We Canadians are often perceived as being too humble when it comes to our accomplishments. Maybe it’s only a stereotype but, when it comes to Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist Chloe Charles, it’s hard to dispute.
That’s because Chloe — who plays Market Hall Performing Arts Centre in Peterborough on Thursday, October 5th — is one of those phenomenal musicians who has yet to achieve the popularity she deserves, at least not in her home country.
That’s not to say Chloe hasn’t received rave reviews for her music, but many have come from overseas. The Times in the U.K. called her “the next big thing in jazz”. Rolling Stone in Germany called her a “unique and colourful songwriter” composing “pop songs with an introverted beauty of surprising clarity.” Glamour in France called her music “enchanting” with “an infinite sweetness.” And so on.
That’s also not to say that Chloe hasn’t received her share of critical acclaim in North America. Billboard put her on a list of five Canadian acts to watch and called her “a unique talent — soulful, quirky, jazzy and experimental”.
The Globe and Mail labelled her “Toronto’s next big singer-songwriter”. Guitar World put her on a list of “10 female guitarists you should know”, calling her “haunting, lush, beautiful” with “a gorgeous voice and intensely plucked classical guitar.”
VIDEO: “Black and White” – Chloe Charles
With all that praise, you might expect Chloe to be a household name by now, but she isn’t. Perhaps that’s because her music — an original fusion of folk, soul, pop, jazz, and classical — doesn’t easily fall into any one genre for mass market consumption.
As Ben Rayner wrote in The Toronto Star in July 2016, “it’s still baffling that the Uxbridge-raised singer/songwriter remains a fairly unknown quantity here at home when she’s weaving the same sort of genre-oblivious musical magic that had people fawning breathlessly over Leslie Feist a few years ago.”
If you have heard of Chloe but not her music, it might have been through the interesting but ultimately irrelevant fact that Chloe is the stepsister of musician Julian Lennon — her late father Noël Charles married Cynthia Lennon, the first wife of John Lennon, in 2002.
VIDEO: “Business” – Chloe Charles & The Sweetness
The biracial Chloe was born in Toronto in 1980. Her Canadian mother Victoria Richmond is of English, Scottish, and Irish descent, and her father was Trinidadian but spent most of his adult life in Europe and Barbados (he co-owned the famous Alexandra’s nightclub in Sweden and Barbados with his first wife Alexandra Charles).
After her parents divorced, Chloe was raised by her mother in Toronto and then in Uxbridge, where she grew up on the rural property owned by her grandfather, the late visual artist John Richmond.
Chloe began singing in musical theatre as a child and released her first EP, the critically acclaimed Little Green Bud, in 2010. In 2011, she formed a singer-songwriter collective called The Sweetness with Texan musicians Aly Tadros and Douglas Jay Boyd and Toronto’s Sam Mclellan, which toured in North America and Europe.
VIDEO: “Soon On a Snowflake” – Chloe Charles
Later in 2011, she joined the Toronto collective Sweet Balance as lead singer and co-writer, and began collaborating as singer and co-writer with Toronto jazz electro dubstep band Ninja Funk Orchestra.
In 2012, Chloe released her debut solo full-length record, Break The Balance, in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria and in Canada and France the following year.
In 2016, she self-produced her sophomore record, With Blindfold On, with its opening track “Black & White” having already won the 2014 Grand Prize in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest and the Lennon Award for Pop. Reflecting the global nature of her career, Chloe recorded and mixed the album in Toronto, Berlin, and New York.
VIDEO: “Run Your Course” – Chloe Charles
Both records were well received by music critics (see above), as have been her many live shows. Of With Blindfolds On, The Toronto Star’s Ben Rayner writes “One doesn’t encounter many albums that evoke P.J. Harvey, Tracy Chapman, Joni Mitchell, Amy Winehouse and Radiohead in a single sitting, but that’s the sort of range with which Charles is working.”
Aside from her obvious musical talent as a songwriter, singer, and guitarist, Chloe is also an accomplished painter. And she has an Honours BA in psychology, perhaps explaining her erudite self-insight into her musical career and how it relates to the usual definition of “success” in the music industry.
“Getting this album out to the world has been a challenge”, she writes in her blog on chloecharles.com about With Blindfold On. “Yes, there is the planning and time and the work and the money that had to go into it, but that’s not what I mean.
“To me, the challenge was to push forward, to keep pushing forward, to not cave in and give up despite the constant pressure to chase the capitalistic concept of success, i.e., the path that implies the promise of money and security — rather than my own path, which is to be myself, listen to my inner voice and take a massive risk.”
VIDEO: Chloe Charles Live on Deezer
“My greatest challenge is to accept myself,” she writes. “It may seem to you that I already do but, believe me, it is a continuous battle and I’m not giving up. With each song I write I am putting it all on the table, my hopes, my values, my faults, mistakes, wounds and vulnerabilities — putting it all out there for anyone to judge as they wish.”
Chloe’s perseverance in pursuing her own musical path is both impressive and undeniable. She has now performed nearly 1,000 shows in 11 countries in North America and Europe, including major festivals such as SWSX (South by Southwest), NXNE (North by Northeast), Ottawa Bluesfest, two sold-out shows London Jazz Festival, and many more.
You don’t want to miss this opportunity to see Chloe perform in Peterborough. The show takes place on Thursday, October 5th at 8 p.m. at Market Hall Performing Arts Centre (140 Charlotte Street, Peterborough).
To make the show even more special, local singer-songwriter Mary-Kate Edwards — Peterborough Folk Festival’s 2017 Emerging Artist of the Year — will be opening.
VIDEO: “Ophelia” by The Lumineers performed by Mary-Kate Edwards
General admission tickets are $25 including fees ($15 including fees for students) or $30 including fees for assigned cabaret seating.
Tickets are available at the Market Hall Box Office, by phone at 705-749-1146, or online at markethall.org. Tickets are also available (cash only) at Moondance (425 George St. N., Peterborough, 705-742-9425).
