Spirit of the West

Spirit of the West were a Canadian folk rock band from North Vancouver, active from 1983 to 2016. They were popular on the Canadian folk music scene in the 1980s before evolving a blend of hard rock, Britpop, and Celtic folk influences which made them one of Canada's most successful alternative rock acts in the 1990s.[1]

For other uses, see Spirit of the West (disambiguation).

Spirit of the West
Spirit of the West at the Pacific National Exhibition, Vancouver 2008
Background information
OriginNorth Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
GenresFolk rock, Celtic rock
Years active1983 (1983)–2016
LabelsStony Plain, Warner, MapleMusic, Rhino, Elektra
Associated actsThe Paperboys, The Wonder Stuff, Paul Hyde, Linda McRae & Cheerful Lonesome, Great Big Sea
Websitesotw.ca
Past membersJohn Mann
Geoffrey Kelly
Hugh McMillan
Vince Ditrich
Tobin Frank
Matthew Harder
J. Knutson
Linda McRae
Daniel Lapp

Early years

Geoffrey Kelly and J. Knutson had begun playing music together as a duo when Kelly's then-girlfriend Alison, at the time a theatre student, told them she had a classmate with a really great singing voice.[2] That classmate, John Mann, joined Kelly and Knutson as a folk trio called Eavesdropper,[3] and scored early gigs as an opening act for rockers such as Art Bergmann and Barney Bentall.[3] Early on their set predominantly comprised covers of artists such as Bruce Cockburn, Eric Bogle, Richard Thompson and Billy Bragg,[3] with original compositions gradually introduced into their set.[3]

After a gig on Vancouver Island was erroneously billed as "Eavesdroppings",[4] the band opted to change its name to Spirit of the West,[3] and independently released the album Spirit of the West in 1984 before signing to Stony Plain Records, a roots music label based in Edmonton, Alberta.[5]

Stony Plain released Tripping Up the Stairs in 1986.[5] Following that album, Knutson left the band and was replaced by Hugh McMillan.[3]

1988's Labour Day spawned the popular single "Political" and consolidated the band as a significant draw on the folk festival circuit.[3] The album also garnered the band its first Juno Award nomination, for Best Roots & Traditional Album at the Juno Awards of 1989.[6]

After that album's tour, McMillan took a temporary hiatus from the band.[7] He was replaced by Daniel Lapp and Linda McRae, but returned before the band's next album was recorded.[7] When McMillan returned, Lapp left the band but McRae stayed on.[7] (As a result, Lapp never actually appeared on a Spirit of the West recording. He pursued a solo career, however, releasing a number of albums of experimental jazz/folk/electronic fusion.)

On the strength of "Political", Warner Bros. Records signed the band in 1989,[8] and Stony Plain released a compilation, Old Material 1984–1986, to close out their contract with the label.

In 1990, the band's major label debut, Save This House was released.[3][8] The album track "Home for a Rest", which is still considered a classic frosh week anthem at universities across Canada[9] as well as a popular tune at wedding dances, was not officially released as a single, but became the band's signature song.[2] (Despite its not being a single, a music video was released for the song.)

Evolution

As part of their tour to support Save This House, the band toured England with The Wonder Stuff,[10] and decided to bring in a drummer and experiment with a more rock-oriented sound — a need which became particularly acute after the bands played two shows on the same bill as Jane's Addiction.[3] After recording some song demos with guest drummer Darrell Mayes of the Colin James band[11] and then touring for part of 1990 with various session drummers, the band brought in Vince Ditrich, who appeared for the first time on the band's 1991 album Go Figure.[12]

Although the album retained many of the band's folk influences,[13] it was more hard rock than any of the band's previous efforts,[12] and this proved controversial among the band's fans. The album included a rock rendition of "Political", and at one show in London, Ontario, the audience presented the band with a petition demanding that they play the original version of that song.[14] Despite the controversies, however, it won them many new fans in the alternative rock scene.[3]

The band received a Juno Award nomination for Most Promising Group at the Juno Awards of 1991.

MacRae also appeared on The Wonder Stuff's album Never Loved Elvis,[13] and all of the members of both bands recorded a cover of the country standard "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" as a B-side for the Wonder Stuff's "Welcome to the Cheap Seats" single.[3][10] Over the winter of 1992-93, the band undertook the Hollow Bodies tour, performing material in their older acoustic style.[15]

In 1993, the band released their most successful album, Faithlift, and scored their biggest hit single, "And if Venice is Sinking". 1995's Two Headed, in turn, garnered significant airplay for the single "Tell Me What I Think", and the band garnered a Juno Award nomination for Group of the Year at the Juno Awards of 1995. However, the album was not as successful on the charts, or as critically hailed, as its predecessor.

