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 Records

James 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]

Discography

Tamarack

James Gordon performing at Hillside Festival in 2008. His sons, Evan and Geordie, are behind him.

• 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 performing at Hillside Festival in 2008.

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

1. ^ Fink, Matt. "Mining For Gold: Twenty Years of Song Writing". acousticmusic.com. http://www.acousticmusic.com/fame/p01625.htm. Retrieved 20 January 2008. 
2. ^ Varano, Lisa. ^[dead link] "James Gordon". Guelph Mercury. http://news/guelphmercury.com/here/article/289710^{[dead link]}. Retrieved 19 February 2008. 
3. ^ bio at allmusic.com retrieved 01 June 2010
4. ^ "James Gordon". abetterworld.ca. http://www.abetterworld.ca/Pages/WFVIArtists/JamesGordon.htm. Retrieved 20 January 2008. ^{[dead link]}
5. ^ ^{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. 
6. ^ "James Gordon and Sons". Hillside Festival. http://www.hillside.on.ca/performer.php?id=129. Retrieved 21 May 2009. 
7. ^ "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. 
8. ^ "Healing and Recovery Through the Arts International Conference". http://www.cubaconferences.com/pages/healing_arts.htm. Retrieved 21 February 2008. 
9. ^ Van Wagner, Danielle. "Tryst and Snout (2007)". http://www.canadianshakespeares.ca/a_tryst_and_snout.cfm. Retrieved 19 February 2008. 

Persondata
Name	Gordon, James
Alternative names
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Date of birth	1955
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