Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
When JD Gordon left his job as a high tech industry executive to relaunch his music career, he didn't think his life as an assisstant minor league hockey coach would figure so prominently in his success.
That was before "They Cut My Kid" became a hit last winter.The song is a hilarious country ditty that Mr. Gordon co-wrote with Ken Wigglesworth, who is still an executive in the technology sector.
It's about the pressures minor league coaches feel when it comes to choosing the lineup of a team. Inevitably a parent is upsetwhen, as the song says, their child is cut from the roster.
Mr. Gordon who is in his 40's and coaches minor hockey in Richmond, is astonihed at the success of the independent recording.
"They started playing it on KX96 in Toronto, one of the largest stations in Canada," he says. "We sold hundreds of the CD over the Internet.
"We've done lots of hockey trade shows. You would not believe the response. In Toronto, we sold 350 copies of the song in one day."
The song appears on Mr. Gordon's first album, Breaking These Chains, but is also available as a single. Mr. Gordon uses it as a fundraising too for causes close to his heart.
He sells it to groups for cost, or $1 a CD and they can sell it for $2 or $3.
In October, Mr Gordon and his 12 piece band played a concert at the Ron Maslin Playhouse to raise money for Roger's House, the late Roger Neilson's charity for children in palliative care and their families. The concert was a sellout, and included legendary Charlie McCoy, who flew up from Nashville for the show.
Chad Schella, director of community and corporate relations at the Ottawa Senators Foundation, which oversees the Roger's House charity, helped put the show together.
Mr. Gordon is originally from lennoxville, Que. In his youth he toured the eastern United States playing bluegrass. After starting a family in the 80's, he moved to the Ottawa area and was one of the founders of Newbridge. When the company was sold to Alcatel, he left to purseu his music career.
The music on Mr. Gordon's CD's runs the gamut from folksongs that wouldn't be out of place on a Gordon Lightfoot release to darker material that brings to mind Johnny Cash.
Mr. Gordon intends to release his third album in May 2005. "I'm really intent on making a name this time. You only get one kick at the can at my age." - Ottawa Citizen
Discography
"Good To Be Alive"
"Breaking These Chains"
"They Cut My Kid"
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
JD was an accomplished guitar and five string banjo player by the age of just sixteen, who later soon established himself as a clean, west coast style steel guitar player. For many years JD was regarded as one of the most polished and versatile musicians in Quebec. Then in 1983, he abrubply quit the industry.
But now he's back as a writer and as JD says;"you can take the boy out of the music, but not the music out of the boy" I've lived an interesting life so far and as a writer, I've got a lot to say that most people can relate too."
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