The Toronto Star, www.thestar.com

...thoughtful bluesy songs she sublimely delivers on her debut CD not a straight line.

The singer/songwriter who describes her style as "sincere, sassy, soul" wrote most of the tracks, based on the ebbs and flow of her own life. And with songs such as "Brother Lover" ( I know that you're not in love with me and that our time has come to pass) and "Solitary Man" (Sad when he calls me, and I'm sad when he don't/Wish that he'd need me, but I know he won't) it's apparently not all the sunshine and light she brings to her day job.

"Aren't we all melancholy sometimes and sometimes upbeat?" said Levasseur of the ranging emotions on the songs which she has dubbed rootsoul... also proficient on accordion and piano, she has played and sung with several local bands and previously released a CD under the name Slim.

In 1999, she said she was "living in a crazy little hippie commune" of artists and urban activists when she agreed to run a friend's child-entertainment business. She has now developed the venture — on word of mouth alone — to a 200-name waiting list. "I love it," she said. "Little kids are so much fun and I love being my own boss." Her two worlds collided yesterday at the show/launch of not a straight line at Lula Lounge. Decked out in strapless red chiffon, Levasseur's audience included some of her pupils and their parents, and her opening act was the Levy Brothers, a band of three, 9 to 14, whom she taught piano.