J. P. Cormier

John Paul "J.P." Cormier (born January 23, 1969), is a Canadian bluegrass/folk/Celtic singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. To date he has won thirteen East Coast Music Awards and one Canadian Folk Music Award. Cormier was born in London, Ontario and 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.