Rita Chiarelli is a Canadian

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

singer. She was called "the goddess of Canadian blues" by

Shelagh Rogers Shelagh Rogers, OC, is a Canadian broadcast journalist based in British Columbia. She is the host and producer of CBC Radio One's '' The Next Chapter'', and former chancellor of the University of Victoria. Background Rogers grew up in Ottawa ...

CBC Radio One CBC Radio One is the English-language news and information radio network of the publicly owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It is commercial-free and offers local and national programming. It is available on AM and FM to 98 percent of Ca ...

Biography

Born and raised in

Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Hamilton has a population of 569,353, and its census metropolitan area, which includes Burlington and Grimsby, has a population of 785,184. The city is approximately southwest of T ...

, Chiarelli began performing in

Ronnie Hawkins Ronald Cornett Hawkins (January 10, 1935 – May 29, 2022) was an American singer-songwriter, long based in Canada, whose career spanned more than half a century. His career began in Arkansas, United States, where he was born and raised. He ...

' band in the early 1980s. She subsequently spent several years in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. When she returned to Canada, she quickly attracted the attention of film director Bruce McDonald, who included her "Have You Seen My Shoes?" on the soundtrack to his 1989 film ''

Roadkill Roadkill is an animal or animals that have been struck and killed by drivers of motor vehicles on highways. Wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVC) have increasingly been the topic of academic research to understand the causes, and how it can be mi ...

''. Chiarelli and

Colin Linden Colin Kendall Linden (born 16 April 1960) is a Canadian guitarist, songwriter and record producer. Linden plays acoustic and electric guitar, specializing in slide guitar, country blues, and ragtime fingerpicking. He frequently collaborates with ...

subsequently recorded a cover of

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

's "

Highway 61 Revisited ''Highway 61 Revisited'' is the sixth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on August 30, 1965, by Columbia Records. Having until then recorded mostly acoustic music, Dylan used rock musicians as his backing band on ever ...

" for McDonald's 1991 film '' Highway 61'', and Chiarelli released her debut album the following year on

Stony Plain Records Stony Plain Records is a Canadian independent record label, which specializes in roots music genres such as country, folk, and blues. The label has released more than 300 albums. History Stony Plain was founded by Holger Petersen and Alvin Jahns ...

. Her albums ''Just Getting Started'' and ''Breakfast at Midnight'' were both nominated for the

Juno Award The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall of ...

for Best Blues Album.

Discography

Solo

*'' Road Rockets'' (1992) *''

Just Getting Started ''Just Getting Started'' is the seventh studio album by the Canadian rock band Loverboy, released in 2007. It was their first album of original material since 1997, and their first album to feature bassist Ken Sinnaeve. For fans who purchase ...

'' (1995) *'' What a Night'' (1997) *'' Breakfast at Midnight'' (2001) *'' No One to Blame'' (2004) *'' Cuore: The Italian Sessions'' (2006) *'' Uptown Goes Downtown... Rita Chiarelli with the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra'' (2008) *'' Sweet Paradise'' (2009) *''Music From The Big House Soundtrack'' (2011)

Compilation inclusions

*'' Saturday Night Blues: 20 Years'' ( CBC, 2006)A

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...

of live performances from the

Saturday Night Blues ''Saturday Night Blues'' is a Canadian radio program, which airs Saturday nights on CBC Music. Hosted by Holger Petersen, the program airs a mix of blues concerts, recordings and interviews with blues musicians. ''SNB'' first broadcast on CBC Radi ...

radio program on

CBC Radio CBC Radio is the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which (regardless of language) are outlined below ...

, hosted by

Holger Petersen Holger Petersen, (born 23 November 1949) is a Canadian businessman, record producer and radio broadcaster. He founded the independent roots music record label Stony Plain Records in 1975 with partner Alvin Jahns. The label was sold to True Nor ...

. Chiarelli's performance of "Memphis Has Got The Blues" is included. The song, written by Chiarelli, originally appears on her ''Breakfast at Midnight'' album. Se
Transcript of Saturday Night Blues
November 7, 2009; www.cbc.ca.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chiarelli, Rita Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Canadian blues singers Canadian women singer-songwriters Canadian singer-songwriters Canadian people of Italian descent Musicians from Hamilton, Ontario Canadian Folk Music Award winners 20th-century Canadian women singers 21st-century Canadian women singers