Brent Titcomb

Titcomb, Brent

(Arthur) Brent Titcomb. Singer-songwriter, guitarist, percussionist, actor, b Vancouver 10 Aug 1940. He began his career in Vancouver in 1963, combining traditional folk material with the flair for comedy that has remained an integral element of his performances. He was a founder and, 1964-8, member of Three's A Crowd, then pursued a solo career as a folk singer, appearing over the next 20 years in clubs and at festivals in Canada (including the Festival of Friends, Hamilton, Ont, annually beginning in 1976), the USA and, in 1983, Mexico. He also performed thrice in the 1970s with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.

Titcomb's early songs, which date to the late 1960s, included 'Sing High, Sing Low' and 'I Wish the Very Best for You,' both recorded by Anne Murray, the former a country music hit in 1971. His songs have also been recorded by Murray with Glen Campbell ('Bring Back the Love'), Ed Bruce, Lyn Dee, Tommy Graham, Bill Hughes, and Karen Jones. Titcomb himself has made the contemporary folk LP May All Beings Be Happy (1977, Manohar MR 100) and the pop album Time Traveller (1982, Stony Plain 1039) and has sung and/or played (percussion, harmonica, guitar) on albums by Murray (as a member of her touring band, Richard), John Allan Cameron, Bruce Cockburn, George Hamilton IV, Noel Harrison, Gene MacLellan, and others.

Titcomb began working occasionally in the mid-1970s as an actor in radio and TV dramas and commercials, and has also done 'voice-overs' for commercials and for such Canadian children's animated TV series in the 1980s as 'Clifford the Dog' and 'The Care Bears'. In 1989 he invented the character Bumble Bill for a children's concert series at Roy Thomson Hall. His interest in the voice has led him, as of the early 1980s, to offer workshops in 'toning' - ie, the therapeutic use of the voice for the purpose of self-healing.