Haydain Neale is all too aware of one flaw in Canadian music -- the lack of a distinctive rhythm & blues scene.

"Mainstream R&B doesn't exist here in the music industry," says Neale, the frontman for urban pop group jacksoul.

"We don't have any throbbing black cultural meccas pumping out this kind of music nor the studio culture that supports it.

"It's interesting that we even have a Juno Award for it, because it can only be really called pop music."

Though Neale says jacksoul, who perform at the Tulip Festival tonight with McMaster & James and dance music guru Chris Sheppard, have opted to keep its brand of R&B on Canadian soil, the same couldn't be said of another smiliar-styled Canuck, Deborah Cox.

Cox wound up moving to Los Angeles in 1994 and has since done wonders with R&B, earning awards galore and record sales beyond her wildest expectations.

"In the States, R&B is a whole machine, it's an industry unto itself," Neale says.

'INCREDIBLE DIVA'

"And (Deborah's) an incredible diva. But she couldn't hang out with songwriters here because they don't write that way. So she eventually found herself leaving."

Neale says he's perfectly content that his hip-hop/funk/soul sound falls mainly under the pop music label.

In fact, he's been content since jacksoul released an independently-produced cassette in the early '90s.

DISTRIBUTION DEAL

That eventually landed the band a distribution deal with Vik/BMG Music Canada in mid-'96 and the release of his debut disc, ABsolute, the following year.

The band's follow-up, Sleepless, was released a month ago and has been earning steady rotation -- on both CD and video forms -- of its lead-off single, the Level 42-flavoured Can't Stop. Neale says he's also proud of jacksoul's updated version of Hall & Oates' mid-'70s classic She's Gone.

"It's not worth doing a cover song unless you can take it to the next level," Neale says.

"I don't think any kid now would understand it the way in which it was originally presented.

"What I'd try to do is think, 'If I were Hall & Oates and this is my song now, how would I present it in such a way that it would actually make it compelling today?'

"To me, there's something so universal and timeless about this tune."