Artist: The Grapes Of Wrath, Album: Treehouse, Song: Peace Of Mind

"My father couldn't bother to play the kind of role a child required.  Instead of trying, he retired."  The Grapes Of Wrath are a rock band from Kelowna, British Columbia.  The founding members are brothers, Chris and Tom Hooper along with Kevin Kane.  The guys met during the late seventies and were a part of the growing punk and art rock scene developing on the west coast.  They decided to play some gigs together during the early eighties and by 1984 produced a 4 song demo that caught the attention of Nettwerk Records.  The label re-issued it and the following year, the band released it's debut album entitled, September Bowl Of Green.  Their debut spawned a couple of singles that achieved strong video and radio support in Canada which in turn attracted the attention of Capitol Records.  Their growing popularity also linked the band with Tom Cochrane, who had remixed a couple of the tracks off their debut and became inspired enough to assume the role of producer for their sophomore release, Treehouse, in 1987.  Any Canadian listening to alternative rock during the eighties would probably count this record as one of our country's all time greats.  I believe it has achieved gold status sales and it became a radio and video staple .  The album had two or three strong singles and one of them was this tune called, Peace Of Mind.  You can watch the video for the song on You Tube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7dB8lEW2iY).  The band would go on to release two more very good albums between 1987 and 1991 before calling it quits in 1992.  Some of the members soldiered on in a new band called Ginger for a couple of albums as well.  The band was nominated for two Junos in 1990 for Single Of The Year as well as Best Video.  Unfortunately, they lost out to Alannah Myles and Andrew Cash (see blog 2/12/11) respectively.  The band has reformed recently and played a number of shows this past year.  You can follow them at http://grapesofwrath.ca/.  You can purchase the album, Treehouse, on Itunes.  Thanks for reading and enjoy!