Artist: Spirit Of The West, Album: Labour Day, Song: Political

Spirit Of The West are a Celtic rock band from Vancouver that started out in the early eighties.  They originated from the Vancouver pub scene when they were only a three piece band back then. They released their first independent self titled album in 1984.  Labour Day was actually their second album in 1988 and was nominated for the Juno, Best Roots & Traditional Album of the year.  It was recorded in Vancouver and the band toured Europe and North America in support of the album.  While in England, they played some big shows supporting a similar sounding band, The Wonder Stuff.  They realized at that point, that they needed to beef up their sound and promptly expanded to a five piece, adding a drummer and electric guitarist.  One more release and two years later, they would sign a major label deal with Warner Music and release their album, Save This House.  Strangely enough, the major label debut was the first album I had ever heard from Spirit Of The West and for the longest time, thought Labour Day came after it.  A year later, the band released my favourite track from Labour Day, entitled, Political, on their album, Go Figure.  They re-worked it, expanding the song's sound from it's original acoustic version.  The band would release another version of the song with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra on their 1999 greatest hits package, entitled, Hit Parade.  Personally, I love the original the best and you can find it now in two places.  The first would be on the original Labour Day release and the second, on a new compilation entitled, Spirituality: Consummate Compendium.  Both are available on Itunes and you can hear the original version on You Tube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ugz6IjpEWk).  The band is still touring today.  They have 13 releases to their credit and have been nominated for a Juno five times.  You can follow them at http://www.sotw.ca/.  Thanks for reading and enjoy!