Kurt Frank Winter (April 2, 1946 – December 14, 1997) was a Canadian guitarist and songwriter, best known as a member of

The Guess Who The Guess Who was a Canadian rock band formed in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1965. The band found their greatest success in the late 1960s and early 1970s, under the leadership of singer/keyboardist Burton Cummings and guitarist Randy Bachman, wit ...

Biography

Winter was born in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...

Manitoba Manitoba is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population ...

. He attended

Daniel McIntyre Collegiate Institute Daniel McIntyre Collegiate Institute (DMCI) is a public high school located in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The School is named after Daniel McIntyre, Winnipeg's First School Superintendent. History DMCI had its start in 1882 as the eight-student Winn ...

John Einarson John Einarson (born 1952) is a Canadian rock music historian, journalist and writer from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Einarson is the author or co-author of more than a dozen books, including biographies and autobiographies of Neil Young, the Guess Who, ...

Profile of Kurt Winter
Manitoba Music Museum, 2012. Retrieved 2024-10-8. From the mid-1960s he was a member of several local Winnipeg rock bands, collaborating at various times with bassist Bill Wallace and drummer Vance Schmidt (later known as Vance Masters).Profile of Gettysbyrg Address
; canadianbands.com. Retrieved 2015-11-04.
; canadianbands.com. Retrieved 2015-11-03. In 1969 Winter, Wallace, and Schmidt formed the band

Brother A brother (: brothers or brethren) is a man or boy who shares one or more parents with another; a male sibling. The female counterpart is a sister. Although the term typically refers to a family, familial relationship, it is sometimes used ende ...

, who were associates of

. Brother was together for less than six months, but became known for the fact that all three members later joined The Guess Who. Guitarist

Randy Bachman Randolph Charles Bachman ( ; born September 27, 1943) is a Canadian guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He was a founding member of the bands The Guess Who and Bachman–Turner Overdrive. He was the writer and singer of several hit rock songs, ...

left The Guess Who in 1970, and that's when the band's leader

Burton Cummings Burton Lorne Cummings (born December 31, 1947) is a Canadian musician and songwriter. He is best known for leading the Guess Who during that band's most successful period from 1965 to 1975, and for a lengthy solo career. Cummings has been induc ...

recruited Winter and Greg Leskiw as Bachman's replacements. Winter was with The Guess Who for four years and became one of the band's primary songwriters in tandem with Cummings.John Einarson
Winter's tale
Winnipeg Free Press, December 15, 2013. Retrieved 2015-11-10. After six studio albums, Winter left The Guess Who for undisclosed reasons in 1974, and was replaced by

Domenic Troiano Domenic Michele Antonio Troiano (January 17, 1946 – May 25, 2005) was an Italian–Canadian guitarist and songwriter, best known as a member of Mandala, Bush, James Gang, and The Guess Who. He also recorded music for film and television, oft ...

. After The Guess Who broke up, various former members of that band attempted reunion tours with floating lineups. Winter briefly joined a lineup led by bassist

Jim Kale Michael James Kale (born August 11, 1943) is a Canadian rock musician, best known as the original bassist for the rock band The Guess Who. He was also a member of the band Scrubbaloe Caine. In 1987, he was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall ...

in 1977–78, and contributed to the album ''Guess Who's Back''. Winter then retired from the music industry and resided in Winnipeg for the rest of his life. Burton Cummings invited Winter to write songs for his 1990s solo albums, though Winter chose a life away from music. Winter suffered from health problems attributed to excessive alcohol use, and died at age 51 from

kidney failure Kidney failure, also known as renal failure or end-stage renal disease (ESRD), is a medical condition in which the kidneys can no longer adequately filter waste products from the blood, functioning at less than 15% of normal levels. Kidney fa ...

on December 14, 1997. His alma mater, Daniel McIntyre Collegiate Institute, initiated an annual scholarship in Winter's name in 1998. Cummings memorialized Winter in "Kurt's Song" on his 2008 album, '' Above the Ground''. Cummings described Winter as "one of my fondest writing partners". Stephen Ostick
Cummings picks wah-wah as career highlight
Winnipeg Free Press, October 3, 1988. As reprinted by Hillman Web. Retrieved 2015-11-14.

Discography

With The Guess Who: * 1970 '' Share the Land'' * 1971 '' The Best of The Guess Who'' * 1971 '' So Long, Bannatyne'' * 1972 '' Rockin''' * 1972 '' Live at the Paramount '' * 1973 '' Artificial Paradise'' * 1973 '' #10'' * 1973 '' The Best of The Guess Who Volume II'' * 1974 '' Road Food'' * 1978 ''Guess Who's Back'' * 1988 ''Track Record: The Guess Who Collection'' * 1997 ''The Guess Who: The Ultimate Collection'' * 1999 ''The Guess Who: Greatest Hits'' * 2003 ''Platinum & Gold Collection: The Guess Who'' * 2006 ''Bachman Cummings Song Book''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Winter, Kurt 1946 births 1997 deaths Canadian male songwriters The Guess Who members Musicians from Winnipeg Writers from Winnipeg Canadian rock guitarists Canadian male guitarists Deaths from kidney failure 20th-century Canadian guitarists 20th-century Canadian male musicians Burials at Brookside Cemetery (Winnipeg)