Glen Heald is an Australian guitarist and multi instrumental singer/songwriter who plays a mix of contemporary rock, fusion, blues, blues rock, folk and acoustic ballads. He is a fully independent Aboriginal recording artist who has written, recorded and produced eight solo albums.
Career
Glen Heald is a Tasmanian Aboriginal who was born in 1967 and began playing guitar at 13 years of age. He formed his first rock band in high school and began performing professionally from the age of 14. He gained entry on an audition to the University of Tasmania and studied arranging and Jazz improvisation with Jim Lade. After completing an associate degree in music he led the first of many original bands playing Guitar, Flute, Banjo and Harmonica. He recorded his first album in Launceston in 1990 with the "Glen Heald Blues Band". In 1992 he established and wrote the curriculum for the first fully contemporary music course in Darwin Australia which he coordinated for the next eight years. Teaching live performance, improvisation, musicianship, multitrack recording and live sound. During the 1990s Glen started playing the Hans Reichel guitar. Glen was broadcast nationally on JJJ radio performing on the reichel guitar in 1998. In the late 1990s Heald started performing and recording on the Chapman Stick. In 2001 he began performing with the Australian Aboriginal singer songwriter Shellie Morris, recording, co-writing, arranging and producing her debut and second CD Waiting Road nominated for Album of the Year at the 2007 Deadly Awards. In 2002 Heald wrote the music for the play To the inland sea. Glen composed the acoustic music for the Aboriginal film "Merrepen" in 2005. In 2007 he toured Europe with Morris and performed on TV4Swedish television playing the Chapman Stick to over 6 million viewers. In 2009 he performed on guitar with Shellie Morris at the Sydney Opera house with world-renowned aboriginal musician Gurrumul Yunupingu this was filmed and featured nationally on two episodes of ABC TV's Message Stick program. In 2008 Glen worked with African refugees from Liberia that had relocated to the Northern Territory in Darwin. He was musical director of the 'Liberty Songs' music project writing, recording and producing the music performed in a musical collaboration between African and Aboriginal musicians. Following this Glen recorded the Darwin African choir. Glen produced the music for the Aboriginal film In a League of Their Own in 2009, which follows Australia's first all-black football team through their first season in the big league. Heald works with Aboriginal communities and youth throughout Australia helping aboriginal people to produce and recording music about their stories and experiences. He has produced and recorded music and videos for the Fred Hollows Foundation and The Jimmy Little Foundation. In addition to this Glen worked for four years in Darwin Correctional Centre as a music teacher helping Aboriginal people record and produce music. Heald has produced, recorded and released eight studio albums, His self-titled electric rock CD and his album Progressive rock containing some very interesting Chapman Stick performances in odd time signatures. On the self-titled album 'Glen Heald' he sings and plays electric slide guitar in a hard rock or blues rock style. His solos on electric guitar are in the style of Buddy Guy, Jimi Hendrix or Robin Trower. He employs standard drop D, open D major, DADGAD and open G major tunings, for many compositions and sings in a Tom Waits or Captain Beefheart style. Styles range from electric funk to heavy blues rock ballads, with the emphasis on electric guitar players from the power trio era. 2015 saw the release of his fifth electric rock album 'Glen Heald The best of 2010-2015' featuring ten instrumental guitar tracks in a progressive rock format, selected from tracks released on his first four albums. In September 2017 Glen Heald released the acid rock and progressive rock album titled "Marrawah". The album contains many guitar riffs and melodies and sees Glen Heald again performing with his brother Dave Heald on electric bass. The album contains varied material ranging from longer guitar improvisations on slide guitar and resonator guitar, as well as a reggae song highlighting the continued and high incarceration of Australian Aboriginal people. 2018 saw Glen release his first fully acoustic album "Acoustic Guitar Culture. This album is written in DADGAD and open G guitar tunings and is written in a more contemporary folk style. In 2019 Heald released his seventh studio album titled "Electric Guitar Solos" This is an album showcasing Glen's improvisational ability on electric guitar in a three piece power trio format. The songs on the album are modal based but contain elements of the Chicago blues style. Some of the other influences for the album come from guitar players such as Robin Trower, Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, Roy Buchanan and David Gilmour.
