Spirit of the West singer also had TV career
John Mann, whose voice rang through countless Canadian celebrations as the lead singer of Celtic-inflected Spirit of the West, has died after a battle with early onset Alzheimer’s. He was 57.
The Calgary-born singer and songwriter died peacefully in Vancouver on Wednesday from the disease with which he was diagnosed several years ago, said Eric Alper, the band’s publicist.
A four-time Juno nominee for his work with Spirit of the West, Mann and his band became underground heroes for their politically savvy, musically diverse songwriting, which fused traditional strains of folk, Celtic and turn-of-the-’90s alt-rock.
Mann was born Sept. 18, 1962. He studied theatre at Vancouver’s Langara College.
In 1983, he hooked up with Geoffrey Kelly and J. Knutson, and independently released their self-titled debut in 1984.
They got more attention with 1986’s Tripping Up the Stairs, an eclectic stunner, several songs built around traditional jigs.
In 1988, the band solidified its reputation with Labour Day and its wryly titled breakup tune, Political, which Mann wrote. The song gave the band its first Juno nomination.
Save This House in 1990 gave the band its first platinum album, helped by the single Home for a Rest.
Go Figure, from 1991, funnelled the band’s rootsy influences into a significantly harder-rocking framework, with songs taking aim at Brian Mulroney. Even Political was re-recorded, newly jolted by electronics.
They struck platinum again with 1993’s Faithlift, tackling issues as heavy as riots, the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal and Yellowknife’s Giant Mine explosion.
Mann wrote And If Venice is Sinking about his honeymoon. He was married to playwright Jill Daum; they had two children.
As the band wound down and went on hiatus, Mann rekindled his acting career with roles on Stargate SG-1, Smallville, Battlestar Galactica and Intelligence.
He released three solo records. The Waiting Room, from 2014, tackled Mann’s long fight with cancer.
He learned he was sick in 2009, and spent months in a hospital bed. He’d fully recovered by 2011, but by 2014 he made public his diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer’s.
The 2016 documentary Spirit Unforgettable captures Mann in those years as he leans on his wife to push through the band’s final performances.
“How these fellows band together and support each other in adversity, I just think is stunningly beautiful,” Daum said in 2016.