On October 22, friends, family and fans all found themselves piled into the main room at the London Music Club to celebrate the CD releases of two local artists: Alanna Gurr's Oh, Horsefeathers and Graham Nicholas' Bury Me Beneath The Dance Floor. Both artists played songs from their first full-length albums on a stage decorated with a feather backdrop as others clapped, stomped and danced in the small spaces within the crowd. At the show, I was lucky enough to snag both releases and spent most of the next day listening to both, one after the other.

The first one I put on was Oh, Horsefeathers. Gurr, a native of Guleph, Ontario, made her mark on the London music scene before graduating from the Fanshawe/Western Media Theory and Production program. In that time, she recorded an EP which was released in September 2010 on Oh! Records, the same label that has released titles from other local artists including Olenka and the Autumn Lovers and The Whipping Wind.

When asked about the EP, Gurr said it was to basically try out what she had since, she had only began booking shows at the time. "The LP (Oh, Horsefeathers) is in response to what felt like a positive reaction to the EP by the music community in both London and outside of it."

Gurr, whose influence when writing includes One Hundred Dollars, Julie Doiron and Frazey Ford, described the full-length album as a transition into the folk rock sound from where she started as a singer-songwriter but with a lot more of a full body sound. One thing I noticed as I looked over the case of Oh, Horsefeathers is that there are a few tracks that are repeated from the self-titled EP including "Lovely Girl", "October" and "Chapel". The difference in sounds between the tracks on the EP and LP make the songs unique in their own way. While the songs were originally recorded with more acoustic, instrumental accents, when listening to the full-length LP, I was astounded by the more electric and raw guitar sound — the perfect complement to Gurr's soft twang that could be described as a voice that could sing lullabies to kittens. Lovers of the original acoustic sounds that were first produced by Gurr should not fear, though; the more gentle melodies can still be heard on newer, heartfelt songs including the tracks like "Little One".

Gurr credited a lot of time and patience to achieving the sound given to stories of love and loss. "Dan Beeson from Magnetic Sound Studios in Guelph recorded and mastered the album. He was amazing, and really understood what I wanted to do with the songs," she said. "I'm really going to try to get Oh, Horsefeathers out there and hopefully noticed. Its more what I wanted the songs to sound like from the beginning." Although Gurr said the recording time needed to created this album of beautiful and soulful folk and blues songs took longer than anticipated, it was worth it because in the end there were a lot of friends who came out to help produce a sound that make Oh, Horsefeathers a true success for Alanna Gurr and makes it an album definitely worth the listen.

One of the friends responsible for the success of Oh, Horsefeathers is Graham Nicholas, who created his own success with the release of his full-length album, Bury Me Beneath The Dance Floor.

Nicholas, a veteran of the local band Red Horse, said that bandmate Scott Brunt was one of his main influences when writing. "He was the one who really encouraged me the most to start singing and songwriting," said Nicholas.

He confessed that some tracks on the album are some of the first songs he had ever written, but recording them for Bury Me Beneath The Dance Floor is how Nicholas was able to finally get to know them a little better. "I've been playing some of them for so long that it's kind of like seeing the preacher's face in the other side of the confession booth for the first time." The love and pride he has for these songs show in the tender care taken to make the stories that have inspired him for years into a well-rounded and blended sound with the perfect mix of instrumental and vocal harmonies. The dosey doe-ing, foot-stomping sounds of tracks like "Her Name is Rock and Roll" play well against some of the more heartfelt newer tracks including "In the Blue of Noon" and "Keepin' the Soul Alive". Although these slower, more swayworthy numbers may act as a bit of a breather when your hands are sore from clapping to the beat, they also show Nicholas' maturity as an artist with a different style of songwriting he has been moving towards.

With the full, hearty sound of the album, you would never guess that the recording process was done by personal friend Casey Wolfe, who plays bass on the album. Nicholas described the experience as "bare minimum, low-key and at times guerrilla style," and said it couldn't have been done without Wolfe, Simon Larochette, who mixed the album, and CHRW, the radio station owned and operated by the University of Western Ontario Students' Council, who helped by loaning equipment to the cause and by supporting Nicholas and Bury Me Beneath The Dance Floor 100 per cent.

Nicholas said that the sound created on the album, clearly influenced by great musicians including Townes Van Zandt, Hank Williams and Bruce Springsteen, also couldn't have been possible without all the great local musicians in making Bury Me Beneath The Dance Floor what it is: a creative and confident first step for Graham Nicholas.

Both albums, Oh, Horsefeathers and Bury Me Beneath The Dance Floor, are available at Grooves Records, located at 353 Clarence St.