J. P. Cormier, a rolling stone that gathers no moss

The song Hometown Battlefield reached 750,000 views in its first two weeks on Facebook. Not too long ago, singer-songwriter J.P. Cormier tallied four million hits from the song’s three platforms.

Not too shabby especially since the song was written at his kitchen table in 10 minutes.

The inspiration came from the East Coast artist’s brief 2007 music tour in Afghanistan. Hometown Battlefield explores what happens after the war – vets wrestling with and dying from post-traumatic stress disorder.

“The response was unexpected. I didn’t know how hot it was until after I wrote it,” says Cormier.

But in 30 years fighting to make it in the business, the baritone has never been a glory hound. In fact, what touched him the most was the thousands of letters and emails he received from war veterans across North America.

His latest album, The Chance, is built around Hometown Battlefield.

“I happened to have a lot of songs around and they all happened to have a strange cohesion. Their common thread was about the chances people take and the choices we make.”

A true balladeer, all of Cormier’s songs have a seed in personal experiences – things that happened to him or friends.

“Every song is close to my heart. Every song is a piece of me.”

There’s House of Plywood, an ode to Stompin’ Tom Connors and The Unfinished Song, about a chance encounter with an old flame.

Cormier appears to effortlessly dip into his well of creativity and compose his best songs in about 10 to 15 minutes.

But growing up was anything but easy. Born to a pair of Cape Bretoners, his father died when he was eight. His mother and four brothers moved to the Michelin plant in Bridgewater, N.S. But the plant was downsizing and Cormier and his mother landed on welfare.

“My mother was an abusive alcoholic. It was a tough childhood. I started playing guitar at five with my older brother’s guitar.”

Born with an ear attuned to music, the child prodigy was quickly playing Chet Atkins, Doc Watson, Django Reinhardt and every East Coast fiddler starting with Don Messer.

“By the time I was 13, I was deeply into bluegrass and by the time I was 15, I hitchhiked to the deep south in Alabama and then Nashville.”

There he played with the legends – Waylon Jennings, Marty Stuart, Doc Monroe and Earl Scruggs.

Cormier’s life is one big challenge.

“I try to find something I might not be able to do. Some people have to absorb as much information as they can. They want to learn everything. I’m one of them.”

Today as a solo artist, he travels the continent performing up to 300 shows a year – a gruelling schedule that would burn out lesser artists.

“It’s like my mother said. If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.”

Cormier is on tour across North America and will perform at the Arden Theatre on Friday, Jan. 22.