 |
Kyp Harness (born December 9, 1964) [1] is a Canadian social activist and folk singer, known for the poetry of his lyrics.
|
Kyp Harness (born December 9, 1964) [1] is a Canadian social activist and folk singer, known for the poetry of his lyrics.
Harness was born in Sarnia, Ontario in 1964. [2] He arrived in Toronto, Ontario in 1984 and began playing in coffee houses and open stages across the city, most notably Fat Albert's, where he met fellow songwriters Ron Sexsmith, Bob Wiseman, and Bob Snider. [3]
In 1987 Harness recorded a demo tape with Bob Wiseman, then of Canadian roots-rock group Blue Rodeo. Songs from the recording emerged with others on Harness' debut release Nowhere Fast in 1991. [2] From the beginning, the bleak, wry poetry found on the admittedly low-fi release attracted attention, with Crash Magazine declaring "Kyp has his own style. It may not be a style that everyone likes, but there are those of us who think he's a kind of genius".
Harness' first CD release, God's Footstool (Amatish), followed in 1992. [2] [4] Drummer Don Kerr produced the album, [4] diverging from the bare bones sound of 'Nowhere Fast' to implement cello, trumpet, and sax in creating a more colourful backdrop for Harness' circusy/cinematic lyrics. Canadian Composer noted it was "an album that sparkles with rich, vital imagery and audacious song arrangements", with Bob Wiseman proclaiming in the same article "He's a genius, a revolutionary...he creates pieces that are dense with imagery yet are continually stimulating, informative and innovative."
In 1994 Harness released Welcome to the Revolution (Amatish), [2] a stark album of raw folk-based music, which included intensely narrative-driven songs like "Song for a Man", "Ballad of Curtis Merton", "Jackson Homer" and "Chemical Valley", painting pictures of alienation, Everyman angst, environmental collapse, and apocalyptic fury. Melodic laments such as 'Wayward Son' and 'Remember Love' offered some respite from the grimness, and overall the release featured some of Harness' finest writing. The Toronto Star called it one of the year's "most passionate and articulate albums". A video shot on super 8 mm and 16 mm film for "Chemical Valley" was released in 1995 by Toronto-based director Liz Marshall.
Houdini in Reverse was released in 1998, an upbeat pop/rock band-driven album featuring Harness classics "Good Old Days", "Old Grey House", and "You're the One". The record prompted Id Magazine to observe that "Harness is an urban poet of the highest order; no-one who cares about the state of songwriting in this country or any other can afford to ignore him any longer". The Calgary Straight noted "I won't mince words: Right now, Kyp Harness is the most vital, essential Canadian singer-songwriter out there."
Harness released All Her Love in 2001 with the Porterbeach label, presenting a country-tinged selection of songs. [5] The lyrics told stories commenting on, as The Peterborough Examiner put it, "the fragility of human existence". Toronto's eye magazine remarked "Harness is one of the best songwriters this city - if not this country - has ever seen".
Porterbeach also released the double album The Floating World in 2002, [6] a tour de force of 26 songs running the gamut from solo acoustic ballads to bar-room rockers featuring the avant-garde rock trio The Dinner Is Ruined. The first disc mixes the rockers with spirituals and ballads, while the second disc focuses on acoustic songs about death and mortality. Exclaim! magazine stated "Harness has assembled a songbook which should rightly be regarded as a national treasure". Heaven, an alt-country magazine from the Netherlands proclaimed him "one of the best songwriters in the world", while The Moncton Transcript observed "...he is one of the finest songwriters this country has produced."
The Miracle Business (Porterbeach) followed in 2004, a more focussed album produced by David Matheson, formerly of the pop group Moxy Früvous. One of Harness' most polished recordings, the album contains the pop songs "Diamonds in the Air" and "Mayor of Crazytown" as well as poetic pieces such as "Horseman" and "Fields of Plenty". Porterbeach also put out a book of Harness' lyrics to date, Journey to the Sun, containing the words to 101 songs.
Fugitives in 2006 found Harness affirming his Christian faith with such proclamations as "Man on the Cross", "Devil's Got a Foothold in your Heart" and "Calm Down", and in the liner notes he describes his vision of God as "far from being a mascot for war, for stealing from the poor to give to the rich, for anti-choice and sexual discrimination." [7] [8] Harness revealed another aspect of his talent with the release of his book The Art of Laurel and Hardy in 2006. The book is an idiosyncratic study of the 1930s comedy team published by McFarland in North Carolina. [9]
In 2007, McFarland published 'The Art of Charlie Chaplin' by Kyp Harness.
In 2009 Harness launched a webcomic, Mortimer the Slug, which updates every weekday.
In 2011, Harness released his ninth independent album, Resurrection Gold.
