J. Knutson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

James Jay "J." Knutson (born about 1957) is a Canadian folk singer-songwriter. He is normally credited with the initial J. Knutson was one of the founding members of the Celtic rock band Spirit of the West.

Early life and education[]

Knutson attended the British Columbia Institute of Technology, graduating in journalism.

Career[]

Knutson, along with Geoffrey Kelly and John Mann, formed a band called Eavesdropper in 1983 and began playing in pubs in Vancouver.[1] The band was renamed Spirit of the West in 1985, and released a self-titled album that year.[2][1] Knutson recorded with the group until the release of their second album, Tripping Up the Stairs, [3] but left after festival performances and a tour of western Canada in 1987.[4][5]

He later performed both as a solo artist and as a supporting musician for Connie Kaldor, Ferron, Daniel Lavoie and Hart-Rouge.[6] He also worked for CKO, CBC Radio One and CFUN in Vancouver.

From 1998 to 2016 he was one of the two artistic directors of a youth music group called the North Shore Celtic Ensemble,[7][8] with whom he helped to record seven CDs.

He also taught alongside Mike Hayden at Simon Fraser University on a Physics course called "Logarithm and Blues".[9]

HIn 2017 he released a solo album, The Rite of Balance.[10] He is currently the lead vocalist for Early Spirit, a Vancouver-based contemporary folk music band.

Discography[]

  • The Last Family (1995)
  • The Last Family Album (1996)
  • Through These Windows (1998)
  • Thesis (2001)
  • Just J. Live @ The Sugar Suite (2006)
  • 1857 (un amour, une histoire) (2007)
  • The Rite of Balance (2017)

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b Michael Barclay; Ian A.D. Jack; Jason Schneider (June 2011). Have Not Been the Same: The CanRock Renaissance, 1985-1995. ECW Press. p. 380. ISBN 978-1-55490-968-1.
  2. ^ "Spirit of the West marks a milestone". Georgia Straight, by Alexander Varty on March 12th, 2008
  3. ^ "Spirit of the West". The Canadian Encyclopedia.
  4. ^ "Folk band puts music ahead of money". Brandon Sun, via Newspaper Archives. June 19, 1987 - Page 31
  5. ^ "Spirit of the West stays with its distinctive sound". Brandon Sun, via Newspaper Archives. July 20, 1987 - Page 13
  6. ^ Rich Terfry (June 26, 2013). "Rear-view Mirror: Who was "Suzanne" and why did Leonard Cohen make her famous?". CBC Radio.
  7. ^ "Faculty - NSCE.ca".
  8. ^ Jeremy Shepherd (December 9, 2016). "J. Knutson hanging up his skates after Christmas Crawl". North Shore News.
  9. ^ "PHYS 192: Logarithm & Blues".
  10. ^ "Reviewed: Nelly Furtado, Goldfrapp, Quatuor André Lachance, J. Knutson and the Airstreams". Vancouver Sun, Stuart Derdeyn, April 4, 2017.

External links[]

Retrieved from ""