1982 b/w Hot Thoughts

Glen Foster is a Canadian singer, songwriter, guitarist, producer, and bandleader whose career has moved through rock, progressive rock, roots music, country-rock, folk, pop, rockabilly, gospel, and singer-songwriter territory. Born in Woodstock, Ontario, Foster studied Hawaiian guitar through the Royal Conservatory of Music and taught himself piano. He later lived in Hamilton, where he graduated from Mohawk College and became active in the southern Ontario music scene.

Foster began working with Ray Materick in the early 1970s, playing with him on and off for several years beginning in 1972. He appeared on Materick’s WEA albums Best Friend Overnight and Fever In Rio, and also worked with Daniel Lanois during the period when Lanois was still operating his studio from the basement of his mother’s house. Foster also performed across Canada with a variety of acts and shared stages with artists including Lighthouse, Dr. Hook, Stan Rogers, Valdy, and Sammy Hagar.

By the late 1970s Foster was leading his own band, Falcon, performing around southern Ontario. In August 1978, Falcon won a CKOC 1150 Hamilton radio talent contest with ‘Los Angeles’, a song that would become one of Foster’s key early recordings. The track was issued as part of the Falcon single Los Angeles / I Do It For You on Ixtlan Records as ILN-1009, produced by Foster and manufactured by RCA.

Falcon’s album Walk Into The Mirror followed in 1980 on Rescue Records. Written and produced by Foster, the album drew from progressive rock, symphonic rock, and melodic guitar-driven songwriting, and was recorded at Grant Avenue Studio and J.B. Sound Studio in Hamilton. The recording featured a large supporting cast of southern Ontario musicians, including Rita Chiarelli, Bill Dillon, Bob Doidge, Jack Pedler, Ed Roth, Jacques Harrison, Blair Irvine, Alex McDougal, and others, with engineering by Dan Lanois, Cam Hind, Jerry Lester, and Rick Lightheart. The album helped document Foster’s ambitious early work before his move west.

In 1981 Foster relocated to Nanaimo, British Columbia. There he worked for many years at Ferguson’s Music, selling instruments, teaching guitar, and repairing musical equipment. He continued his musical studies on the west coast, studying classical guitar and earning two silver medals from the Royal Conservatory of Music. He also studied jazz guitar with Colin McQuarrie and Chet Atkins-style guitar with Ray Campbell.

Foster continued using the Falcon name in British Columbia, forming a Nanaimo version of the band with Rod Quartly on bass and Al Rodrigue on drums. This later Falcon lineup released the single Always Rock n Roll / Looks Like I’m Leavin’, and Foster also issued additional recordings under the Falcon name, including material later gathered on The Falcon and the 2008 compilation Walk Into The Mirror / The Falcon, which brought together earlier Hamilton and Nanaimo recordings.

In 1986 Foster released the seasonal single The Spirit of Christmas, backed with The Twelve Guitars of Christmas, on red vinyl. The single received national airplay in Canada and was later digitally remastered for a 25th anniversary reissue in 2011. A video was also produced for ‘The Twelve Guitars of Christmas’. In 2004, Foster released Invitation, an album of original Christian music featuring musicians from Christ Community Church.

In 2009 Foster formed the Glen Foster Group, an acoustic folk-rock trio focused on original material and selected tribute songs. The group’s 2010 album Trusted Tried & True featured guests including David Gogo, Gerry Barnum, and The Turtle Doves. Its video for ‘Destination Desolation Sound’ was used by British Columbia tourism for the Vancouver, Coast and Mountains region. Foster followed with The Reckoning in 2012, a politically themed album shaped in part by the Occupy Movement and the Arab Spring, with videos for ‘Reckoning’, ‘This That These & Those’, ‘Someday (It’ll All Work Out)’, and ‘Easy Rolling’, as well as the single ‘Pixelated Man’.

His 2015 album Leaving The Lagoon expanded his acoustic and roots-based direction, incorporating folk textures and bagpipes. The album reached number one on the CHLY 101.7 Nanaimo Top 30 in December 2015 and January 2016, reached number 13 on The Independent Radio Show playlist, and was added to the CBC National Radio virtual music library. In 2017, Music Alchemy continued Foster’s genre-blending approach, with guests including Mark Crissinger, David Gogo, and Paul Gogo of Trooper, and songs including ‘Crashing Down’, ‘Cactus Whiskey’, ‘Stepping Out On Saturday Night’, and ‘Joe The Crow’. The 2019 EP Party Out There Tonight included ‘Rockabilly Fever’ and the title song, co-written with comedian Glen Foster, also known as “That Canadian Guy.”

Foster’s later album Not Far Away continued his habit of moving freely between styles. Its songs ranged across country-pop, rockabilly, skiffle, Celtic folk, gospel, and roots-rock, with arrangements incorporating strings, choir, harp, ragtime-style tack piano, organ, saxophone, and electric piano. The album included ‘Dusty Roads: Ode To Dusty Rhodes’, ‘Brains Brawn and Beauty’, ‘Dalgety Bay’, ‘Fruit of the Spirit’, and ‘Somewhere Over The River: Somewhere Under The Rainbow’.

Across his recordings with Falcon, his solo work, and the Glen Foster Group, Foster has built a catalogue marked by versatility, independence, and careful musicianship. Rather than remain in one fixed style, he has moved between electric rock, progressive rock, acoustic roots music, country, folk, gospel, and guitar-driven pop while maintaining a consistent focus on songwriting, performance, and craft.

-Robert Williston

First indie Rescue Records release by Glen Foster and Falcon, dated September 12, 1980. They originally formed in Hamilton, Ontario and described themselves as psychadelic-new wave. Produced by Glen Foster Recorded at Grant Ave Studios, Hamilton, Ontario