Spirit of the West

Spirit of the West were a Canadian folk rock band from 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. 2Early 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. Early on their set predominantly comprised covers of artists such as Bruce Cockburn, Eric Bogle, Richard Thompson and Billy Bragg, with original compositions gradually introduced into their set.After a gig on Vancouver Island was erroneously billed as "Eavesdroppings", the band opted to change its name to Spirit of the West, 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.Stony Plain released Tripping Up the Stairs in 1986. Following that album, Knutson left the band and was replaced by Hugh McMillan.1988's Labour Day spawned the popular single "Political" and consolidated the band as a significant draw on the folk festival circuit. The album also garnered the band its first Juno Award nomination, for Best Roots & Traditional Album at the Juno Awards of 1989.After that album's tour, McMillan took a temporary hiatus from the band. He was replaced by Daniel Lapp and Linda McRae, but returned before the band's next album was recorded. When McMillan returned, Lapp left the band but McRae stayed on. (As a result, Lapp never actually appeared on a Spirit of the West recordin