Award-winning contemporary folk singer/songwriter Terry Kitchen is a performing artist who's as much storyteller as musician. His keen eye for detail, fearless emotional honesty, and knowledge of and empathy for his subjects combine with his skills as a composer, singer and guitarist to take the listener on a journey to the heart of each song.

heaven here on earth, his eighth solo CD, showcases the full range of Kitchen's music and songwriting, from the drag race opera “The Seven Eleven Overture” (sung from vantage point of the clerk behind the counter) to the deeply spiritual-but-not-religious title tune. While firmly in the “man and his guitar” troubadour tradition, Kitchen is not afraid to use new sounds, from accordion to electric guitar to a string quartet, to make his songs come alive for the listener.

heaven here on earth follows 2004’s ecological-themed that’s how it used to be (which spent 3 months on the national Folk DJ airplay chart, reaching #29), 2002’s Right Now (which reached #34 on the Folk DJ chart), 1999’s blues for cain & abel (a deeply personal collection of songs of doubt and faith), 1997’s blanket (which was voted #21 best CD of that year by Folk Digest) and 1995’s I Own This Town (whose title song is the precursor for heaven’s “The Seven Eleven Overture”).

Born in Phillipsburg, New Jersey, Kitchen grew up first in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then on Easton, PA's College Hill (home of Lafayette College, setting for that’s how it used to be's “The Greatest Game They Never Played”), where he was surrounded by the music and spirit of the 1960s. As a bored teenager in the '70s, Terry roamed the small town streets of Findlay, Ohio (the setting for “I Own This Town” and “The Seven Eleven Overture”) before escaping to Los Angeles for college (Occidental) and music school (The Guitar Institute of Technology — walk down Hollywood Boulevard til you get to Elvis Presley's star, and it's the first door on the right…). He moved to Boston and fronted the '80s original pop/rock band LOOSE TIES (who are memorialized in heaven here on earth's “Magic Days,” co-written by Kitchen with former bandmate Bill Kuhlman) before settling on the intimacy of acoustic music as the most natural setting for his songs.

For the past eighteen years Terry has performed on the New England and national coffeehouse and folk festival circuits (including Club Passim in Cambridge, Cafe Lena and the Postcrypt in New York, Godfrey Daniels in Pennsylvania, and the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, and the Falcon Ridge, Telluride and South Florida folk festivals) and shared the stage with such artists as the Roches, Richard Shindell, John Gorka, Cheryl Wheeler, Dan Bern, Vance Gilbert, the Nields, and Susan Werner. He was a finalist in the 1992 Falcon Ridge songwriter showcase (and a featured performer ever since), a '94 Telluride Troubadour, a finalist in the 2003 South Florida Folk Festival's singer/songwriter showcase and a Top 40 finalist in the 2006 Kerrville Music to Life competition. His songs have won Grand Prize in the Mid-Atlantic Song Contest, First Prize in the USA Songwriting Competition, and a Runner Up in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest.

In addition to his songwriting Kitchen has written 2 plays, a children's novel, and collection of autobiographical stories. He's worked as a summer camp counselor, union steward, ice cream scooper and bicycle messenger, has a brief but distinguished FBI record for anti-nuclear protests, has finished last in a Boston Marathon, and was once mentioned in a Harlequin romance novel.

Terry Kitchen has been writing songs since gradeschool as a way of making sense of himself and the world around him. He is a veteran of the Boston “Songos” writers group and the Kerrville songwriting school, and he leads songwriting workshops and songswaps in conjunction with performances. His songs “Rain on the Roof” and “Back When Yellow Meant Slow Down” can be heard on New England folk radio. His song “Christmas Is Homeless” was recorded by Barbara Kessler (on the 12 Steps of Christmas CD), his song “Inside” was recorded by country singer Dale Allaire, and his song “Finder's Keepers,” co-written with Janet Feld, is featured on her CD Pulling on Strings.

Terry Kitchen is a member of the Massachusetts Cultural Council's Touring Artists Program. The MCC, in partnership with the New England Foundation for the Arts, makes funds available to organizations that present Touring Artists. Please visit www.matchbook.org to learn how to apply for funding for a Terry Kitchen performance. Terry is also the coordinator of the Boston chapter of the NSAI (Nashville Songwriters Association International). Terry is also a member of The People's Music Network, an organization devoted to music as a force for social justice.