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.

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. That classmate, John Mann, joined Kelly and Knutson as a folk trio called Eavesdropper, and scored early gigs as an opening act for rockers such as Art Bergmann and Barney Bentall. the band opted to change its name to Spirit of the West,

Stony Plain released Tripping Up the Stairs in 1986.

After that album's tour, McMillan took a temporary hiatus from the band in December of 1988 for personal reasons and to pursue solo interests. He was replaced by Daniel Lapp and Linda McRae, but returned before the band's next album was recorded. 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. was not officially released as a commercial or radio single, but became the band's signature song. 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. 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.

Although the album retained many of the band's folk influences, it was more hard rock than any of the band's previous efforts, Despite the controversies, however, it won them many new fans in the alternative rock scene.

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. premiering songs written for a planned symphony album with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. the concert also aired on Bravo concurrently with the album's release.

The remaining members recorded 1997's Weights and Measures as a four-piece at Martin Barre's studio in Devon, England, and added Tobin Frank for their concert tour. 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.

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.

In 2008, the band released a 25th anniversary compilation, Spirituality 1983-2008: The Consummate Compendium, on Rhino Records. 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. 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".

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. Nkrumah-Acheampong himself participated in the recording, playing traditional Ghanaian percussion. 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.

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. At the band's 2014 St. Patrick's Day show, they were inducted into the British Columbia Entertainment Hall of Fame.

Conclusion

In September 2014, Mann announced that he had been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease, but planned to continue performing with the band as long as he remained able to do so.

The band's preparations for a 2015 concert at Massey Hall are profiled in Pete McCormack's documentary film Spirit Unforgettable. Over the month before the final shows, the band undertook a small-scale final tour.

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. Kendel Carson, Paul Hyde, Jim Cuddy, Steven Page, Colin James, Andy Maize and Craig Northey also participated in the Commodore shows as guests. and Kelly communicated the hope that Mann would remain healthy enough for the band to play occasional brief reunion sets in the future. and Maclean's 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.

Mann died on November 20, 2019.

Discography

Albums

Studio albums

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"

! rowspan="2" style="width:14em;"| Title

! rowspan="2" style="width:18em;"| Details

! colspan="1"| Peak chart positions

! rowspan="2" style="width:10em;"| Certifications

|- style="font-size:smaller;"

! style="width:4em;"| CAN

! scope="row"| Spirit of the West

Release date: 1984
Label: Triniti Records
Formats: LP

| —

! scope="row"| Tripping Up the Stairs

Release date: July 1986
Label: Stony Plain Records
Formats: LP, cassette

| —

! scope="row"| Labour Day

Release date: January 2, 1988
Label: Stony Plain Records
Formats: LP, cassette

| 64

! scope="row"| Save This House

Release date: February 20, 1990
Label: Warner Music Canada
Formats: LP, cassette, CD

| 62

CAN: Platinum

! scope="row"| Go Figure

Release date: June 25, 1991
Label: Warner Music Canada
Formats: LP, cassette, CD

| 45

CAN: Gold

! width="45"| CAN AC

! width="45"| CAN Country

! width="45"| CAN Content (Cancon)

| rowspan="1"| 1986

| "The Crawl"

| align="center"| —

| rowspan="1"| Tripping Up the Stairs

| rowspan="1"| 1988

| "Political"

| align="center"| —

| align="center"| 31

| rowspan="1"| Labour Day

| rowspan="1"| 1990

| "Save This House"

| align="center"| 85

| align="center"| —

| rowspan="1"| Save This House

| rowspan="2"| 1991

| "D for Democracy"

| align="center"| 87

| align="center"| —

| align="center"| 1

| rowspan="3"| Go Figure

| "Political (Go Figure version)"

| align="center"| 70

| align="center"| —

| align="center"| 4

| rowspan="1"| 1992

| "Spot the Difference"

| align="center"| —

| align="center"| 9

| 1993

| "And if Venice Is Sinking"

| align="center"| 30

| align="center"| 12

| align="center"| 93

| align="center"| —

| rowspan="5"| Faithlift

| rowspan="3"| 1994

| "5 Free Minutes"

| align="center"| 55

| align="center"| 29

| align="center"| —

| "6th Floor"

| align="center"| —

| align="center"| 3

| "Sadness Grows"

| align="center"| 52

| align="center"| —

| align="center"| 7

| rowspan="2"| 1995

| "Is This Where I Come In"

| align="center"| —

| align="center"| 28

| align="center"| —

| align="center"| 6

| "Tell Me What I Think"

| align="center"| 25

| align="center"| —

| Two Headed

| 1996

| "Williamson's Garage"

| align="center"| —

| align="center"| 53

| align="center"| —

| Open Heart Symphony

| 1997

| "Soldier's Boy"

| align="center"| —

| Weights and Measures

| 2004

| "July"

| align="center"| —

| Star Trails

| 2011

| "Bulembu"

| align="center"| —

| Non-album single

| 2014

| "Home for a Rest"

| align="center"| —

CAN: Platinum
In 2022, "Home for a Rest" was voted British Columbia's favourite song by a local artist, in a Twitter competition organized by local CBC reporter Justin McElroy, beating Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe".

References

External links

Spirit of the West