Brian Chartrand’s first encounter with the sounds of Laurel Canyon happened far from the sunny hills of Southern California. Rather, he was growing up in western Massachusetts when his parents brought him to his first concert: James Taylor at the Springfield Civic Center in 1986.
“It completely and forever changed my life,” said Chartrand, now 50. “The music has been with me from the get-go. The lore came later.”
That “lore” revolves around the vibrant Laurel Canyon music scene of the late 1960s and early ’70s, where the likes of Taylor, the Byrds, Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, the Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, Harry Nilsson, Jim Morrison and Carole King held court. The affordable yet hip neighborhood in the Hollywood Hills was awash in the counterculture movements of the era and just minutes from downtown Los Angeles. Laurel Canyon became one of the most storied musical hot spots in American history, as much for the personalities and tales of the artists as the tunes that came out of it. The era is now considered essential to the inception of folk rock.
To celebrate and document that seminal time, Chartrand, a singer-songwriter and member of the Burlington band the Sweet Remains, created the touring show “Live From Laurel Canyon” in 2013. He and his band reinterpret classic songs of the era, using the music to soundtrack the story of the canyon, as told by Chartrand.
The SoCal revue comes to the Green Mountains on Sunday, March 15, at the Double E Theater in Essex. Ahead of the performance, Seven Days and Chartrand connected by phone to talk all things Laurel Canyon.
What was it about the Laurel Canyon scene that made it such an influential time in American music history?
A lot of what we now consider folk rock came out of that time, where you had all these young, talented musicians interacting and hanging out and sleeping together and writing together. It was such a pivotal time with the counterculture movement, and here you had all this incredible music coming out of one area. It had some kind of magical, mystical power.
It was also just convenient. The neighborhood was 10 minutes from LA, so they could all walk down to clubs like the Whiskey a Go Go and the Troubadour but then head back to this sweet little rural spot. They were young kids like Joni Mitchell, who had just made a little money from her first record and bought a little cottage in the canyon.
You were already a touring musician when you started this project. What inspired you to launch a tribute to a specific music scene?
I had a gig being the solo-guitar guy on a cruise ship back in 2012. I’d take requests and got so many requests for songs that came out of the Laurel Canyon scene that I started researching more and reading about the stories of the artists. I’ve always loved the VH1 “Behind the Music” and “Storytellers” shows, so I began thinking about putting together a show that pulled the curtain back on all these tunes.
How do you approach interpreting classic songs like these? How faithful do you feel you need to remain to the original compositions when presenting them in this historical package?
The idea behind the show isn’t about us putting on wigs or wearing bell-bottoms or anything like that. I honestly have a love-hate relationship with the concept of straight tribute acts. We make a conscious decision to not do a note-for-note thing or dress up. If that’s what someone wants, I feel like you should just put your favorite record on — I don’t really see the value in a sort of reenactment, you know? I want to do something unique to celebrate the music. We’re reinterpreting and paying homage to the songs, but we make it our own every night.
We’re reinterpreting and paying homage to the songs, but we make it our own every night.
Brian Chartrand
For instance, when we play “Light My Fire” by the Doors, we do a sort of hybrid version crossed with the Latin version of the song by José Feliciano. I’m a straight-ahead singer-songwriter, but my band comes from all sorts of musical backgrounds, so I let them have their way with the songs.
That seems fitting, considering you’re attempting to chart the evolution of a genre. It’s not as if these artists were static. The change in Joni Mitchell’s sound while she lived there was staggering.
Joni completely changed the game in so many ways. It’s akin, I think, to the Beatles and Radiohead and how uncompromising they were in pursuit of evolution. She just refused to do the same thing twice and completely changed the way we think about songwriting.
Following those sorts of evolutions is a big part of the show. Once I started really studying the music and the history around it, I listened to the music differently. I understand the context. I experience so much joy sharing those exploratory moments, and I think it’s a big part of why we’re still performing this music. If it was just covering songs, the appeal would have faded.
With so much material to chose from, how did you create the setlist?
The main thrust behind the show is the evolution of folk rock. So there are tons of amazing artists that came out of the Canyon, like Frank Zappa and the Monkees and the Turtles, but their music doesn’t really tell the story of folk rock.
I had to be specific about the artists and the tunes, because I’m trying to tell a story with the song selection. We start with “California Dreamin’” and end the show with “Hotel California.” If I didn’t put some sort of guardrails up, this would be a 48-hour music festival.
How has delving into the Laurel Canyon sound affected your own songwriting?
When I started the project, I had never done anything like it before. I was just doing my own singer-songwriter thing. So just taking on something like this was a change. The Laurel Canyon sound has been inspiring me since I started writing music. I don’t want to think about how many times I’ve been writing and realized I was accidentally ripping off a James Taylor song! All of the songs we perform at the show are just so fundamental to concept of folk rock itself. ➆
This interview was edited for clarity and length.
This article appears in March 11 • 2026.
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