Lenny Breau
August 5, 1941 - August 12, 1984
Inductee, Canadian Music Hall of Fame
(1997)
Born in the United States in Auburn,
Maine, Lenny Breau moved to Canada at age
7 with his parents - Harold Breau and Rita
Coté - better known by their stage names
as Hal Lone Pine and Betty Cody.
Lone Pine recorded for the Banff and RCA
labels, and composed such songs as “I Hear
the Prairies Calling” and “Prince Edward
Island is Heaven to Me". In 1957,
the family relocated to Winnipeg,
Manitoba, Canada where Lenny's parents
hosted a daily show on CKY radio called
Caravan.
He started playing guitar at age eight,
was performing regularly with his parents
at 12, and by 15 was a star attraction in
their band, going by the name “Lone Pine
Junior”. Lenny taught himself to
play in the style of Chet Atkins, where
the thumb plays a steady bass line while
the other fingers pick out chords.
He also received guidance in jazz theory
from pianist Bob Erlendson.
Chet Atkins called Lenny Breau “the
greatest guitarist who ever walked the
face of the earth.” Between 1968 and
1983 Breau made a series of recordings
that are among the most influential guitar
albums of the century.
Lenny Breau was a huge influence on a
young Randy Bachman. Bachman
attended a Caravan performance in his West
Kildonan neighborhood and ended up meeting
Breau. Breau and Bachman soon became
friends, and Breau informally began
teaching Bachman, who has since described
those lessons as “…the beginning of my
life as a guitar player.”
Randy Bachman founded the independent
label Guitarchives in 1995 specifically to
reissue some of Breau’s albums, such as
Cabin Fever, Live at Bourbon Street,
Chance Meeting, Boy Wonder, Mosaic and the
video Master Class.
Compiled from the following sources:
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