Howard Gladstone

Howard Gladstone Biography

Howard Gladstone is a Toronto singer/songwriter creating songs populated with some vivid characters, and set in varied locales around North America and the world.  North Americana.  These songs reflect a world of experience and imagination. Howard creates carefully crafted lyrics, and delivers with a laid-back vocal style that suits, plus strong acoustic guitar stylings.

Diverse themes, diverse musical styles - always striving for the authentic, a voice of romantic realism. Howard Gladstone has independently released two well-received albums of original music - "Sunflowers Light The Room" (2002) and "Candles On The River" (2005). A third album, "The Breath In The Wind" featuring Howard in a stripped-back trio format will be released in April 2007.

Gladstone sometimes approaches his subject matter as a seasoned journalist would: with an eye for detail, a sense of story and a desire for objectivity. He sticks to the facts, tells it like it is and maintains a measured and slightly detached quality in his vocal delivery. Other times, a more lyrical and poetic side emerges.

With a craftsman approach to lyric writing, and an engaging laid -back vocal delivery, this is music that reflects Howard's wide influences and a lifetime of listening and loving music.  Everything from folk to country, from blues to jazz, from 50's & 60's pop to New Orleans funk, soul and Indian ragas.  From Ricky Nelson to Rumi, from Hank Williams to Lucinda Williams. 

Performing mostly in the Toronto and southern Ontario area, Gladstone is a convincing solo performer.  He also appears on a regular basis with guitarist Tony Quarrington who helps explore and claim additional musical territory.  A trio is completed with Kevin Zarnett on bass.  Full band performance includes Denis Keldie (keyboards/accordian), Kevin Zarnett, Russ Boswell or Bruce Longman (bass), and Gary Orme (drums). 

Gladstone's observations and concerns are deeply etched in his songs, ranging from the plight of First Nations  ("Aboriginal Burial Ground"), to fetal alcohol spectrum disorder ("Damaged Angel") to the closing of Canadian Maritime fisheries ("Fishin' by the Book"),  to globalization and corporate indifference ("Goin' Offshore").    " Down to the Delta" surveys the history of the blues in the rapidly changing southern environment where casinos are replacing sharecropper's cabins and Muddy Waters' cabin is an exhibit in the Clarksdale Mississippi Delta Blues Museum.  

Other songs reflect on love, loss, and the vagaries of life. "Prisoner of New Orleans" and  "Photograph" are atmospheric, moody songs with an air of mystery.    "Candles on the River" takes its inspiration and rhythm from a sunrise Gladstone observed in Varanasi, India. - the holy city on the Ganges.     

Other times, a more lyrical and poetic side emerges in such songs as "Sunflowers Light The Room." and "I Want to Be Closer"

Some songs are satirical and amusing, but never silly. "Goin' Offshore" the songs about outsourcing  has a carefree calypso beat  that belies the theme of jobs disappearing.  "South Of the Border " is a satirical look at of our American neighbours - or maybe our smug Canadian selves.  "SIx Weeks In A Plaster Cast" is a key changing country song clocking in at 2 minutes  and outlining how to have a blast with a broken arm.

Howard also organizes musical events, including the Toronto City Roots Festival (www.torontocityroots.com), at the historic Distillery District.

He is a family man with grown children; he is also  an entrepreneur with an operating business that he sometimes finds times for.

A person who caught the travel bug young, Gladstone still loves to travel, and  takes inspiration from such locales as India, the US South, Greece, and Newfoundland. 

Childhood home was filled with music and lots of younger siblings -music was  the glue that kept a barely  functional home together for a while.  Buying his first Kent guitar for $10 with money saved from a paper route, Gladstone now proudly owns the Laskin guitar he purchased 30 years - when  Grit Laskin was still an unknown's luthier and long before his hand crafted instruments were sought around the world.  (See the Laskin guitar in the above photo).