J. Knutson

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. 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.
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