Harness has been associated with other Canadian singer songwriters, such as Daniel Lanois, Kathleen Yearwood, who covers three Harness songs on her Doglogic album. Mary Margaret O'Hara, Bob Wiseman and Ron Sexsmith, who covers Harness' "Thumbelina Farewell" on his Blue Boy album (2001). Lanois calls him a "great writer", and Ron Sexsmith refers to him as "my favourite songwriter...it's his lyrics that set him apart. They are every bit as powerful as the best Dylan, Cohen and Lennon combined." Exclaim 's Michael Barclay stated in 2003 that Harness's work "should rightfully be hailed as a national treasure." [6]
In 2016, Harness published his debut novel Wigford Rememberies. [10] The book won the ReLit Award for Fiction in 2017. [11] He received another ReLit nomination in 2019 for The Abandoned. [12]
Harness is based in Toronto and has two children with his wife and poet Allison Grayhurst.
Daniel Roland Lanois is a Canadian record producer and musician.
Ronald Eldon Sexsmith is a Canadian singer-songwriter from St. Catharines, Ontario. He was the songwriter of the year at the 2005 Juno Awards. He began releasing recordings of his own material in 1985 at age 21, and has since recorded seventeen albums. He was the subject of a 2010 documentary called Love Shines.
Mary Margaret O'Hara is a Canadian singer-songwriter, actress and composer. She is best known for the album Miss America, released in 1988. She released two albums and an EP under her own name, and remains active as a live performer, as a contributor to compilation albums and as a guest collaborator on other artists' albums.
The Dinner Is Ruined is a Canadian indie rock band. the band plays an experimental and improvisational brand of blues rock. The band members are Dale Morningstar, Dave Clark and Dr. Johnny Pee.
Thomas Lazare Wilson is a Canadian rock musician from Hamilton, Ontario. A veteran of the Canadian music scene, Wilson has been a writer and performer for many years. Wilson's eclectic musical style has ranged from the psychobilly / R&B sounds of the Florida Razors, to the western/roots style of Blackie and the Rodeo Kings and the funk/blues-inspired rock of Junkhouse.
Pierre Marchand is a Canadian songwriter, musician and record producer.
Robert Neil Wiseman is a film composer, songwriter, author and music teacher. Wiseman discovered or produced many artists including Ron Sexsmith, The Lowest of the Low, Bruce McCulloch of Kids in the Hall, Anhai, and former Canadian member of parliament Andrew Cash. He is a founding member of Blue Rodeo with whom he won 5 Juno Awards.
Don Kerr is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist and record producer. He is the drummer, lead singer and front man of Toronto band, Communism. He plays in Ron Sexsmith's band, and sometimes with The Kelele Brothers and Dan Mangan.
A Painter Passing Through is the eighteenth studio album by Canadian singer Gordon Lightfoot, released in 1998 on Reprise Records. It was his first album of original music in five years after Waiting for You, which had been his first since 1986's East of Midnight. Well-known record producer Daniel Lanois makes a guest appearance on the album. A Painter Passing Through is a live studio album.
Ron Sexsmith is the second album and major-label debut album by Canadian singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith, released in 1995 on Interscope Records. The album's liner notes feature a dedication to Harry Nilsson. "Secret Heart" appeared in The X Files episode Babylon.
Lori Cullen is a Canadian pop and jazz singer-songwriter. She has released seven albums as a solo artist, has collaborated with other artists as a guest musician, and is a Juno Award nominee.
Michael Holt is an American musician based in Truro, Massachusetts. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1968, and raised in New York City, where he learned to play the piano as a child.
Blue Boy is a studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith, released in 2001. Sexsmith's former label, Interscope, refused to release the album; Sexsmith eventually was able to license and shop it.
Bob Snider is a Canadian singer/songwriter.
Justin John Rutledge is a Toronto-based Canadian alternative country singer-songwriter signed to Outside Music.
Love Shines is a documentary film about Canadian songwriter Ron Sexsmith by filmmaker Douglas Arrowsmith. The film is produced by Paperny Entertainment and commissioned by The Movie Network and Movie Central with funding from Astral Media's Harold Greenberg Fund and the Rogers Documentary Fund.
Jerry Leger is a Canadian singer-songwriter. Since 2005, he has released 13 albums.
Douglas Arrowsmith is a Canadian film director and writer. He has produced award-winning documentaries for CBC Television, music videos, and feature-length films for BBC Four, The Movie Network and HBO Canada.
Emilie Mover is a Canadian singer-songwriter who writes music in genres such as folk, jazz, and children's music. She has released a number of solo albums in diverse styles, and in 2013 her solo album The Stella and Sam Album won the Juno Award for Children's Album of the Year. A frequent guest artist, she performed the vocals for the Lost Girl theme song in 2010, and her music has appeared on Girls, Pretty Little Liars, and Grey's Anatomy.
Club Meds is the fourth studio album by Juno winning Canadian singer-songwriter Dan Mangan, released on 13 January 2015. It is his first album to be released under the moniker Dan Mangan + Blacksmith.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
