Beautifully crafted songs from a master singer songwriter. A joy to play on my radio show with great reaction from listeners. Jesse deserves to be up there with the likes of James Taylor & Jackson Browne. – Paddy MacDee, BBC Radio Newcastle
A true musical journeyman, Jesse Terry has made it his mission to share his love of music fully and completely, without regard for shading his emotions or tempering his convictions. By his own definition, he’s never been a cautious individual, but rather one who finds inspiration and optimism in the solace and joy making music brings him and that which he can impart to others. In that regard, his artistic quest has become satisfying and self-fulfilling. “Things happen for me at the right place and time when I’m focusing on my art and connecting with people,” Jesse suggests. “I’ve always had the desire to spread peace and unity through my music. This gives me a tangible purpose, even when life doesn’t seem to make much sense.”
That ability to create a connection, to bare his soul and express his emotions through his songs, has been the defining thread in a career that’s spawned five albums (The Runner, Stay Here With Me, Empty Seat on a Plane, and his latest pair, Stargazer and Natural) as well as an EP (The Calm and the Storm) as part of a career that began in 2010. It’s evolved and expanded ever since, thanks to a tour schedule that’s found him playing over 1,000 shows in the past eight years and taken him across the country and to points well beyond – the UK, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Greenland and New Zealand included. It’s given him a fresh perspective on the world and additional insights into its common humanity, sentiments and a sensibility that continues to impact his music.
“It’s about inclusiveness,” Jesse insists. “I love that music can bring all kinds of people together. I feel so lucky to be making music for a living. I don’t mind the long drives and the long hours, because that’s all part of the journey. And once you stop loving it, you stop living it.” Indeed, that’s at the core of his convictions. “So much of my music is about expressing the joy of the journey and finding strength and resiliency to battle through the difficult times,” he muses. “Touring the world has given me a very different perspective. We’re all part of a global family.”
He’s made that message clear on each of his albums, but never more so than of the two he recorded simultaneously in 2017. Stargazer was a defining record in Jesse’s career, unencumbered by the need to fit into a specific genre while emulating instead the artists and recordings that formed such an indelible impression on him as he was finding his own way early on. Recorded with producer and multi-instrumentalist Josh Kaler, it’s an aural spectacle of sorts, filled with rich arrangements and a genuine sense of celebration.
The second album and latest release to emerge from those sessions, the aptly titled Natural, finds Jesse relying on a more organic approach to his music. “We held tight to the concept of a very sparse and acoustic album, but after entering the studio we let the songs lead the way, and abandoned most boundaries,” he reflects. What Jesse decided to do with Natural was to make an album that featured some of the female singers he most admired, among them Dar Williams, Cary Ann Hearst, Liz Longley, Annie Clements, Erin Rae, Sarah Darling and Kim Richey. The talent that they brought to the project helped propel the album to another realm, creating an additional layer of emotional impact.
Since the start, Jesse has found time to reflect and reminisce. By contrast, his early life was turbulent. “I’m only happy now because I know how difficult life can be,” he maintains. “I am so grateful, because even though I’ve travelled down some painful roads, I’ve met many more people who have had it a lot worse. I now realize that happiness is a choice, a daily choice in fact. It’s about creating your own place in the world and your own path that no one can steal or deny. Music and songwriting helped illuminate that path for me.”
Still, that path wasn’t so clear early on. Growing up, he spent time in reform schools and in shelters as a runaway. After ending up in the hospital at the age of 18 following an overdose of illicit substances, he woke up to the fact that his life would have to change. “Music didn’t completely overtake me until I started writing my own songs around age nineteen,” he recalls. Motivated by his parents’ love of music, he found a new depth of devotion and discipline. Learning to play on his mother’s guitar and laying down vocals to his father’s instrumental accompaniment at his dad’s home studio, he found his initial inspiration in the Beatles, Roy Orbison, Bruce Springsteen, Brian Wilson and the remarkable singer/songwriters of the ‘70s — James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, CSNY and Paul Simon.
