[2] That classmate, John Mann, joined Kelly and Knutson as a folk trio called Eavesdropper,[3] and scored early gigs as an opening act for rockers such as Art Bergmann and Barney Bentall.

On the strength of "Political", Warner Bros. Records signed the band in 1989,[9] and Stony Plain released a compilation, Old Material 1984–1986, to close out their contract with the label.

[3][9] The album track "Home for a Rest", which was considered a classic party anthem at universities across Canada[10] was not officially released as a commercial or radio single, but became the band's signature song.

The album included a rock rendition of "Political", and at one show in London, Ontario, the audience presented the band with a petition demanding that they play the original version of that song.

[21] In the same year, a studio version of the song "Kiss & Tell", which had previously been released only in its live form on Open Heart Symphony, appeared on the soundtrack to the film The Hanging Garden.

[22] However, with the music industry's emphasis having shifted by this time away from alternative rock and back toward more mainstream pop-oriented performers, Warner Bros. put little effort into promoting the album, and dropped the band from their roster after the tour.

[3] After Weights & Measures the band took a hiatus from recording and broad-scale national touring, although they continued to perform selected live dates on the summer folk festival circuit and in major concert markets such as Vancouver and Toronto.

In 2009, Spirit of the West opened for Great Big Sea on the "Fortune's Favour" tour, finishing in Victoria, British Columbia on March 26.

[26] In 2010, Kelly, Ditrich and Frank joined Ashley MacIsaac and folk musician Matthew Harder in recording a charity single, "Dreams", to benefit Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong, a skier from Ghana who was the first Ghanaian athlete ever to compete in the Winter Olympics.

[31] In September 2014, Mann announced that he had been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease,[32] but planned to continue performing with the band as long as he remained able to do so.

[35] As Ditrich was also in poor health with kidney disease, he was not able to perform for the full duration of all three Commodore shows, and shared drum duties with Kris MacFarlane and Pat Steward.

[36] Kendel Carson, Paul Hyde, Jim Cuddy, Steven Page, Colin James, Andy Maize and Craig Northey also participated in the Commodore shows as guests.

[2] Following The Tragically Hip's announcement in May 2016 that singer Gord Downie had been diagnosed with brain cancer but would undertake a tour with the band in summer 2016, Kelly was interviewed by both CBC Radio One's Day 6[38] and Maclean's[35] about his experiences performing with Spirit of the West under similar circumstances.

The band performed a reunion set at Spirit of Canada, a benefit concert for Alzheimer's awareness at the Commodore Ballroom on November 19, 2017.