With the release of his first solo project, "Into the Blue", songwriter and performer Ron Irving is poised to show the world what people like Anne Murray, Asian superstar Jackie Cheung, and German techno/popsters Trademark have known all along: This guy has serious chops.

As popular music is constantly divided into ever more subtle types and permutations of type, Irving has always known there are really only two genres of music - good stuff and bad stuff. It really is as simple as that.

Born in Powell River, B.C., Ron Irving was first exposed to music in high school through an award winning swing band program. He began teaching guitar when he was 14 years old and at 16 was playing weekends at the local legion, dances and weddings.

By age 21 Ron had already been on the road playing with a pop group throughout western Canada before moving to Vancouver where he was soon working six nights a week with various pick-up bands. Days were spent woodshedding on his Baldwin jazz guitar with the ambition to become the new Lenny Breau.

As a fledgling songwriter Ron learned soon enough how rocky the road can  be.  On a shoestring budget he traveled to Hollywood with a reel-to-reel demo of his new songs and was making the rounds of publishers, managers,anyone who would listen. Sure enough, returning to his room at the Starlight Motel he found he'd been broken into and robbed of most of his meagre possessions.

Nevertheless, back in Canada Ron formed a new band, Bootleg, and in no time two of his songs, "In My Arms Tonight" and "Ordinary People", were number one hits across the nation. Over the next five years Bootleg recorded six more Ron Irving compositions that charted top ten. "In My Arms Tonight" received further recognition with an award from the Canadian Music Publishers Association.

By the mid 90s Ron was a regular visitor to popular music's last, great songwriters' Mecca, Nashville, home to some of the best material being