After a great Christmas break – my last show of 2011 was at the well known Trees Cafe in downtown Vancouver, BC on Dec 23rd  with an all star class of performers sharing the stage with me: Ken Cade on electric fiddle, Heather Anne Duff on flute, Michael Averill on classical guitar and Ross Fairbairn on ukelele – I’m starting 2012 off with a load of new events and shows this coming week.

Tuesday, Jan 3 @8pm (PST) – I’ll be performing and interviewed on the nationally syndicated radio show, Melodies in Mind, CJSF FM hosted by Ryan Fletcher. Please check it out by going on line to www.cjsf.ca

Friday, Jan 6 @7pm – I’ll be performing for the first time at a wonderful venue, Char’s Landing in Port Alberni, Vancouver Island. Ross Fairbairn will be touring with me on this adventure and I’m really looking forward to his ongoing fantastic Uke licks with my songs.

Saturday, Jan 7 @ 8pm – I’ll be performing once again at The Duncan Garage, Duncan  BC, one of the best venues for us folk artsy types in the country. Ross Fairbairn will be opening up for me as well as joining in on many of my tunes. It’s going to be a great show and you can be a part of it live at your home by logging onto the live stream that evening  – http://duncangarageshowroom.ca/live-stream/

I hope the holidays were good to you all and many blessings for a prosperous and joy filled New Year!!

Namaste!

Thanks to Cendrine for last week’s review of my new CD.

This is what she wrote:

“I was born too late to experience the hippie movement directly, but I was raised by parents who loved a good song with meaningful lyrics. And while some look at that era with condescension, others like me enjoy the message and the activist passion behind it.

Glenn Chatten can definitely be called a “hippie”. And in true hippie fashion, his music  tells stories of peace and self-consciousness. His songs are poetic, uplifting, and bring the listener back to a time when the artistic spirit was about people and not money.

“Where You Need to Be,” Chatten’s new album, is a great piece of Canadiana that boasts a unique variety and mixture of genres. Whether it is Folk, Celtic music or Blues, Chatten’s guitar and occasional harmonica happily echo in your mind, while his voice — a distant cousin of Johnny Cash’s — leaves your heart bathed in a warm embrace.

Overall, I really like this album. In particular, some of the songs (“For the Sake of Oil,” “Adams River Runs,” “The Heart That Is Your Land” and “Embassy”) deserve to be streamed by radio stations and featured in movies. With that being said, I feel that a couple of tracks are a little on the safe side and have been heard before (“Blues Band in Afghanistan” and “Rollin’ to Surrender,” for example). And sometimes, Chatten over enunciates his lyrics.

However, one cannot deny the passion and sincerity of the album. Chatten is an artist on a spiritual mission. He invites us to open our minds and hearts to the beauties of this world, and to take care of one another. And in this day and age, we need more of that. ”

See the posting at http://www.examiner.com/art-reviews-in-canada/cd-review-where-you-need-to-be-by-glenn-chatten-review.

Thanks to everyone who came out and supported my shows while touring Southern Ontario last month. It was so great to see so many new as well as old familiar faces in the audience. Thanks especially to all those that helped to put some of the shows together – Paul Haslem, Dona Harvey,  Brent Hagerman and of course, my new booking agent, Ryan Fletcher (Melodies in Mind Productions). I hope to see you all gain soon as we plan our cross country tour in late spring 2012.

Peace and Blessings,

Glenn

Many thanks to Ken Eisner for his warm and kind review of my new CD, “Where You Need To Be”.

Check it out at http://www.straight.com/article-472721/vancouver/glenn-chatten

“There used to be a lot of sincere, bandanna-wearing guitar thwackers hanging around, but as society gets more cynical and corporate every day, it’s getting harder to find a bona fide hippie when you need one.

There’s no missing the good-hearted sincerity of Glenn Chatten, who tells straightforward stories in his narrow baritone range and wider ones with his excellent steel-string finger picking, accompanied by occasional hits of harmonica goodness. You don’t even have to hear songs like “Mind Your Forests” and “For the Sake of Oil” to know what they’re about, and the aura of Bruce Cockburn hangs most heavily on these. Most of the songs on his self-produced CD, though, have flourishes that move them beyond the obvious.

It helps to have the percolating rhythm support of bassist Rob Becker and drummer Geoff Hicks, and there are standout visits from fiddle great Jesse Zubot, notably on the sweetly pictorial “Adams River Run”, and guitar wiz Steve Dawson, who gets a nice electric workout on the set’s catchiest number, the up-tempo “Turn This Car Around”. Chatten sometimes over enunciates his lyrics, but he gets appropriately funky, in the Country Joe & the Fish sense, on the closing “Blues Band in Afghanistan”. Still, of everything here, the double-tracked guitars (with sitar, it seems) on the instrumental “Embassy” would sound best in your VW van—especially on the way to Burning Man.”

Ken Eisner – Georgia Straight Sept 29 2011

Well, I’ve got three dates scheduled so far for my tour through Southern Ontario. Please check the Calendar to see when I’ll be coming close to you. I’m really looking forward to playing before all of my peers, friends and family back there. You can take the boy out of Ontario but you can’t take Ontario out of the boy.

Cheers!!

I’m so honoured and happy to be asked to perform at this year’s 40th Anniversary Green Peace Festival being held at Jericho Beach, Vancouver – where it all began!

I’ve been working with the incomparable violinist, Ken Cade, at Harbourside Studios in North Vancouver producing a new single I have written from from memories of my eldest daughter, Cassandra. When she was very young, we would lie down on the grass in the park and watch the fluffy white clouds roll by in the blue sky. We would then call out what we thought and imagined we saw in their shapes. It was a joyous time of sharing with her. The song “Green Eyes/Blue Skies” will hopefully be available later this Fall.

I was very pleased to see that one of the  instrumental pieces from the new CD, “Tree of Life” got some airplay last week. Thanks to host, Steve Clark the song was featured on the program, “Acoustic Planet” broadcasted on Thursday evenings 8 – 10pm (EDT) on CHES 88.1 FM, in Erin Ontario. It’s so great to see the music being shared and enjoyed.

I’m looking forward to shooting our second video this coming Saturday, July 30th. This time it’s for the single “Adam’s River Run” and will be directed by Jay Peachy and choreographed by Heather Ann Duff. The location will be near the Capilano Dam and along the Capilano River in North Vancouver. A beautiful and lush setting full of raging water, high cliffs and towering fir and cedar trees.

The music video for the single “For the Sake of Oil” will be released on You Tube by Aug 10th. A lot of interest has been shown in this song by many environmentalist which is about last year’s BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico. I guess it’s true,  I prefer writing songs that make you think and that carry messages with them – without being too preachy!