Dylan Murray romances Toronto's MOD Club Special

Toronto - On a warm Thursday night Dylan Murray brought his guitar and his soul on stage to the MOD club at 722 College Street West in Little Italy, here he captivated audiences with smooth sounds and warm melodies.

The MOD club's low lights, candles and dark corners made the venue perfect to take in the sweet sounds of Murray's voice. He took the stage around 8:32 p.m. and was immediately met with hoots and holler's from the audience. Launching directly into song Murray's powerful voice filled the entire MOD club theater, accompanied only by acoustic guitar - an instrument he learned to play himself. His songs are about love, life and living. Friendly warm melodies meet intricate guitar work as you watch the singer/songwriter in action. By the way he sings from his heart you can tell Murray sings from experience - he's connected to these songs. Recently Murray charted at number five on MuchMoreMusic for the music video "I Haven't Decided Yet" and was dubbed 'one of the artists to watch' by Entertainment Tonight. There's no gimmick here - he's talented, Toronto-born and raised, his music is perfect for that lazy Sunday spent laying in a hammock with a good book and your iPod. Murray's music is a blend of folk/reggae and guitar work is like a carefully crocheted blanket, no flaws and clearly the work of skilled hands. He proves you don't actually have to leave to escape, you can simply get lost in the sounds and songs he uses to illustrate life around him. During a cover of Bob Dylan's 'Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man', Murray busted out a harmonica, which came off as perfectly at home on stage alongside his classic acoustic guitar. Swinging and swaying you can tell Murray believes in his music. He dedicated his original song 'Trampoline' to the late Amy Winehouse, another singer who worked to create a sound uniquely her own. This folk/reggae blend is something Murray has seasoned and worked at to call his own. Between trips back and forth to Jamaica in his early career, studio time with some of the best in the industry and a recent trip to Africa - Murray has a lot to sing about. He may come off as the world's biggest romantic, but upon further investigation it becomes clear, Murray is all about being real while spreading love and good feeling. "I'm currently working on myself," he said in an interview after the show."I’m recording an album and I’m writing songs." Over the winter months Murray traveled with Nelly Furtado to Africa where they helped build a school, said Cheryl Murphy, Chris Smith Management. “Other people helped build a school. I was more the guitar slash spread love person," Murray said laughing in response to Murphy, his manager. The documentary is produced by CTV and in association with Artbound and Free the Children. Craig Kielburger, Nelly Furtado, Seamus O'Regan, Dayle Haddon and 20 young professionals traveled to Kenya, Africa to help create sustained change through art. "The arts have the power to inspire children and see themselves and their world differently," said Nelly Furtado in a CTV press release. "My goal is to help raise awareness for this incredible new, Canadian-based organization that stands to make an incredible difference in the lives of young people and their communities in places like Kenya and other developing nations." Compared to his experiences in Jamaica, where he also helped in local communities, Murray said the trips were very different. He called going to Kenya, Africa a brand new experience. "I was Nelly’s guitar player and I played a few songs myself and it was a really fun time.” "It was amazing. It was incredible. It was refreshing," Murray said about Africa. "But, it was difficult at times because there’s so much you want to do and I wasn’t sure when I would be going back.” "We really made the best of it," he said. "It was exciting because I was doing music and I was with people who I hadn’t been working with before. Nelly (Furtado) and her whole crew were with me as well, so it was sort of a shared experience.” For now Murray said he's going to continue to write songs, record and continue to be, just simply, himself - "even if I have to go back in time to remember what I’m doing," he said. As for Murray's musical following, it's growing daily."Love spreads," said Murray - a sentiment we could all live by.