U.S. Our Time In The Sun, his soulful fourth solo album, sounds like the

culmination of what he started out on the street corners of Toronto.