artist Rachelle Van Zanten

Rachelle van Zanten's musical history is as varied as music itself. Growing up in northern British Columbia, she sang in church choir, took piano lessons, played drums and trumpet in the school band, and played guitar with her family on gospel, bluegrass and old time country jams. At the age of 18, van Zanten heard the slide guitar stylings of Lester Quitzau while attending a local festival. From that day on, van Zanten has made slide guitar a focus in her songwriting. Having outgrown her small hometown, van Zanten relocated to Edmonton in 1994, and used her strong musical foundations to begin building a career. As one of the front women for Painting Daisies, van Zanten has toured 36 States of America, 7 provinces of Canada, Iceland, Belgium, Holland, and Germany. The band won “Entertainer’s of the Year” for the 2001 Prairie Music Awards beating out Jann Arden, Nickleback, and Wide Mouth Mason. 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, over 4000 acts.Over the last three years, she has shared the stage with such greats as Colin Linden, Ellen McIlwaine, Sonny Rhodes, and Alison Brown. As a member of the Alberta music community van Zanten is the producer of Western Canada’s music camp for young women, Rocker Girl Camp (www.rockergirlcamp.com).

rachellevanzanten@lycos.com singer/player