Jesse Winchester, who fled to Canada in the 1960s to avoid the military draft and later became renowned for writing and performing intimate, touching songs that evoked his native South, died April 11 at his home in Charlottesville, Va. He was 69....
In 1967, when he was 22, Mr. Winchester received his draft notice. Opposed to the Vietnam War, he boarded an airplane for Montreal instead, taking with him $300 and an electric guitar. He would live in Canada for more than 35 years, becoming a citizen in 1973.
“You have to remember that I wasn’t a musician when I went to Canada,” he told The Washington Post in 1977.
“If I had remained in America, I doubt that I’d ever have written a song or made any records. I just kind of drifted into music.”
More:
»
www.washingtonpost.com/e ··· ory.htmlHe had an interesting life, and his passing also reminds us of the crazy time when the US became fixated on a far-off war and so many young Americans went to Canada as a result.
