JKS Updates http://johnksamson.com/updates News and updates from John K. Samson. en Fri, 11 May 2012 13:27:19 +0000 05/11/2012 http://johnksamson.com/updates/entry/68 jks_update_68 The Provincial Band and I will be in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland for the last leg of our tour for Provincial. We start Tuesday at the Wiesbaden Schlacthof, one of the first venues I played in Europe in 1992.

We are all especially excited about Zurich, where it has been agreed that all us ex-smokers will partake in one Parisienne Jaune cigarette each.

Our bass player Professor Doug Friesen has asked us each to learn a Shakespearian soliloquy to recite during autobahn traffic jams. I’m going with All I Need, from The Jerk, by modern master Steve Martin.

In very important news for Winnipeggers, I have a stickybun in the heated Jonnies Stickybun competition next week. Mine is called “The Lefty,” and is a vegan lavender/poppyseed creation. Winnipeggers, please help The Lefty win by purchasing as many as you can at Jonnies or Parlour Coffee.

If you haven’t yet, please sign the song/petition to get the great Reggie Leach into the Hockey Hall of Fame. This week is the 36th anniversary of his incredible Conn Smythe Trophy winning Stanley Cup series.

Happy gardening.

]]> Fri, 11 May 2012 19:59:18 +0000 03/26/2012 http://johnksamson.com/updates/entry/67 jks_update_67 Just about to start the very large western leg of the North American tour. European dates are up now, too. See the shows page.

]]> Tue, 27 Mar 2012 04:35:48 +0000 02/14/2012 http://johnksamson.com/updates/entry/49 jks_update_49 “Even if I don’t get in, it’s just great to have all these people signing it, behind it, behind me. Their support is my Hockey Hall of Fame.” — Reggie Leach in the Manitoulin Expositor, February 14, 2012.

I am really pleased that my song/petition to induct the great Reggie Leach into the Hockey Hall of Fame—www.ipetitions.com/petition/rivertonrifle/—now has more than 1000 signatures. I’d like to submit the petition to the Hall at the end of 2012 in the hopes that they will consider Reggie for induction in 2013. Please sign the petition and ask others to do so. (Oh, ipeitions.com will ask you to donate to their site, but please do not feel obliged. Your signature will be registered either way.)

A fellow named Aaron Hymes made a video for Longitudinal Centre. It uses footage my friend Erika took on a day we spent driving up to Riverton, Manitoba late last year:

February has called for a strange mix of library choices, from remarkable novels (The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim, by Jonathan Coe, Mean Boy, by Lynn Coady), to some self-help ( Calming Your Anxious Mind—How Mindfulness and Compassion Can Free You From Anxiety, Fear, and Panic, by Jeffrey Brantley and Jon Kabat-Zinn), along with the Manning Marable Malcolm X biography. Oh, and Satan is Real—The Ballad of the Louvin Brothers may be the best and weirdest music biography I have ever read. Better even than my former favourite, Wunnerful Wunnerful: The Autobiography of Lawrence Welk. Which is an incredible read, by the way.

Hope winter is treating you well.

]]> Wed, 15 Feb 2012 02:44:45 +0000 01/26/2012 http://johnksamson.com/updates/entry/48 jks_update_48 Provincial and Lyrics and Poems are out all over North America, Europe friday. Winnipeggers, I will be at the Folk Festival Music store on friday the 27th at 12:30 to play some songs, then Music Trader later in the day at 7:00 to do the same, and Saturday I will be signing books and records at McNally Robinson bookstore from 2 to 4 if you feel like coming by.

Now focused on getting back in the van for the upcoming tour (check out the dates), with my comrades Cam Loeppky on sound, Doug MacGregor on drums, Doug Friesen on bass, and Shotgun Jimmie on lead guitar and opening act.

European dates will be in May, more soon.

I am reading and then re-reading Matthew Zapruder’s Come On All You Ghosts. Then I read it again. You should get it.

]]> Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:25:47 +0000 01/17/2012 http://johnksamson.com/updates/entry/47 jks_update_47 My new record Provincial is now for sale on iTunes Canada, streaming at paste. and exclaim!

Still some nice white vinyl available at the kings road weakerthans merchandise store, where you will also find a book of lyrics and poems and so on.

Enough retail for today. Here is some curling sweater advice.

]]> Wed, 18 Jan 2012 02:38:56 +0000 01/03/2012 http://johnksamson.com/updates/entry/4 jks_update_4 Two songs from Provincial are now available for streaming. Find “When I write my masters thesis” and “Letter in Icelandic from the Ninette San” on the JKS Facebook page.

]]> Tue, 03 Jan 2012 22:00:04 +0000 12/01/2011 http://johnksamson.com/updates/entry/3 jks_update_3 Here’s a short trailer we put together for my new album Provincial.

]]> Thu, 01 Dec 2011 21:59:24 +0000 11/29/2011 http://johnksamson.com/updates/entry/2 jks_update_2 My solo album Provincial will be released January 24th, 2012 on Epitaph Records. The same day, Arbeiter Ring Publishing will release a book of my writing titled Lyrics and Poems: 1997-2012.

The CD, LP, book, and other merch are available for pre-order on the Weakerthans online store.

Look for some tour dates beginning in March.

]]> Tue, 29 Nov 2011 21:55:42 +0000 10/14/2011 http://johnksamson.com/updates/entry/1 jks_update_1 The Winnipeg Review has published a column of mine about the return of the Winnipeg Jets today.

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