After attending Berkley, Jesse landed his dream job working for a publisher in Nashville and turned his attention towards writing songs full-time for five years. A downturn in the economy left him out on his own, but he took the opportunity to tour the world with his new wife Jess by his side. Gripped by what he calls his “perpetual wanderlust,” he’s been at it ever since, driven by a mission that he says has “been a great ride so far.” He pauses to consider his good fortune. “The tapestry of my life is woven through human connection, healing and unity. This is what music has allowed me to experience.”
Shawna taps into her Canadian folk roots to share songs with beauty, humor and a keen eye for the world around her. Add to the fact that she is a classically trained guitarist with a stunning voice, and you have an artist that is destined to be an important artist on the folk circuit. – Ron Olesko, Sing Out! Magazine
Toronto-based singer-songwriter and fingerstyle guitarist Shawna Caspi hadn’t done much travelling before tapering off a series of administrative jobs to start touring full-time. She had never even rented a car. She had never been camping before performing at the Blue Skies Music Festival in 2014.
Since then, Shawna has toured throughout Canada and the United States, including performances at the Ottawa Grassroots Festival, the Shelter Valley Folk Festival, the Summerfolk Festival (ON), and the Deep Roots Music Festival (NS), and concert series including the Calgary Folk Club, the Nickelodeon, the Northern Lights Folk Club (AB), the Greenbank Folk Music Society (ON), the Circle of Friends Coffeehouse (MA), On Your Radar (NY), and Six String Concerts (OH).
Shawna’s fourth album Forest Fire, released in September 2017, is a collection of songs about burning things down and building them up again. Engineered and produced by Don Kerr (Rheostatics, Bahamas, Ron Sexsmith), the elegant arrangements draw the listener into the depths of haunting, atmospheric tracks, then lift them out with airy, bluegrass instrumentation and hopeful narratives for brighter days. It’s dark granite stone with a shot of glimmering quartz through the middle. When the words get heavy, they are held up to the light of love, grace, and gratitude. With these songs, Shawna strives to be unafraid, to embolden quieted voices, to tell the truth above all else.
Some musicians make songwriting sound less of a craft and more of a life affirming obsession. Caspi’s compositions stand out as beautiful, complex and intricate even in an increasingly crowded folk scene. – NOW Magazine
It’s an album about cycles, about playing the long game. That’s why it’s called Forest Fire – something that seems huge and devastating when it happens, but in the relative vastness of space and time, it’s just one small moment on a much grander scale, a necessary catastrophe that leads to new growth.
Shawna’s vocals are brewed by years of classical training followed by years on the road finding her own voice singing folk songs. She combines power, intensity, character, and closeness. She has a whole band under her fingertips, with a remarkable lyrical fingerpicking guitar style. Her performances capture audiences with grace and intimacy whether the setting is a living room, a festival stage, or the bar car of a passenger train.
After taking one painting course in university, Shawna put away her brushes and bottles for the next seven years. But the overwhelming beauty of the landscapes she saw on tour was too much to keep to herself, whether it was coastal beaches, jagged canyons, endless prairie skies, charming fishing villages, tidy Midwestern farms, or the rugged pink rock of the Canadian Shield. She started painting again to share the visual landscapes of her travels, the places she was already weaving into her songs, and now creates one-of-a-kind works of art inspired by the rich scenery she sees on the road. She has sold over one hundred original works and continues to create more. Forest Fire features Shawna’s paintings on the front and back cover and throughout the album artwork design.
Shawna’s songs have a way of making you feel at home, no matter where you are. – Lynda Norman, Executive Director, Kelowna Arts Council
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Pittsburgh, PA 15213
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- Coyotes Jesse Terry 4:58
- Love in a Moving Van Shawna Caspi 3:42
- Empty Seat On a Plane Jesse Terry 3:45