John Kristjan Samson (born 1973)[1] is a Canadian musician from Winnipeg, Manitoba. He is a singer-songwriter and best known as the frontman of the Canadian indie folk/rock band The Weakerthans. He also played bass in the punk band Propagandhi during the mid-1990s. Today, Samson is making music under his own name, John K. Samson. His latest solo album, Winter Wheat, was released in 2016.
Music
In 1993, while still a member of Propagandhi, Samson released a fifteen-track solo album on cassette tape, entitled Slips and Tangles. In 1995, six of these songs were featured on a split album shared with the now-defunct punk band Painted Thin. Following the critical success of The Weakerthans, Samson's side of the split was re-released online by G7 Welcoming Committee as a digitalEP in 2006.
In 1995, also while still in Propagandhi, Samson released the song "Letter of Resignation" on a split with F.Y.P. Although credited to Propagandhi, Samson was the only band member to appear on the song. He later rerecorded "Letter of Resignation" on The Weakerthans' debut album, Fallow.
Samson performing with the Weakerthans in Montreal, 2004
In 2006, he and his wife Christine Fellows recorded The Old House, an album intended as a Christmas gift for friends and family. They eventually released two songs, "Taps Reversed" and "Good Salvage", for airplay on CBC Radio 3 in 2007. Fellows and Samson also performed live on the network on March 17, 2007, to mark the final night of the network's terrestrial simulcast on CBC Radio 2. Both Samson and Fellows also participated in writing and performing music for Clive Holden's multimedia project Trains of Winnipeg.
Shortly afterward, Samson announced his first solo project since 1995's Little Pictures: a series of 7" releases about Manitoba roads, which he planned to release over the next 18 months. The first, City Route 85, was released on November 3, 2009, through Epitaph and ANTI-.[3] In August 2010, Samson announced his next EP, Provincial Road 222, to be released on September 21.[4] In December 2010, the Weakerthans performed four concerts in Winnipeg, one for each of their albums. In their final concert at the Burton Cummings Theatre, they performed all four of their albums in one night.
On August 15, 2016, Samson announced that his second solo album, Winter Wheat, would be released on October 21, 2016.[9] While technically a solo album, Winter Wheat features contributions by his Weakerthans bandmates Jason Tait and Greg Smith, and much of it was recorded by Weakerthans sound tech Cam Loeppky.
In 2018, Samson recorded a version of Fellows' "Saturday Night at Utopia Parkway" for a split single with American musician Kevin Devine.[10] In 2019 he collaborated with Safia Nolin on a cover of Taking Back Sunday's "Cute Without the E" for her EP xX3m0 $0ng$ 2 $!nG @L0nG 2Xx.[11]
In February 2020, Samson wrote and released "Millennium for All", a song supporting the activist campaign against the new security restrictions at Winnipeg's Millennium Library.[12] He followed up in July with the single "Fantasy Baseball at the End of the World".[13]
In February 2023, Fellows and Samson released Hold Music, an album of almost entirely instrumental music except one song with vocals by Samson. The album was credited to Vivat Virtute, the name of Fellows' online music and crafts store.
In 2008 and 2009, Samson spent several weeks working at the CBC's Winnipeg studios as part of the production team for the CBC Radio 2 program The Signal.[14]
Samson was a writer in residence at the University of Manitoba in 2013. He has also been adjunct professor with the Creative Writing Program at the University of British Columbia.