In the summer of 1995, the band toured with The Tragically Hip as part of the Another Roadside Attraction festival.[3]

Beginning in 1995, the band also performed a number of shows with symphony orchestras across Canada,[16] premiering songs written for a planned symphony album with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.[16] After recording two shows with the VSO on May 12 and May 13, 1995, they released the album Open Heart Symphony that year;[17] the concert also aired on Bravo concurrently with the album's release.[17]

At the end of 1996, McRae left the band amicably to pursue a solo career, performing her last show on New Year's Eve of that year. She released a solo country album in 1997, and then formed the alternative country band Cheerful Lonesome.[18]

The remaining members recorded 1997's Weights and Measures as a four-piece at Martin Barre's studio in Devon, England,[1] working with Barre and members of The Wonder Stuff, Capercaillie and Fairport Convention to round out the studio effort,[19] and added Tobin Frank for their concert tour.[20] In the same year, a studio version of the song "Kiss & Tell", which had previously been released only in its live form on Open Heart Symphony, appeared on the soundtrack to the film The Hanging Garden.[21]

However, with the music industry's emphasis having shifted by this time away from alternative rock and back toward more mainstream pop-oriented performers, Warner Bros. put little effort into promoting the album, and dropped the band from their roster after the tour.[3]

Hiatus and revival

After Weights & Measures the band took a hiatus from recording and broad-scale national touring, although they continued to perform selected live dates on the summer folk festival circuit and in major concert markets such as Vancouver and Toronto. During the hiatus, Mann, Ditrich and Kelly all released solo albums, Mann pursued acting roles, McMillan worked as a session musician and producer for The Town Pants, and Kelly and Frank recorded with The Paperboys.

The band's first new album in seven years, Star Trails, was released on July 6, 2004 on MapleMusic Recordings.[22]

In 2008, the band released a 25th anniversary compilation, Spirituality 1983-2008: The Consummate Compendium, on Rhino Records.[14] The two-CD set includes 32 remastered tracks from throughout the band's career, including two new songs, "Winter's Now the Enemy" and "Another Happy New Year". Their official 25th anniversary concert, held at Vancouver's Commodore Ballroom on March 14, 2008, was recorded and broadcast by CBC Radio 2.[23] Concurrently with the release of Spirituality, Rhino also released remastered editions of Faithlift and Open Heart Symphony.

In 2009, Spirit of the West opened for Great Big Sea on the "Fortune's Favour" tour, finishing in Victoria, British Columbia on March 26.[24] On this tour, the final encore performances typically involved both bands performing together on various songs, including Spirit of the West's "Political" and Great Big Sea's "The Old Black Rum".[25]

In 2010, Kelly, Ditrich and Frank joined Ashley MacIsaac and folk musician Matthew Harder in recording a charity single, "Dreams", to benefit Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong, a skier from Ghana who was the first Ghanaian athlete ever to compete in the Winter Olympics.[26] Nkrumah-Acheampong himself participated in the recording, playing traditional Ghanaian percussion.[26] The single, credited to The Parallel Band, was released to iTunes on February 19, 2010.[26] Concurrently, Mann was in Edmonton, starring in a stage production of Bruce Ruddell's rock musical Beyond Eden.[27] In 2011, the full Spirit of the West lineup recorded and released another charity single, "Bulembu", to benefit the Bulembu orphanage and sustainable economic development project in Swaziland; the song also includes a vocal choir of children from Bulembu.[28]

Kelly underwent surgery in early 2012 and was unable to perform for several weeks; Harder and Kendel Carson of The Paperboys substituted for him in several live shows during this period, including the band's traditional annual St. Patrick's Day show at the Commodore Ballroom.[29] At the band's 2014 St. Patrick's Day show, they were inducted into the British Columbia Entertainment Hall of Fame.[30]

Conclusion

In September 2014, Mann announced that he had been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease,[31] but planned to continue performing with the band as long as he remained able to do so.[31] In concession to Mann's illness, the band began performing with an iPad mounted near the microphone in case Mann had difficulty remembering the lyrics, while Harder joined full-time to take over Mann's duties on lead guitar. Weeks after the announcement, Mann performed a concert featuring his solo material and that of Spirit of the West, which was broadcast by CBC Television's Absolutely Canadian in July 2015 as "John Mann Here and Now".[32]

The band's preparations for a 2015 concert at Massey Hall are profiled in Pete McCormack's documentary film Spirit Unforgettable.[33]

