Wake Up to Music Monday

Cape Breton Island is known for its rich culture and its deep roots in music, so every Monday I will feature videos showcasing Cape Breton Island's finest musicians from Fiddlers to Songwriters, to the Gaelic Song and the Rock n Roll!  

J.P Cormier

J.P. (John Paul) Cormier (born January 23, 1969), is a Bluegrass/folk/Celtic singer-songwriter and Multi-Instrumentalist. To date he was won thirteen East Coast Music Awards and one Canadian Folk Music Award.

J.P began playing guitar around age five. As a child he displayed an unusual ability to play a variety of instruments by ear and won a guitar contest at age nine. Appearances on Up Home Tonight, a television show devoted to bluegrass music, followed at age fourteen.

Cormier has stated that he learned to play guitar by listening to such noted country / bluegrass musicians as Chet Atkins and Doc Watson. Other instruments J.P. has played on his albums include fiddle, twelve string guitar, upright bass, banjo, mandolin, drums, percussion, synthesizer, cello, tenor banjo and piano.

By age sixteen Cormier had recorded his first album (a collection of bluegrass instrumentals) and he began working the U.S. festival circuit. This led him to move to the United States and to begin working as a session musician. He continued to perform live on the festival circuit and at the Grand Ole Opry with country artists Waylon Jennings, Marty Stuart, Earl Scruggs, Bill Monroe and others.

Cormier was involved in a serious truck accident in 2009, resulting in a fractured vertebra and a halt to his touring in 2012. He went back into the studio, focused on his singer-songwriter abilities, and released Somewhere In The Back of My Heart in the same year.

In April 2015 Cormier released a new album, The Chance, which included the previously released single Hometown Battlefield, about soldiers experiencing post traumatic stress disorder. The song, inspired by Cormier’s 2007 Afghanistan tour and news about soldiers’ suicides, went viral, with millions of Facebook visits and 800,000 YouTube views (July 2015) (http://www.jp-cormier.com)

This Week You Can Catch J.P Cormier:

- Thursday, December 21st at The Old Triangle in Sydney

- Friday, December 22nd at The Main Event in Glace Bay

House of Plywood - J.P. Cormier - A Tribute By J.P. Cormier To The Late Stompin' Tom Connors.