When I first heard it, Donovan Woods' music took me by total surprise, and that says a lot when you consider how quiet and understated his album The Hold Up is in comparison to my short attention span.

But there I was, up on a ladder painting the ceiling in the kitchen, listening to CBC Radio 3, when Donovan's song "He Drinks Gas" comes on with its peculiar opening lines ("I bet him he wouldn't drink any gas and he did just to spite me") and I was hooked, even though it was nothing more than a guy with a guitar telling a strange little story punctuated with some gentle touches of piano and banjo. Immediately it was down with the brush and out with the laptop, and within minutes I learned that not only was he a TO resident, he also had a show coming up at the Savannah Room (294 College, $10) on Saturday, February 2nd.