- James Gordon (Canadian musician)
-
James Gordon
James Gordon performing at the Hillside Festival, which he co-founded in 1984.Residence Guelph, Ontario Occupation singer-songwriter Known for Tamarack, "Frobisher Bay", Hillside Festival Spouse Val Morse Children Evan Gordon, Geordie Gordon Website http://www.jamesgordon.ca Notes Folk Era RecordsJames Gordon is a Canadian singer-songwriter, known as a founding member of Tamarack.[1] He has also released more than 20 solo albums. As a prolific songwriter, he is known for such diverse songs as "Sweaters for Penguins" and "Frobisher Bay".[2] He wrote the weekly song for the CBC Radio program Basic Black. He is proficient on a variety of instruments including guitar, piano, banjo and mandola.[3]
He has toured internationally in North America, the British Isles, Southeast Asia, and Cuba.[4]
His songs have been covered by other musical artists such as the Cowboy Junkies ("Mining for Gold") and Melanie Doane.
He is a co-founder of Guelph's annual Hillside Festival and was its first creative director, from 1985 to 1988.[5][6] He also founded (and was the artistic director of) the Canadian Songwriters' Festival,[5] and was a board member of the Ontario Council of Folk Festivals. Gordon is active in arts-, civics-, and environment-related causes in the Guelph region, for which he was given the Guelph Mayor's Award in 2008.[5]
He was the candidate for the Ontario New Democratic Party in the riding of Guelph in the 2011 Ontario provincial election but lost to incumbent Liz Sandals.[7]
Contents
Discography
Tamarack
- Au Canada (1980)
- Wind River
- Spirit & Stone
- 13
- Fields of Rock and Snow (1993)
- Frobisher Bay (1993)
- Leaving Inverarden (1995)
- Blankets of Snow (1998)
Solo recordings
- Looking for Livingstone (1987)
- Farther Along (1991)
- Hometown Tunes (1994)
- Dim Lights, Small City (1995)
- More Hometown Tunes (1997)
- Pipe Street Dreams (1999)
- Mining for Gold: Twenty Years of Songwriting (2002)
- Tune Cooties (2002)
- Endomusia (2004), includes "Weapons of Mass Instruction"
- Nine Green Bottles (2007), includes "Casey Sheehan Didn't Die for Nothing"
Folk operas (musicals)
James Gordon used to perform with David Archibald as "Jim and Dave", producing family-oriented musicals.
- Jim and Dave's Awesome Environmental Adventure (1990)
- Jim and Dave's Awesome Search for the Golden Toad (1992)
- Jim and Dave's Awesome Supernatural Camping Adventure (1993)
More recently, his work includes:
- Hardscrabble Road (2003)
- Two Steps and a Glass of Water (2005), which deals with mental illness and health, also a film by Glenn Curtis [8]
- Tryst and Snout (2007)[9]
Cinema
- "Mining for Gold" on the soundtrack of the film Silver City (2004)
- Two Steps and a Glass of Water
References
- ^ Fink, Matt. "Mining For Gold: Twenty Years of Song Writing". acousticmusic.com. http://www.acousticmusic.com/fame/p01625.htm. Retrieved 20 January 2008.
- ^ Varano, Lisa. [dead link] "James Gordon". Guelph Mercury. http://news/guelphmercury.com/here/article/289710[dead link]. Retrieved 19 February 2008.
- ^ bio at allmusic.com retrieved 01 June 2010
- ^ "James Gordon". abetterworld.ca. http://www.abetterworld.ca/Pages/WFVIArtists/JamesGordon.htm. Retrieved 20 January 2008.[dead link]
- ^ a b c "James Gordon, 2008 Mayor's Award Recipient". Guelph.ca. http://guelph.ca/cityhall.cfm?itemid=77273&smocid=2479. Retrieved 21 May 2009.
- ^ "James Gordon and Sons". Hillside Festival. http://www.hillside.on.ca/performer.php?id=129. Retrieved 21 May 2009.
- ^ "Wheeler withdraws from NDP race, Gordon remains". Guelph Mercury. 14 June 2011. http://www.guelphmercury.com/news/local/article/547344--james-gordon-accepts-ndp-nomination. Retrieved 1 August 2011.
- ^ "Healing and Recovery Through the Arts International Conference". http://www.cubaconferences.com/pages/healing_arts.htm. Retrieved 21 February 2008.
- ^ Van Wagner, Danielle. "Tryst and Snout (2007)". http://www.canadianshakespeares.ca/a_tryst_and_snout.cfm. Retrieved 19 February 2008.
Categories:- 1955 births
- Living people
- Canadian singer-songwriters
- Canadian folk musicians
- Anti–Iraq War activists
- Canadian anti-war activists
- Ontario New Democratic Party candidates in Ontario provincial elections
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