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March 16, 2008
Cormier
planning to shift focus from touring to songwriting and
recording
-by John Gillis
It’s not
every day you can walk into a live music event and hear a
Canadian artist deliver a phenomenal cover version of one of
the finest folk songs ever written in Canada, but that’s
what music fans heard J.P. Cormier do Sunday afternoon at
the Celtic Music Centre in Judique when he played Gordon
Lightfoot’s Great Canadian Railroad Trilogy. For as much as
the Cape Breton multi-instrumentalist is known for his
skills on the strings, his singing, songwriting and studio
production skills, his delivery of this song alone would
make him a performer worth seeing.
Cormier
fielded many requests for songs throughout the afternoon.
Whether it was his original numbers or his fine
interpretations of Gordon Lightfoot songs, Cormier displayed
his command of both with versions of his own When All the
Work Is Done and Lightfoot’s Did She Mention My Name.
Cormier also thrilled the audience and the dancers as well
with his instrumental works on guitar. Throughout the
afternoon he played solo and was accompanied at various
times by Betty Beaton on piano and Pius MacIsaac on guitar.
There were many musicians in the appreciative audience as
well and Kinnon and Betty Beaton, and Mabou’s Dawn and
Margie Beaton were some of the musicians who performed
during Cormier’s break. The fine spring-like weather Sunday
afternoon certainly encouraged a large number of people to
leave the comforts of home and come out for the enjoyable
show.
The
multiple award-winning Cormier has always been busy, and for
the past three years he’s been performing with his wife
Hilda Chaison-Cormier and fellow multi-instrumentalist
Darren McMullen as the JP Cormier Trio. It’s not unusual for
the trio to perform 200 or more dates a year. “I’ve been on
the road for 26 years now, and in the next few years we’d
like to cut back on that to focus more on recording and
songwriting,” he said.
Cormier’s
concert dates for this calendar year are also beginning to
be filled, including the Mariposa Folk Festival in Ontario
in July, the American Folk Festival in Bangor, Maine in
August and Cape Breton’s Celtic Colours International
Festival in October.
Cormier
recently returned home from a songwriting trip to Nashville
where he did some co-writing with his friend Gordie Sampson.
While co-writing seems to be a growing trend in the music
industry, it’s nothing new for J.P. “I’ve always enjoyed
co-writing. Two heads are always better than one, and I’ve
been working on getting a publishing deal south of the
border,” he said Monday from his studio home in Cap Lemoyne.
The
Cormiers will soon depart for the Middle East where they
will conduct a brief tour of the Kingdom of Bahrain. Cormier
has been getting plenty of radio play in Bahrain, and four
shows are scheduled over a nine-day period. They include a
concert that’s already sold out the country’s largest venue,
a private concert for the king, a cabaret show and a
workshop.
The
prolific Cormier has done a fine job marketing his
recordings through his own record company and through an
effective use of the internet. “I just returned from the
post office where I shipped CDs to Nunavet and Holland,” he
said.
Cormier’s
fans will be happy to learn that his next recording project
will be a new CD of original songs called The Messenger.
It’s expected to be released this coming June, and it’s just
one of the many recording projects that Cormier has in the
works. They include a new guitar volume of Primary Colours,
tentatively called Guitar Man, and a Christmas CD that is
expected to be released later this year and much more. Proof
that while Cormier may be tiring of the road, the creative
well is far far from being dry.
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