John Kristjan Samson (born 1973)[1] is a Canadian musician from Winnipeg, Manitoba. He is a singer-songwriter and best known as the frontman of the Canadian indie folk/rock band The Weakerthans. He also played bass in the punk band Propagandhi during the mid-1990s. Today, Samson is making music under his own name, John K. Samson. His latest solo album, Winter Wheat, was released in 2016.
In 1993, while still a member of Propagandhi, Samson released a fifteen-track solo album on cassette tape, entitled Slips and Tangles. In 1995, six of these songs were featured on a split album shared with the now-defunct punk band Painted Thin. Following the critical success of The Weakerthans, Samson's side of the split was re-released online by G7 Welcoming Committee as a digitalEP in 2006.
In 1995, also while still in Propagandhi, Samson released the song "Letter of Resignation" on a split with F.Y.P. Although credited to Propagandhi, Samson was the only band member to appear on the song. He later rerecorded "Letter of Resignation" on The Weakerthans' debut album, Fallow.
Samson performing with the Weakerthans in Montreal, 2004
In 2006, he and his wife Christine Fellows recorded The Old House, an album intended as a Christmas gift for friends and family. They eventually released two songs, "Taps Reversed" and "Good Salvage", for airplay on CBC Radio 3 in 2007. Fellows and Samson also performed live on the network on March 17, 2007, to mark the final night of the network's terrestrial simulcast on CBC Radio 2. Both Samson and Fellows also participated in writing and performing music for Clive Holden's multimedia project Trains of Winnipeg.
Shortly afterward, Samson announced his first solo project since 1995's Little Pictures: a series of 7" releases about Manitoba roads, which he planned to release over the next 18 months. The first, City Route 85, was released on November 3, 2009, through Epitaph and ANTI-.[3] In August 2010, Samson announced his next EP, Provincial Road 222, to be released on September 21.[4] In December 2010, the Weakerthans performed four concerts in Winnipeg, one for each of their albums. In their final concert at the Burton Cummings Theatre, they performed all four of their albums in one night.
On August 15, 2016, Samson announced that his second solo album, Winter Wheat, would be released on October 21, 2016.[9] While technically a solo album, Winter Wheat features contributions by his Weakerthans bandmates Jason Tait and Greg Smith, and much of it was recorded by Weakerthans sound tech Cam Loeppky.
In 2018, Samson recorded a version of Fellows' "Saturday Night at Utopia Parkway" for a split single with American musician Kevin Devine.[10] In 2019 he collaborated with Safia Nolin on a cover of Taking Back Sunday's "Cute Without the E" for her EP xX3m0 $0ng$ 2 $!nG @L0nG 2Xx.[11]
In February 2020, Samson wrote and released "Millennium for All", a song supporting the activist campaign against the new security restrictions at Winnipeg's Millennium Library.[12] He followed up in July with the single "Fantasy Baseball at the End of the World".[13]
In February 2023, Fellows and Samson released Hold Music, an album of almost entirely instrumental music except one song with vocals by Samson. The album was credited to Vivat Virtute, the name of Fellows' online music and crafts store.
In 2008 and 2009, Samson spent several weeks working at the CBC's Winnipeg studios as part of the production team for the CBC Radio 2 program The Signal.[14]
Samson was a writer in residence at the University of Manitoba in 2013. He has also been adjunct professor with the Creative Writing Program at the University of British Columbia.
Propagandhi is a Canadian punk rock band formed in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba in 1986 by guitarist Chris Hannah and drummer Jord Samolesky. The band is currently located in Winnipeg, Manitoba and completed by bassist Todd Kowalski and guitarist Sulynn Hago.
G7 Welcoming Committee Records was a Canadian independent record label based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The label mostly released material by artists and speakers with a radical left-wing point of view.
Reconstruction Site is the third studio album by The Weakerthans, released on August 26, 2003. A song cycle about grief, regret, loss and eventual hope, the album is thematically framed by three tracks, "(Manifest)", "(Hospital Vespers)" and "(Past-Due)", which set three different sonnets following a terminally ill hospital patient into the aftermath of his death to the same melody.
Fallow is the debut studio album by The Weakerthans.
Christine Ann Fellows is a Canadian folk-pop singer-songwriter from Winnipeg, Manitoba.
The Weakerthans are a Canadian indie rock band from Winnipeg. The band, led by John K. Samson, has released four studio albums and is currently inactive.
Jason Tait is a Canadian musician from Winnipeg, Manitoba. He is the drummer for the Canadian indie rock band The Weakerthans. Tait has also been a contributing member of Broken Social Scene and The FemBots.
I Spy was a Canadian hardcore punk band founded in Regina, Saskatchewan, in 1991, relocated to Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1994, and disbanded in 1996. Combining childish humour and politically oriented emotive hardcore, the group released several records on Recess Records and toured internationally. Front man Todd Kowalski later joined Propagandhi.
Steve Lambke is a Canadian singer-songwriter. He is a vocalist and guitarist for the indie rock band Constantines, and formerly released solo material under the name Baby Eagle.
Reunion Tour is the fourth studio album by The Weakerthans, released on September 25, 2007, in Canada and the U.S. The album was released on both compact disc and vinyl record.
Painted Thin was a Canadian hardcore punk band, formed in Winnipeg, and active from 1993 to 1999. The core of the band consisted of vocalist and guitarist Stephen Carroll and bassist and vocalist Paul Furgale, with a variety of guest musicians, including James Ash, Dan McCafferty and Jason Tait, on individual recordings.
City Route 85 is a solo EP by John K. Samson of The Weakerthans, released October 30, 2009 on Grand Hotel van Cleef in Europe, and November 3, 2009 on ANTI-/Epitaph in North America. Samson's first solo release since the EP Little Pictures in 1995, it was the first in a planned series of three or four-song singles inspired by roads in his home province of Manitoba.
The following is a list of notable events and releases that occurred in 2010 Canadian music.
The discography of Canadian punk rock band Propagandhi, consists of seven studio albums, three extended plays, four splits, two live albums, three demo tapes, one compilation album and a handful of tracks released on various other compilations.
Imaginary Cities was a Canadian indie pop duo based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The project consisted of multi-instrumentalist Rusty Matyas, formerly of the Waking Eyes and a sometime collaborator of the Weakerthans, and vocalist Marti Sarbit.
The discography of The Weakerthans, a Canadian indie rock band, consists of four studio albums, one live album and concert video, one EP, one single, and eight music videos.
Greg Smith is a Canadian musician and painter based in Toronto, Ontario. He is best known as the bassist of indie rock band The Weakerthans, which he joined in August 2004, replacing founding bassist John P. Sutton. As a member of The Weakerthans, he contributed to their latest studio album, Reunion Tour, and is featured on their live release Live at the Burton Cummings Theatre, to which he also contributed the album cover. Since 2018, Greg has been the bassist for the indie rock band The Lowest of the Low.
The SOCAN Songwriting Prize, formerly known as the ECHO Songwriting Prize, is an annual competition recognizing the best in Canadian emerging music, both anglophone and francophone.
Winter Wheat is the second solo album by John K. Samson, released on October 21, 2016, via ANTI-. It is his first album of new material since The Weakerthans went on hiatus in 2015.
Jacob Brodovsky is a Canadian folk singer-songwriter from Winnipeg, Manitoba, most noted as the winner of the Canadian Folk Music Award for English Songwriter of the Year at the 19th Canadian Folk Music Awards in 2024.
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