It was the band's first album following the departure of Linda McRae, to whom the final song "The Hammer and the Bell" is dedicated. It was also the band's most directly folk-influenced album in many years, as "Canadian Skye", "Rites of Man", "Circus" and "The Hammer and the Bell" are all arranged partly around traditional Celticjigs and reels. This was once one of the band's trademarks, but one they had virtually abandoned on their 1990s albums.
For the album's supporting tour, Tobin Frank joined the band as a "special guest". He retained that billing for several years, but is now officially a member of the band.
Although the album was well received by critics, it was not widely promoted by the label, and sold poorly compared to the band's other 1990s efforts. It did not produce any hits for the band, although "Soldier's Boy" did receive limited airplay on Canadian radio.
Following this album, Spirit of the West were dropped from their record label. This was a common occurrence in the late 1990s for bands and artists who had solid, loyal fan bases but did not enjoy multiplatinum sales.
Like other such artists, Spirit of the West moved to an independent label for their subsequent albums. Warner released a greatest hits compilation by the band, Hit Parade, in 1999, but the band did not release an album of new material until Star Trails in 2004.
The glockenspiel is a percussion instrument composed of a set of tuned keys arranged in the fashion of the keyboard of a piano. In this way, it is similar to the xylophone, although the xylophone's bars are made of wood, while the glockenspiel's are metal plates or tubes, thus making it a metallophone. The glockenspiel, additionally, is usually smaller and, because of both its material and smaller size, higher in pitch.
Warner Music Australasia is the Australian division of the Warner Music Group. The company's operations also include distribution to New Zealand.
American Recordings is an American record label headed by producer Rick Rubin. The label has featured artists such as Slayer, the Black Crowes, ZZ Top, Danzig, Trouble, Tom Petty, Johnny Cash, The Mother Hips, and System of a Down.
Death Row Records was an American record label founded in 1992 by Dr. Dre, Suge Knight, The D.O.C. and Dick Griffey. The label became a sensation by releasing multi-platinum hip-hop albums by West Coast-based artists such as Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg (Doggystyle), Tha Dogg Pound, and Tupac Shakur during the 1990s. At its peak, Death Row was making over US$100 million a year.
Stax Records is an American record label, originally based in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1957 as Satellite Records, the label changed its name to Stax Records in 1961 and shared its operations with Volt Records, a sister label created to avoid the impression of favoritism among radio stations playing their records.
Take That are an English pop group formed in Manchester in 1990. The group currently consists of Gary Barlow, Howard Donald and Mark Owen. The original line-up also featured Jason Orange and Robbie Williams. Barlow is the group's lead singer and primary songwriter, with Owen and Williams initially providing backing vocals and Donald and Orange serving primarily as dancers.
Spirit of the West were a Canadian folk rock band from North Vancouver, active from 1983 to 2016. They were popular on the Canadian folk music scene in the 1980s before evolving a blend of hard rock, Britpop, and Celtic folk influences which made them one of Canada's most successful alternative rock acts in the 1990s.
Martin Lancelot Barre is an English guitarist best known for his longtime role as lead guitarist of British rock band Jethro Tull, with whom he recorded and toured from their second album Stand Up in 1969 to the band's initial dissolution in 2011. In the early 1990s he began a solo career, and has recorded several albums as well as touring with his own live band.
Warner Records Inc. is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group and headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1958 as the recorded music division of the American film studio Warner Bros., and was one of a group of labels owned and operated by larger parent corporations for much of its existence. The sequence of companies that controlled Warner Bros. and its allied labels evolved through a convoluted series of corporate mergers and acquisitions from the early 1960s to the early 2000s. Over this period, Warner Bros. Records grew from a struggling minor player in the music industry to one of the top record labels in the world.
Star Trails is a 2004 album by Canadian band Spirit of the West. It was their first album of new material since Weights and Measures in 1997, and their first for independent label MapleMusic Recordings, but their final album of new material.
Hit Parade is the second compilation album by Canadian folk rock group Spirit of the West, released on September 14, 1999 by Warner Music Canada.
Save This House is the fourth studio album by Canadian folk rock band Spirit of the West, released on February 20, 1990 by Warner Music Canada.
"One Tin Soldier" is a 1960s counterculture era anti-war song written by Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter. Canadian pop group The Original Caste first recorded it in 1969 for both the TA label and its parent Bell label.
State of the World Address is the third studio album by American heavy metal band Biohazard, released on May 24, 1994 by Warner Bros. Records. Sen Dog has a guest performance on the song "How It Is". Until 2012's Reborn In Defiance, this would be the final album to feature guitarist Bobby Hambel, who would leave the band after touring due to musical differences.
Glen Burtnik is a singer, songwriter, entertainer and multi-instrumentalist, best known as a former member of Styx. Burtnik is originally from North Brunswick, New Jersey, in the Middlesex County part of the Raritan Bayshore, of the larger Jersey Shore and lives in Asbury Park, New Jersey, both popular Jersey Shore towns. Burtnik has written hit songs for Randy Travis, Patty Smyth and Don Henley. The spelling of his name has shortened a few times over the years.
Milkwood was an Anglo-Canadian rock band formed in Toronto in March 1969 by former Influence guitarist Louis McKelvey with future Celine Dion backing singer Mary Lou Gauthier and English multi-instrumentalist Malcolm Tomlinson, who’d worked previously with future Jethro Tull guitarist Martin Barre in The Motivation, The Penny Peeps and Gethsemane.
The Badlees are an American roots rock band from Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania formed in 1990. They released several independent albums and achieved national success with their 1995 album River Songs. In 1998, after recording a follow-up album, Polydor/Atlas was sold to the Seagram Corporation, which delayed the release of the album and eventually led to the Badlees being dropped from the roster. They have continued to perform and produce albums independently, and released in 2013 the double album Epiphones and Empty Rooms. The Badlees and its individual members have inspired, mentored, advised, produced for, and performed with artists throughout the Pennsylvania music scene.
Pete Anderson is an American guitarist, music producer, arranger and songwriter.
Con Funk Shun is an American R&B and funk band whose popularity began in the mid-1970s and ran through the 1980s. Influences included Earth, Wind & Fire; Commodores; Chaka Khan; and Sly and the Family Stone. Signed to Mercury Records in 1976, Con Funk Shun enjoyed a decade of successful national and overseas tours, eleven chart-topping albums, and numerous hit singles, including a Billboard magazine "Number One With A Bullet" hit single on the Top R&B Singles chart. The group formally disbanded in 1986.
Spirituality 1983–2008: The Consummate Compendium is a greatest hits album by Spirit of the West, released by Rhino Records on July 15, 2008.
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