"Home for a Rest" is a song by Canadian folk rock band Spirit of the West from their fourth studio album Save This House, released in 1990.
Written by John Mann and Geoffrey Kelly in 1989 during one of the band's first tours of England, it was originally more of a poem than a full-fledged song.
A live performance of the song at the band's 2015 Massey Hall concert forms the climax of the 2016 documentary film Spirit Unforgettable;[7] due to Mann's battle with early-onset Alzheimer's disease, he struggles with the lyrics at first but the entire audience begins singing along.
Spirit of the West's original recording has also occasionally been misattributed to Great Big Sea on YouTube and in online lyrics databases.
At a November 2017 fundraising benefit concert for Mann's medical care at Vancouver's Commodore Ballroom, the participants recorded a tribute version of the song onsite prior to the concert; participants included Alan Doyle, Jim Cuddy, Sarah McLachlan, Ed Robertson, Barney Bentall, Colin James, Shari Ulrich, and Jim Byrnes.
[12] In 2022, "Home for a Rest" was voted British Columbia's favourite song by a local artist in a Twitter bracket organised by the CBC's Justin McElroy, narrowly beating out "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen in the final.