artist Chris Warren

“Far headier fare than your average singer/songwriter.” (NOW Magazine) Chris Warren has been building his distinctive repertoire for many years in hometown Toronto. Second CD Beautiful Ruins was received rapturously in 2005--“Warren’s eccentric and arresting pop-folk opus is…fascinating, avant-garde world music with retro-pop inflections and a serious literary intent” (The Toronto Star). He started out publishing poems in literary magazines, but has become one of the great Canadian poets in the language of song.  “Chris Warren has the soul of a poet (maybe Leonard Cohen’s) and the eclectic tastes of an adventurer (maybe Sir Edmund Hillary’s). He does it all, and does it deep, digging great songs from the mineshaft of eternal truth” (Howard Druckman, UmbrellaMusic.com). Recordings began with BONE, a self-produced EP cassette recorded at Toronto’s Music Gallery, released in 1993. First full-length album Crazy Wisdom was released in 1997.  Eclectic, operatic in its scope, the album was meticulously recorded over a couple of years with producer James Paul.  Warren produced and recorded Beautiful Ruins mostly on his own, layering guitars, vocals and woodwinds into an album American Songwriter Magazine called "a magnum opus from start to finish". Warren has received support from FACTOR and the Ontario Arts Council. Third album Night For Day confirms his status as one of the finest songwriters currently writing in Canada.  A beautiful analog recording, Warren’s sophisticated songs receive exquisite musicianship in players like Drew Jurecka on violin, Michael Herring, upright bass, and singers Ron Sexsmith and Mary Margaret O’Hara contributing vocals.