When she’s not firing up her chainsaw to fill her woodshed, growing chickens, raising kids, or teaching indigenous youth to rip it up on the bike trails, roots-blues-rock warrior Rachelle van Zanten is performing and recording in Canada these days. After decades of touring internationally, western Canadian audiences are getting their chance to enjoy her “Lucinda Williams meets Led Zepplin” style shows everywhere from Prince George to Bella Coola to Edmonton and Vancouver.

Back in 1995, van Zanten recorded and toured internationally for 10 years as a member of the award winning Canadian female rock band, Painting Daisies. Making the road their home, Rachelle and her band mates toured the globe, inspiring and leading countless young women towards rock and roll. In 2003, van Zanten’s penned, “Walking Home Lately”, was the song that lead to winning top prize in CBC’s “Great Canadian Music Dream” competition, from over 4000 acts.

In 2005, Rachelle began her intense solo career during which time she recorded “Back to Francois” and performed an average of 200 shows a year. She was listed as Canada’s “best slide guitarist” by musician Randy Bachman and her song writing was described by critics as “straight from the heart, gutsy, and intimate”. In 2008, van Zanten’s UK band recorded her 2nd solo album, “Where Your Garden Grows”, with Joby Baker (Deva Premal, Cowboy Junkies) and Tchad Blake (Sheryl Crow, Los Lobos). This album was the top played album for CKUA Radio 2009 and charted on numerous international stations.

After having her first daughter in 2011, Rachelle began to blend her powerful live performances and equally powerful social activism, creating socially conscious lyrics with soulful Canadiana grooves. “Oh Mother” was released in 2013 which then lead way to festival appearances across Canada with a baby in tow. After wowing a large crowd at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, she received the “Emerging Artist Award” for 2014. Her songs “My Country” and “I Fight For Life” have become national rally cries and have appeared on numerous Canadian documentaries (White Water Black Gold, Awakening the Skeena).

“Rachelle van Zanten is our voice, the muse of the north, a woman as strong and beautiful as the mountains, as fluid as the sea. She writes songs to inspire the wind, give voice to thunder, and fire the hearts of all sentient beings fighting to protect the land she loves so dearly.”  Wade Davis, Explorer in Residence, National Geographic Society

Since daughter number two, Rachelle recorded her children’s album, “Little Spruce”, which has been flying off of shelves and into homes and schools around the world. It is catchy, quirky, smart, and heartfelt, wrapped together with some gnarly slide guitar and intricate acoustic picking. It is the perfect adult-friendly children’s album and has opened a new career path to children’s festivals and school performances. As a busy, full time mother, touring is not always easy, so these days van Zanten is putting her energy into bringing music back into the schools, teaching songwriting and musicianship as well as playing the festival circuit. She is also working locally with First Nations youth in northern BC — leading classes and inspiring a new love for backcountry sports or leading workshops for collaborative songwriting and recording projects.

In 2018 van Zanten released a six-pack of original Christmas songs, “Christmas in these parts – 1”, which combines her signature guitar stylings and carefully-crafted lyrics with savvy contributions from fellow BC musicians. The collection pays tribute to the free spirit of BCs rural Northwest and captures some of that childlike joy that comes with the season.

In 2021 van Zanten released her single and music video “Kelli Likes to Ride”, a blues-infused folk-rock gem featuring her ripping slide guitar tune that pays tribute to Canada’s legendary mountain biker Kelli Sherbinin. The cinematically lush music video is set in British Columbia’s spectacular mountain forests and features a lively interplay between the two “rock” star women.

Rachelle van Zanten performs theatre concerts, community halls, festivals (including kids stages), conferences, school shows, songwriting & recording workshops