GLENN KAISER (The Rez Band / The Glenn Kaiser Band)

Glenn Kaiser’s musical career started in the late ’60s while in his early teens. In 1971, he founded the seminal Christian hard rock group that would later become Resurrection (Rez) Band. Glenn fronted Rez for more than 25 years before continuing on his own. In 1999 he formed the blues rock trio Glenn Kaiser Band (GKB) with former Rez bassist Roy Montroy and drummer Ed Bialach. Glenn’s solo career is centered around the blues, especially with handmade cigar box guitars and other “found object” instruments, but also with lapsteel, acoustic and electric guitars, and harmonica. His extensive discography – over 35 recordings to date – includes projects of rock ‘n’ roll, R&B, worship, and American roots.

In 2012, Glenn and blues harmonica great Joe Filisko recorded their live concert at the final Cornerstone Festival (Glenn Kaiser and Joe Filisko Live) and continue to share the stage when schedules allow. His 2011 project Cardboard Box was inspired by the plight of Chicago’s homeless and the symbolic use of found-object instruments like cigar box guitars. Its proceeds continue to benefit a northside homeless shelter, CCO.

In 2016 came Long Way from My Home, where the handmade cigar box and diddley bow guitars are even more prominent. The recording is essentially one-man blues, though Joe Filisko features stealthily on four tracks with harmonica, and accurately represents what one will get when Glenn performs solo.

Swamp Gas Messiahs is the latest official release as of October 2020. Stylistically eclectic, it features Glenn on about a dozen instruments, including acoustic and electric guitars (fingerstyle and slide), bass, dobro, cigarbox guitar, diddley bow (homemade 1-string guitar), harmonica, ukulele, banjo, mandolin, harmonica and even kazoo. Long-time pal and bandmate Ed Bialach provides percussion and also engineered, mixed, and co-produced the 18-song project. Glenn’s most valuable instrument, his voice – both literal and figurative – is prominent in any GK venture, and this is certainly no exception. Of his motivation on this issue-heavy project, Glenn states, “I’m a child of the 60’s when protest records from musicians such as Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Buffy Sainte Marie, Pete Seeger, and many more spoke to the injustices in our world. Then and now political ‘gains’ too often yield horror to ‘the least of these’ world-wide….”