Kyp Harness
Encyclopedia
Kyp Harness is a Canadian
social activist and folk singer, known for the poetry of his lyrics.
in 1964. 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
.
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. 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. Drummer Don Kerr
produced the album, 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), 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.
1998 saw the release of Houdini in Reverse, 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. 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, 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 Holland 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." 2006 also saw Harness revealing another aspect of his talent with the release of his book The Art of Laurel and Hardy, an idiosyncratic study of the 1930s comedy team published by McFarland
in North Carolina.
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."
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
social activist and folk singer, known for the poetry of his lyrics.
Biography
Harness was born in Sarnia, OntarioSarnia, Ontario
Sarnia is a city in Southern Ontario, Canada . It is the largest city on Lake Huron and is located where the upper Great Lakes empty into the St. Clair River....
in 1964. 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
Ron Sexsmith
Ronald Eldon "Ron" Sexsmith is a Canadian singer-songwriter from St. Catharines, Ontario, currently based in Toronto. He started his own band when he was fourteen years old, and released the first recordings of his own material seven years later, in 1985...
, Bob Wiseman
Bob Wiseman
Bob Wiseman is a Juno winning Canadian musician, filmmaker, singer-songwriter, and actor. Wiseman was an original member of Blue Rodeo.-Career:Wiseman was raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He studied piano at York University...
, and Bob Snider
Bob Snider
Bob Snider is a singer/songwriter from Toronto via Nova Scotia, Canada.A folk musician, Snider plays almost exclusively songs he has written himself, although notable exception was at the Bear River Reunion, where he played a cover of an old blues tune....
.
In 1987 Harness recorded a demo tape with Bob Wiseman
Bob Wiseman
Bob Wiseman is a Juno winning Canadian musician, filmmaker, singer-songwriter, and actor. Wiseman was an original member of Blue Rodeo.-Career:Wiseman was raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He studied piano at York University...
, then of Canadian roots-rock group Blue Rodeo
Blue Rodeo
Blue Rodeo is a Canadian pop and country rock band, which was formed in 1984 in Toronto, Ontario. They have been signed with Warner Music Group since their debut album Outskirts in March 1987...
. Songs from the recording emerged with others on Harness' debut release 'Nowhere Fast in 1991. 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. Drummer Don Kerr
Don Kerr
Don Kerr is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist and record producer.He was a member of Rheostatics from 1995 to May 2001. He plays in Ron Sexsmith's band, and sometimes with The Kelele Brothers. He and Sexsmith released an album together, Destination Unknown, in 2005...
produced the album, 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
Bob Wiseman
Bob Wiseman is a Juno winning Canadian musician, filmmaker, singer-songwriter, and actor. Wiseman was an original member of Blue Rodeo.-Career:Wiseman was raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He studied piano at York University...
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), 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.
1998 saw the release of Houdini in Reverse, 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. 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, 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 dinner is ruined
The Dinner Is Ruined is a Canadian indie rock band. Formed in 1991 by Dale Morningstar, the band plays an experimental and improvisational brand of blues rock.The band members are Dale Morningstar, Dave Clark and Dr. Johnny Pee...
. The first disc mixes the rockers with spirituals and ballads, while the second disc focuses on acoustic songs about death and mortality. Exclaim!
Exclaim!
Exclaim! is a monthly Canadian music magazine that features in-depth coverage of new music across all genres with special focus on Canadian and cutting-edge artists...
magazine stated "Harness has assembled a songbook which should rightly be regarded as a national treasure". Heaven
Heaven
Heaven, the Heavens or Seven Heavens, is a common religious cosmological or metaphysical term for the physical or transcendent place from which heavenly beings originate, are enthroned or inhabit...
, an alt-country magazine from Holland 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
David Matheson
David Matheson was a member of Moxy Früvous and The Ground Crew. Along with Maury Lafoy on upright bass, Matheson entertains audience members at tapings of the Royal Canadian Air Farce at the CBC's Canadian Broadcasting Centre in Toronto, Ontario as "The Ground Crew".- Discography :* Dave Matheson...
, formerly of the pop group Moxy Früvous
Moxy Früvous
Moxy Früvous was a politically satirical folk-pop band from Thornhill, Ontario, Canada. The band was founded in 1989, and was active throughout the 1990s...
. 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
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
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." 2006 also saw Harness revealing another aspect of his talent with the release of his book The Art of Laurel and Hardy, an idiosyncratic study of the 1930s comedy team published by McFarland
McFarland & Company
McFarland & Company, Inc. is a book publisher of primarily academic and adult nonfiction based in Jefferson, North Carolina. Its president and editor-in-chief is Robert Franklin, who began the enterprise in 1979...
in North Carolina.
Harness has been associated with other Canadian singer songwriters, such as Daniel Lanois
Daniel Lanois
Daniel Lanois born September 19, 1951 in Hull, Quebec) is a Canadian record producer, guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. He has released a number of albums of his own work and has produced albums for a wide variety of artists, including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, Emmylou Harris, Willie...
, Kathleen Yearwood
Kathleen Yearwood
Kathleen Yearwood is a Canadian experimental singer-songwriter and author, born in 1958.From Subterranean Records description of Kathleen Yearwood:...
, who covers three Harness songs on her Doglogic album. Mary Margaret O'Hara
Mary Margaret O'Hara
Mary Margaret O'Hara is a Canadian singer-songwriter and actress, who has been hailed as one of the greatest cult heroines in rock music despite having released very few of her own recordings. She is best known for the critically acclaimed album Miss America, released in 1988.-Early stages:O'Hara...
, Bob Wiseman
Bob Wiseman
Bob Wiseman is a Juno winning Canadian musician, filmmaker, singer-songwriter, and actor. Wiseman was an original member of Blue Rodeo.-Career:Wiseman was raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He studied piano at York University...
and Ron Sexsmith
Ron Sexsmith
Ronald Eldon "Ron" Sexsmith is a Canadian singer-songwriter from St. Catharines, Ontario, currently based in Toronto. He started his own band when he was fourteen years old, and released the first recordings of his own material seven years later, in 1985...
, who covers Harness' 'Thumbelina Farewell' on his Blue Boy
Blue Boy (album)
Blue Boy is a 2001 album from Canadian singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith. It was recorded in Nashville, and was produced by Steve Earle and his partner Ray Kennedy as the "Twangtrust." It includes a cover of the Kyp Harness song "Thumbelina Farewell."...
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
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, Cohen
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships...
and Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
combined." Exclaim
EXCLAIM
The EXtensible Cross-Linguistic Automatic Information Machine is an integrated tool for cross-language information retrieval , created at the University of California, Santa Cruz in early 2006. It is currently in a beta stage of development, with some support for more than a dozen languages...
s Michael Barclay stated in 2003 that Harness's work "should rightfully be hailed as a national treasure."
Discography
- Nowhere Fast - 1991
- God's Footstool (Amatish) - 1992
- Welcome to the Revolution (Amatish) - 1994
- Houdini in Reverse - 1998
- All Her Love (Porterbeach) - 2001
- The Floating World (Porterbeach) - 2002
- The Miracle Business (Porterbeach) - 2004
- Fugitives - 2006