In December 2015, the band announced that they would perform a three-night run at the Commodore Ballroom from April 15 to 17 as their final shows.[33] Over the month before the final shows, the band undertook a small-scale final tour.[34]

As Ditrich was also in poor health with kidney disease, he was not able to perform for the full duration of all three Commodore shows, and shared drum duties with Kris MacFarlane and Pat Steward.[35] Kendel Carson, Paul Hyde, Jim Cuddy, Steven Page, Colin James, Andy Maize and Craig Northey also participated in the Commodore shows as guests.[35][34]

The band remained informally active through private "Johnny Jams" as a form of music therapy for Mann,[36] and Kelly communicated the hope that Mann would remain healthy enough for the band to play occasional brief reunion sets in the future.[2] Following The Tragically Hip's announcement in May 2016 that singer Gord Downie had been diagnosed with brain cancer but would undertake a tour with the band in summer 2016, Kelly was interviewed by both CBC Radio One's Day 6[37] and Maclean's[34] about his experiences performing with Spirit of the West under similar circumstances.

The band performed a reunion set at Spirit of Canada, a benefit concert for Alzheimer's awareness at the Commodore Ballroom on November 19, 2017. The concert's lineup included Odds, Barney Bentall, Dustin Bentall, Jim Byrnes, Kendel Carson, Jim Cuddy, Alan Doyle, Colin James, Sarah McLachlan, Ed Robertson, Shari Ulrich and Spirit: The Next Generation, an act consisting of the band members' children.[38] Before the show, the performing musicians participated in a group recording of the band's signature song "Home for a Rest" as a tribute to Mann.[39]

Mann died on November 20, 2019.[40]

Discography

Albums
Year Album CAN CRIA
1984 Spirit of the West — —
1986 Tripping Up the Stairs — —
1988 Labour Day 64 —
1989 Old Material 1984–1986 — —
1990 Save This House 62 Platinum
1991 Go Figure 45 Gold
1993 Faithlift 27 Platinum
1995 Two Headed 20 —
1996 Open Heart Symphony 36 —
1997 Weights and Measures — —
1999 Hit Parade — —
2004 Star Trails — —
2008 Spirituality 1983–2008:
The Consummate Compendium		 — —

Singles
Year Single Chart Positions Album
CAN CAN AC CAN Country
1990 "Save This House" 85 — — Save This House
"Home for a Rest" — — —
1991 "D for Democracy" 87 — — Go Figure
"Political" 70 — —
1993 "And if Venice Is Sinking" 30 12 93 Faithlift
1994 "5 Free Minutes" 55 29 —
"Sadness Grows" 52 — —
1995 "Is This Where I Come In" — 28 —
"Tell Me What I Think" 25 — — Two Headed
1996 "Williamson's Garage" — 53 — Open Heart Symphony
1997 "Soldier's Boy" — — — Weights and Measures
2004 "July" — — — Star Trails
2011 "Bulembu" — — — non-album single

Album appearances

Reception
  • In 1999, CFNY-FM ranked "Political" No. 524, and "Home For a Rest" No. 689, in its "Top 1002 New Rock Songs of All Time" chart.
  • In 2005, "Home for a Rest" was named the 22nd greatest Canadian song of all time on CBC Radio One's 50 Tracks: The Canadian Version.
  • In 2007, "Home for a Rest" ranked No. 8 on CFNY's "Top 102 Canadian New Rock Songs of All Time" chart.
  • "Save This House" is the theme song for Save Us from Our House, a combined relationship/renovation/reality TV show which aired in 2007 on the Canadian cable network W, and on HGTV in the U.S.
  • In 2010, Spirit of the West were the recipients of the National Achievement Award at the annual SOCAN Awards in Toronto.[41]
gollark: You can download 32 minutes of (low-quality) music onto that!
gollark: A superior minecraft tape.
gollark: Esolang idea: variables have full revision history.
gollark: Undoubtedly.
gollark: One time the exploit was released in an obfuscated bytecodey form, but they left the debugging symbols in, so I could just run it through a decompiler. Fun times.

