Lewis John "LJ" Fortier is a songwriting musician from northeast Ohio.

Born in Warren, Oho in 1952, LJ started performing on drums with his first enduring band of Lakeview High schoolmates, "The Phantoms", in 1966. Around this time he also began learning to play guitar and writing his own songs. In 1968, he was playing guitar with "The Difference Between", which featured the original drummer of Youngstown's nationally known "Human Beingz". In 1970, LJ was back on drums with "Freeman Sound", the group that helped put the "Zodiac Club" (later known as "The House That Jack Built" in Vienna, Ohio), on the list of happening area night spots with an original psychedelic rock style and their legendary "boogie", won a battle of the bands at the Eastwood Mall in nearby Niles and made a record released on the Starshine label that was popular on local radio and jukeboxes.

Though Freeman Sound successfully interpreted the sense of unity shared between their fans and others of their generation who were searching for new answers to old social problems, the group disbanded before they could realize the full potential of their popularity. In the mid '70s, following a series of continued efforts at promoting his own music and performing with other local groups. LJ put together a solo act which featured his guitar, harmonicas and vocals. In the years that followed, he would play his renditions of a variety of oldies and blues standards in many establishments throughout northeast Ohio. Unfortunately, ill-fated band involvements, personal setbacks including a failed marriage, having to repeatedly relocate and even physical problems all contributed to spoiling LJ's efforts to succeed as a musician, further his education and maintain gainful employment during the course of his lifetime. Fortunately, around 2000, he saved enough money to access the internet and created his own web site. He also invested in a small home studio set up and and began the task of recording the songs he had written throughout his lifetime. Also in 2000, four of the five original Freeman Sound members and another former member of the group reunited for a concert at a friend's residence that was attended by a considerable number of old friends and fans. Later that year, "This Day In December" (an original song by LJ that was reworked into a Christmas song and recorded some years before by LJ and Freeman Sound guitarist John Harrow), got some attention as it made it into the top ten on the mp3.com "pop and rock" chart.

In 2004, as a result of a growing interest in the UK and Europe in less known recordings by late '60s and early '70s groups and the discovery of LJ's web site by the "World In Sound" record company, who specializes in the re-releasing of such recordings, LJ was asked to put together an album that would feature Freeman Sound's 1970 recordings of their own "Singing My Own Song", and their heavy rendition of Merle Travis' "Sixteen Tons". In 2005, the Freeman Sound (and friends) album, "Heavy Trip", was produced in both LP and CD format and has been promoted internationally, especially within the collector's markets.

LJ's own web site motto "Peace and love was really where it was at, things just got a little confusing" perhaps expresses the sentiments of many toward that period of time in which so much sincerely spirited music was produced. In some ways, the world has changed, in some ways it's the "same old story". War, the manipulations of the "political-corporate-elite", and social exploitations through the promotion of exaggerated sexual stereotypes, violence and aspects of occult ideas all still plague we who believed in a better world through the promotion of practical, logical compassion and understanding.

As of 2009, LJ is continuing to try to make things happen with his original music, promoting and recording as time and means permit.