Glenn Chatten

Artist Information

Biography

At the age of thirteen folk singer Glenn Chatten had three ambitions in life - play guitar, write songs, and perform.

In 1976, he won a Nashville Songwriting competition and toured the US Mid West and Canada.

In 1985 he recorded his first album, “Running Away From Life Again”, where he went on to perform several times for the entertainment section of Toronto's Global Noon Hour News while steadily rising to notoriety in the late 1980's landing spots in popular folk festivals like the Mariposa Folk Festival, Sounds of Summer Festival and Festival of Friends where he shared the Festival’s songwriting circle stage with his musical idol Bruce Cockburn and many of the other great Canadian folk artists. Glenn has also shared stages with artists like Murray McLaughlin, Jane Siberry, Scott Merritt, and Glass Tiger and in 1987 he toured with well known Celtic Hammered Dulcimer player, Paul Haslem.

During the 1990’s, Glenn settled down to raise three wonderful children and owned a contracting business.

In 2006, Glenn then sold his business and moved to Vancouver to return to focus on his writing and performing of socially and environmentally relevant songs.

It is in performance that you can best process what is so beautiful and important about this one of a kind artist.

Glenn’s energy and contagious humor quickly win over diverse audiences of all ages and his ability to connect with them and inspire is uncanny.

With over thirty years of performing experience Glenn is equally comfortable relating to those in a coffee house café; intimate house concert, or large festival concert stages.

Glenn's socially and environmentally aware topics have also roused the interest of Green Peace, and many churches across the country.

People who meet Glenn feel like they have instantly met a friend.

Instrumentation

Glenn Chatten - Acoustic Electric Guitar

Discography

Running Away From Life Again - 1985

Glenn has released a new CD, “Where You Need To Be”, highlighting his more recent works since moving to Vancouver and is currently promoting it on tour through Canada.
Engineered by Juno nominated, Sheldon Zaharko; Recorded and Mastered at The Factory Studio in Vancouver; Glenn was fortunate to have some great musicians sharing the tracks with him on many of his songs. Juno award winner, Steve Dawson performed acoustic and electric slide guitar. Jesse Zubot, another Juno recipient, played fiddle. Trumpeter, Terry Townson and Saxophonist, Steve Hilliam were the horn section on the song, “For The Sake of Oil”. Also, Geoff Hicks on drums, and Rob Becker on bass rounded off the solid bed tracks for this new CD.

Links

• Facebook
• MySpace
• Twitter

Audio

• For the Sake of Oil
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• Adams River Run
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• Turn This Car Around
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• The Heart That is in Your Land
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• Blues Band in Afghanistan
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• Truth Outshines the Lie
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• Rollin' to Surrender
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• Clouds and Blue Sky
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Lyrics

• The Heart That is in Your Land
• Rollin' to Surrender
• Truth Outshines the Lie
• Turn This Car Around
• Clouds and Blue Sky

Video

For the Sake of OiL CBC

Blues Band with David Sinclair

Photo Gallery

Press

• Quote [+ Show ]
  

  “ Glenn Chatten is an outstanding singer/songwriter, musician, storyteller, mentor, colleague, and c...“ Glenn Chatten is an outstanding singer/songwriter, musician, storyteller, mentor, colleague, and catalyst. He continues to take risks in creating extraordinary songs that both provoke and entertain, with edgy rhythms in ground-breaking work at the leading edge of social justice issues. On the other hand, Glenn’s songs can soothe the spirits with mystical, peaceful melodies akin to a meditation with echoes of eastern, celtic and eclectic spiritualities. The sheer complexity of Glenn’s instrumental music is stunning testimony to his decades of playing guitar. Listening to Glenn is like listening to three guitars at once….”
  

• New CD For Glenn Chatten [+ Show ]
  

  Glenn Chatten's new album "Where You Need to Be" is an essential for your folk rock collection. Th...
  Glenn Chatten's new album "Where You Need to Be" is an essential for your folk rock collection. The amazing talent of the musicians and the finely crafted songwriting paint a heartfelt and original take on today's world. Just beautiful. Listening to this collection of Glenn Chatten's songs is "Where You Need to Be."

• Glenn Chatten's CD "Where You Need To Be" a sincere affair [+ Show ]
  

  There used to be a lot of sincere, bandanna-wearing guitar thwackers hanging around, but as society ...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 fingerpicking, 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 overenunciates 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.

• Glenn Chatten's CD Review by Cendrine Marrouat [+ Show ]
  

  I was born too late to experience the hippie movement directly, but I was raised by parents who love...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.

Setlist

All the Diamonds - Cockburn
Burn - Cockburn
Let Life’s Waters Flow - Chatten
Mama - Cockburn
Shalom- Chatten
Rocket Launcher - Cockburn
Lebanon - Chatten
Moon Shadow - Cat Stevens
Tell Me Why - Chatten
Heart of Gold - Neil Young
The Heart That Is In Your Land - Chatten
For the Sake of Oil - Chatten
Adams River Run - Chatten
Turn This Car Around - Chatten
Blues Band in Afghanistan - Chatten
The Truth Outshines the Lie - Chatten
A World like This - Chatten
The Door to Bethlehem - Chatten
Telephone Road - Chatten
Wondering Where the Lions Are - Cockburn
Big Yellow Taxi - Joni Mitchell
Farmer's Song - Murray McLaughlin

Basic Requirements

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