The Brampton Guardian - Time Out Magazine - February 2005

Gayle Ackroyd: Lady Sings the Blue-Eyed Blues [Read Article]

The Record - Canada’s Weekly Music Business Newspaper (Volume 16, Issue #34)

Gayle Ackroyd - Anything But Blue - Ack-rack 002 (Festival).

A Toronto-based club and bar singer, Ackroyd’s better than most, mixing a friendly brew of AC, rock, blues and country influences. Passing Through, Squeaky Couch and Saturday Night On Bourbon Street give some idea of the breadth of the woman’s talent. Doing What I Wanna Do is an anthem for all the other indie acts out there.

Music Row - Nashville’s Music Industry Publication
Established 1981.Vol.17#6

Honorable Mentions by Robert K. Oermann
Gayle Ackroyd/Train Of Love/Ack-rack.

What the critics are saying ...

T.O. Nites - Kim Dowson

A well established and respected artist on the Local Blues scene, guitarist/vocalist Gayle Ackroyd is an extraordinary talent that must not be overlooked by music fans. Her recordings include a CD entitled, Anything But Blue, and a cassette album Hard Luck Town. Copies of both can be obtained at any one of Gayle's gigs in and around the GTA.

Her most recent appearance was at P.K. Creek in Mississauga as special guest of hosts Robbie Lane and the Disciples. Gayle wowed the audience with classic covers and brilliant originals. The crowd danced graciously to her on-stage abilities and offered overwhelming applause at the end of her performance. Even surprise guest Jeff Healey was taken by her incredible vocals.

For Blues fans, I strongly recommend you keep an eye out for this lady. She is an incredible talent; both classy and professional. Although there are no dates confirmed as yet, she will be back as a guest at P.K. Creek and will soon be showcasing herself at Healey's in Toronto. I also recommend that if you are able to pick up a copy of her work that you do so. Do not miss this lady, she'll knock your socks off and set your feet on fire.

Performance Review by Gary 17

Gayle Ackroyd demonstrated the power of her songwriting and wowed a throng assembled to celebrate release of her new album, Anything But Blue, at the Horseshoe March 24. Particularly impressive on this night were “What Would A Good Girl Do”, “I Am Yours and You Are Mine” and the poignant “Passing Through” which latter she delivered sans the band to a hushed room. A special treat, especially for this fan of Ackroyd’s previous albums, was a stirring rendition of “Labour of Love” a song that in my opinion ought to have propelled Ackroyd to Shania Twain status years ago.

T.O. Nites - L. Poole

Anything But Blue is clean, concise and professional; It’s fairly obvious that Ackroyd is capable of performing at an international level...

The Toronto Star - Club Crawl: Lenny Stoute

Beating the heat in a black mini cocktail waitress outfit and spikes to match, Ackroyd and band started slowly, building a set which drew encores from this usually indifferent crowd...Ackroyd has a depth of under-recognized talent.

The Mississauga News - Arts & Entertainment: Mike Beggs

With her “acoustic, rootsy kind of stuff,” Gayle Ackroyd has been a mainstay in local blues-a-billy clubs for years. But on her new independent CD, Anything But Blue she finally hits her stride as a recording artist. The fast tunes are fun like Squeaky Couch and What would A Good Girl Do?, but stark ballads allow her to get to deeper expression, lyrically and vocally. The title cut and Passing Through remind listeners of Rossanne Cash, Lucinda Williams and Jann Arden

T.O. Nite #45 - Review:Gayle Ackroyd by Gary 17

Hard Luck Town 7-song tape; indie self produced

What I absolutely love about Gayle Ackroyd ~well,ok, one of the things I absolutely love about Gayle~ is how as a songwriter, she is able to dance the crooked straight and narrow in such matters. There is a tune on this album, the first cut on the 2nd side, On Your Own that is more than a gem, it’s a planetary system fueller, another of her extraordinarily incisive yet non judgemental observations on the way people behave and feel in relationships.

Gayle Ackroyd indeed has a gift for being able to get inside the skin of a variety of people to understand their inner drives and translate these into terms that anyone cannot only easily understand but can access in an enjoyable way.She gives stirring melodies and harmonic suggestions with a beat that really moves.

She is justly regarded as a premier songwriter of sufficient caliber who no less an organization than the Toronto Blues Society regards highly enough to call upon to host songwriting workshops, and from whom Canadian Musician Magazine solicits articles on songwriting.

On this tape once again Ackroyd establishes that she’s a songwriting whirlwind able to dance inside a life mode and come through it with appreciation and ironic distance both intact as important a qualification for a hit songwriter as any.

T.O. Nites - Gayle Ackroyd wowed P.K.Creek - by Kim Dowson

A well established and respected artist on the local blues scene, guitarist/vocalist Gayle Ackroyd is an extraordinary talent that must not be over looked by music fans.

Her most recent appearance was at P K Creek in Mississauga Sunday Jan 6th as special guest of hosts Robbie Lane and the Disciples. Gayle wowed the audience with classic covers and brilliant originals. The crowd danced graciously to her on stage abilities and offered over whelming applause at the end of her performance. Even surprise guest Jeff Healey who asked to sit in with her during her set was taken by her incredible vocals. I strongly recommend you keep an eye out for this lady. She is an incredible talent; both classy and professional. Jeff Healey has asked Gayle to play at his club Healey’s in Toronto. Do not miss this lady, she’ll knock your socks off and set your feet on fire. She returns to P.K.Creek March 3rd.

The Lakesider Music Notes by Bryan Hachey: Lady Sings the Blues

Upon first hearing Gayle Ackroyd sing, one is immediately impressed with her easy charm and the graceful lack of guile she brings to a performance. Looking comfortable behind the microphone, Gayle kept up a gentle banter with the audience, in a way that seemed genuine and honest as though addressing a friend and not a room full of strangers. She took the crowd to heart. I caught her recently backed by her three piece ensemble where she and the band settled early into an easy groove of soulful blues. She confessed to me that she likes to play the blues as it gives her “a chance to improvise and play more leads on guitar”. Gayle has a smooth accomplished vocal style, that is both powerful enough to belt out Aretha Franklin’s” Do Right Woman” and yet subtle enough to elicit the fun and humour of Sherlyl Crow’s “All I Wanna Do”.