''Acoustic Kitty'' is the debut solo album by Canadian singer-songwriter John Mann, the lead singer of

Spirit of the West Spirit of the West were a Canadian folk rock band from North Vancouver, active from 1983 to 2016. They were popular on the Canadian folk music scene in the 1980s before evolving a blend of hard rock, Britpop, and Celtic folk influences which ma ...

. It was released in 2002 on

Nettwerk Nettwerk Music Group is the umbrella company for Nettwerk Records, Nettwerk Management, and Nettwerk One Publishing. Established in 1984, the Vancouver-based company was created by Nettwerk principals Terry McBride and Mark Jowett as a record ...

. Mann's supporting band for the album consisted of Doug Elliott,

Ford Pier Ford Pier (born 1970) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His father is a professor of music. In addition to his solo albums, he has been a member of Jr. Gone Wild and D.O.A. as well as Roots Roundup. He has a ...

and

Michael Phillip Wojewoda Michael Phillip Wojewoda is a Canadian record producer and musician. He has been nominated for eight Juno Awards and has received one for Recording Engineer of the Year and one for Producer of the Year. History Wojewoda began recording bands ...

. Wojewoda also produced the album. The album's title track is inspired by the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

's Acoustic Kitty espionage project of the 1960s, in which surveillance microphones were implanted into a cat. Mann garnered two

Western Canadian Music Award The ''Western Canadian Music Awards'' (WCMAs) are an annual awards event for music in the western portion of Canada. The awards are provided by the Western Canada Music Alliance, which consists of six member music industry organizations from Br ...

nominations for the album, in the categories of Outstanding Songwriter and Entertainer of the Year."Artists vie for music awards". ''

Saskatoon Star-Phoenix ''The StarPhoenix'' is a daily newspaper that serves Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, and is a part of Postmedia Network. The ''StarPhoenix'' puts out six editions each week and publishes one weekly, ''Bridges''. It is also part of the canada.com ...

'', August 21, 2003. At the

Juno Awards of 2003 The Juno Awards of 2003 were presented in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada on 6 April 2003. The primary awards ceremony was hosted that evening by Shania Twain at the Corel Centre (now Canadian Tire Centre) and televised on CTV television network, CTV. ...

, the album garnered a nomination for Album Art of the Year, for designer John Rummen.

Track listing

# "Somebody's Miracle" # "A Lot to Learn" # "Acoustic Kitty" # "What Language" # "Ill Placed Monuments" # "Red Deer?" # "American TV" # "As Berlin Builds" # "Come Along With Me Tonight" # "Love's a Sobbing Idiot" # "Our Sick Love" # "Winterton"

References

2002 debut albums John Mann (musician) albums Albums produced by Michael Phillip Wojewoda {{2000s-folk-rock-album-stub