References
  1. "The little Celtic band that grew". The Globe and Mail, November 18, 1997.
  2. "Spirit of the West: An audio guide to their long, concluding journey". The Globe and Mail, April 15, 2016.
  3. Michael Barclay, Ian A.D. Jack and Jason Schneider, Have Not Been the Same: The Can-Rock Renaissance 1985-1995. ECW Press. ISBN 978-1-55022-992-9.
  4. "Name change paid off for Spirit of West". Saskatoon StarPhoenix, January 17, 2002.
  5. Greg Quill, "Spirit offers hope for future of folk". Toronto Star, February 11, 1987.
  6. "Juno candidates announced". Vancouver Sun, February 2, 1989.
  7. "Maybe you can hear them coming: Spirit of the West". Ottawa Citizen, April 6, 1990.
  8. "Their own brand of feverish folk has Spirit moving". Edmonton Journal, March 17, 1990. p. B1.
  9. "Songs to drink away those troubles". Calgary Herald, March 17, 2010. p. D6.
  10. "Spirited folk-rockers show they still have lots to learn". Toronto Star, October 13, 1991.
  11. Christopher Jones, "Revisit NOW's cover story on Spirit of the West from 1989". Now, November 21, 2019 (orig. March 16, 1989).
  12. "Spirits aim to shake up Canadians". Toronto Star, June 30, 1991.
  13. "High-Spirited group: B.C. folk-rockers pump up volume". The Province, June 27, 1991.
  14. "That's the Spirit; No 'Home for a Rest' as Spirit of the West releases best-of double disc and hits the road". Toronto Star, July 16, 2008.
  15. "Creative Batteries Boosted: Spirit of the West bounces back with tour, album". Ottawa Citizen, February 3, 1993.
  16. "Going symphonic no strain for Spirit of the West; Former folkies' concert with ESO to premiere acoustic material for upcoming album". Edmonton Journal, May 6, 1995.
  17. "Smells like clean Spirit Despite many musical leaps, Spirit Of The West's aim remains true". Toronto Star, June 8, 1996.
  18. "From punk to roots music; Ex-Spirit of the West player says it's not such a surprising evolution". Victoria Times-Colonist, May 2, 2012.
  19. "Spirit of the West; Return to folkier roots means familiar pleasures for band's longtime fans". Edmonton Journal, November 25, 1997.
  20. "Band Celtic before Celtic was cool". Saskatoon StarPhoenix, November 20, 1997.
  21. "Album captures spirit of award-winning film". Halifax Daily News, November 14, 1997.
  22. "Spirit just goes on and on". Regina Leader-Post, August 12, 2004.
  23. "Concerts On Demand: Spirit Of The West – 25th Anniversary"
  24. "Celtic music rocks on; The faddish frenzy of the '90s is over, but Great Big Sea can still sell out a hockey arena". Victoria Times-Colonist, March 26, 2009.
  25. "A great Great Big farewell; Ottawa favourites, fans in high spirits at final show before band breaks for a while". Ottawa Citizen, March 23, 2009.
  26. "Ghana's Snow Leopard records Olympic dream song with Canadian fiddler MacIsaac". Canadian Press, February 19, 2010.
  27. "Rock musical 'Beyond Eden' mesmerizes". canoe.ca, February 20, 2010.
  28. "Spirit of the West Release 'Bulembu': Rockers Record Charity Song for Swaziland". spinner.ca, November 29, 2011.
  29. "Spirit Of The West Perform In Vancouver Without Geoff Kelly" Archived July 22, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. Rockstar Weekly, March 17, 2012.
  30. "No Spirit of the West, no St. Paddy's; Tradition Continues". The Province, March 11, 2014.
  31. "Alzheimer's diagnosis takes centre stage for Spirit of the West frontman". The Globe and Mail, September 8, 2014.
  32. "Spirit of the West's John Mann debuts special concert film". CBC News, July 4, 2015.
  33. "Spirit of the West performs final concerts in Vancouver". CBC News, April 14, 2016.
  34. "On the Hip’s final tour, and enduring illness on stage". Maclean's, August 10, 2016.
  35. "Spirit of the West gets a proper send-off with hometown finale". The Globe and Mail, April 15, 2016.
  36. "Bittersweet farewell for Vancouver band Spirit of the West". CTV News, April 16, 2016.
  37. "Spirit of the West's Geoffrey Kelly on farewell tours and Gord Downie". Day 6, May 1, 2016.
  38. "John Mann benefit concert comes to the Commodore Ballroom on November 19". The Georgia Straight, September 27, 2017.
  39. "'We got it in the can in the can': Alan Doyle spearheads bathroom recording to benefit John Mann". CBC News Newfoundland and Labrador, January 13, 2018.
  40. Lederman, Marsha (November 20, 2019). "Spirit of the West singer John Mann dies at 57", The Globe and Mail. Retrieved November 21, 2019.
  41. "McLachlan, Nickelback Win Big At The SOCAN Awards". toronto.citynews.ca. Retrieved October 28, 2019.
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