Spirit of the West releases double CD best-of album after 25 years

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/07/2008 (6290 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO – After 25 years of making music, constantly criss-crossing Canada and touring abroad – and adding a few seminal songs to the canon of Canadian rock – Spirit of the West is releasing a compilation of its best work and going back on the road.

Maybe just a little reluctantly, though, because as the refrain of their most oft-played and popular song goes, the band members – now entering middle age – long to be home for a rest.

The double CD, “Spirituality: The Consummate Compendium -’83-2008,” was released Tuesday and drummer Vince Ditrich said it’s a proud look back at a 12-album career that has seen Spirit of the West go from folk to rock and back again.

“Home for a Rest,” arguably the definitive Canadian drinking song, serves as an unofficial theme for hungover university students and inspires singalongs when it’s played in bars.

The band had no idea it would strike a chord with so many people when it was written, but over the years it became their trademark and never fails to throw a crowd into hysterics.

The band has other familiar songs, such as like “Political,” “If Venice Is Sinking” and “Save This House” – now the theme for a home renovation TV show – but none as well known as “Home for a Rest.”

“At this point now I realize, all these years later, that this is a song that’s got a life of its own,” Ditrich said in an interview.

“It’s gone on for so long that it’s achieved a critical mass and now it’s just part of the consciousness of a certain segment of the population.”

Ironically, it’s the song’s energetic, louder and harder edge that threatened the band’s success in the early ’90s, when Ditrich joined the group and added drums to the folky sound fans were accustomed to.

Just as Bob Dylan found in the’60s when he went electric for the first time and was booed mercilessly, Spirit of the West faced resistance in adopting a new sound. Fans even started a petition campaign in protest.

“I didn’t really care, frankly, because I was hired on specifically to make that happen. And so people were complaining about it but I knew most of them would be won over eventually because it was going to be musical, it wasn’t going to be just noise,” Ditrich recalled.

“So even if you lost a few fans you would gain many, many others and unfortunately, I had to think about it that way because my task was to become the drummer – add some backbone to this small little folky band. And I think the fact that the band changed when it did, and how it did, was key to us still being around and kicking a quarter of a century later.”

The timing was good for a greatest hits compilation – which includes two new songs including the single “Another Happy New Year” – because the band is just now preparing to make music the focus again after exploring side-projects.

Lead singer John Mann, in particular, might be just as recognizable for his music as he is for his roles on TV shows like “Intelligence,” “Bionic Woman,” “Whistler,” “Battlestar Galactica,” “Da Vinci’s Inquest,” “Smallville” and “Stargate SG-1.” He’s also appeared in films including “The Chronicles of Riddick”, “Catwoman,” “Underworld: Evolution” and “Return to the Blue Lagoon.”

And while everyone is excited to get back on stage – and eventually back in the studio, maybe next year – times have changed and the band won’t be touring as relentlessly as in the past.

“I lived out of a suitcase for 25 years, basically,” Ditrich said. “From the age that I was old enough to play in these bars I was doing it nonstop for years and years and years, so there’s just really no thrill in flying to Toronto – I’ve just done it so many times.”

The band’s tour is currently booked through October and includes folk festivals and shows in Vancouver, Toronto, Edmonton, Buffalo, N.Y., as well as Comox, Salmon Arm and Sooke in British Columbia and Markham and Huntsville in Ontario.