Rachelle van Zanten

...at the top of our order is slide guitarist/singer-songwriter Rachelle van Zanten, who was rocking the free world with musicians from North America and the British Isles. A decade of touring with the Painting Daisies defined dues paying. Now the payoff is coming her way as audiences, critics and peers respond enthusiastically to solo shows that find her fusing numerous influences. Sitting with a spring recording date in India with Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and about to put the finishing touches on an album recently cut in England, 2007 should push van Zanten's profile up to an even loftier plateau. - Edmonton Journal- Dec. 31, 2006

Rachelle's ethereal vocal draws
comparisons to the likes of Dido and Alanis Morissette, but whilst
those artists suffer from production gluttony and overblown angst, Rachelle benefits from a penchant for rootsy/blues music and the ability to write songs you actually care about... Alternating between solo political folk-songstress and band-backed rockin' Blues chick, Rachelle put on a performance that moved, humoured and wowed... - Blues Matters- October 14, 2006

"Magnificant solo debut...she is the best when she does the country blues...Down to California is a song that Lucinda Williams wished she would have wrote...quality from Canada" - Ostlendingen (Norway)

After 11 years in the trenches, Canadian slide guitarist Rachelle van Zanten is done with bands. She just released her first solo album, Back to Francois [rachellevanzanten.com], which is packed with funky blues riffs and stellar slide performances. The surprise is that van Zanten juxtaposes her gutsy guitar playing with very personal and introspective lyrics, a stylistic trait she attributes to her diverse influences." by Katie Garibaldi - Guitar Player Magazine- October

"For those of you who like surprises and discoveries with your festival experience, you could do worse than to check out Rachelle van Zanten. Simply put, this woman is the total package. A fabulous musician on keyboards and guitar, particularily on acoustic and electric slide guitar, a great voice and a strong songwriter with excellent pop and rock sensibilities. The material on this solo debut ranges from the stark January , to the nonsense songalong Yah Yahs, to the countryish Down to California, with harmonies from Mae Moore that make the tune sound like those great old Emmylou Harris- Linda Ronstadt duets. But the highlight of the session is undoubtedly the rocky Take Me Right Back, a workout with her mentor slide sensation Lester Quitzau, that'll get you up and jumping..." by Norm Provencher - Ottawa Citizen

"While there are plenty of good female singer-songwriters around in Canada right now, few have the guitar playing chops that van Zanten possesses. She draws frequent comparisons to Bonnie Raitt, but also some of the the big boys like Jimmy Page and Little Feat's Lowell George." - The Record- June 9, 2006

My first sighting was a girl in the pub toting a huge pack back holding a toothbrush. 3 hours later she was stomping her way through a fantastic set of grinding slide riffs on songs like Take Me Right Back and her "German pop hit" the rootsy wordless Yah Yahs laced with impressive delicate fretwork on tunes like The Cracks, Rusty Boy and Dirty Water. Rachelle mentioned missing her band, but built up a considerable rhythm solo. A fine singer and an engaging, likable stage presence, happy to banter and discuss touring delights: cycling in Germany, arriving at a train station to find a Nazi riot in progress, Druids in Glastonbury and Oliver's big rented amp only being on 1 and 11 probably resulting in her death by feedback. Did she really just tour Europe carrying a backpack, 2 guitars and a box of CDs on planes, trains and buses? She's clearly doing things her way. She needed that box of CDs too - quite a queue at the end. She say's she’ll be back with the band soon, really, don't miss her, she's great, she's gonna need more CDs! - Amerikana UK- June 6, 2006

"At the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas in March, she brought the house down at a showcase with twenty other acts. Playing the meanest slide guitar of the weekend, she came across like a mixture of Bonnie Raitt and Janis Joplin." - Mid Hampshire Observer

"Out of the hungry masses, a few relative unknowns made amazing impressions through the week that might turn anything into profit sometime soon...Plenty of great up-and-comers deserve mention; some we saw (Elliott Brood, Rachelle van Zanten, Peter and the Wolf, Aloha, Phosphorescent, Dr. Dog), many we didn't (Serena Maneesh, Envelopes)." - The Dallas Observer- Sam Machkovech

"...Intussen schuift de ene na de andere act voorbij in Headhunters. PoGirl overtuigt, maar de Meat Purveyors zijn pas echt een feest om te zien. Ten slotte valt Rachelle van Zanten op. Ze oogt als een singer/songwriter, maar op het podium haalt ze de gemeenste klanken uit haar slidegitaar. Erg indrukwekkend."

translation
"...Meanwhile one after the other act comes by in Headhunters. PoGirl is convincing, but the Meat Purveyors are a real feast to look at. At the end Rachelle van Zanten stands out. She looks like a singer/songwriter, but on stage she produces the meanest sounds out of her slide guitar. Very
impressive." (tekst: Maurice Dielemans, Han Orsel en Ronald Besemer en SXSW 2006) - KindaMusik- Netherlands