About two minutes into an unplugged showcase set at the Acoustic Live booth during the 2013 Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, Brad Cole motioned with his head, urging a bystander to join his impromptu support band. A young woman strolled up playing a melodica — a hand-held keyboard instrument powered by blowing air into a tube. When Brad encouraged her to expand upon her solo, she unleashed an inventive jazz take on Brad’s song “Something About Goodbye.” It was impressive. Heather Pierson had just announced her presence into my little corner of the musical landscape. Over the next two years, I would continue to be impressed. In a recent interview, I discovered the evolutionary process of this musical powerhouse. Roots Heather Pierson was born in Joplin, Mo., in January 1976, and later lived in the single-traffic-light town of Galena, Kan. When she was 5, her parents, seeking a major change, moved to Hebron, Maine, a small town of around 500 residents. The family owned a piano. Her father, a machinist with a musical streak, immediately got out his old “Teaching Little Fingers To Play” books and began showing her the basics. About a year later, a gifted singer, flautist and piano teacher, Helen Davidson, moved to Hebron. Heather started taking lessons from her and didn’t stop until she was 16. She went at it so relentlessly, her parents actually tried to persuade her (unsuccessfully) to do other things. At around 6, she also began singing in the children’s church choir. She said, “I never had formal vocal training. The chorus was my training — learning how to shape the notes right, how to sing in harmony with other people.” When she was 12, her father asked for strings for his old Gibson acoustic guitar as a Father’s Day gift. He then promptly showed her how to play guitar. Band Times At 14, Heather asked for an electric bass and amp for her birthday A few months later, at a neighborhood Fourth of July party attended by a number of musicians, Heather was jamming on bass with them and was invited to join a band. She spent the next two years in a group with three adults, playing rock and blues. When she told the guitarist she played piano (“but only classical”), he brought in a Hammond organ for her to play and told her to use what she knew about music, “just play and make it up.” She recounted, “It opened all these doors in my mind about how to play with other people, improvise and create something new. It was huge.” Heather had sung in chorus all through elementary, middle and high school. She also had played solo piano in school assemblies. Although she was a good student, she didn’t like school and managed to graduate early, in 1992, at 16. Everyone expected her to go to college for music, but Heather had other ideas. She wanted to get on with her life as a musician. After high school, she spent four years in the band North Atlantic. They were very busy, playing a lot of country rock all over New England. “I consider that time of my life to be almost the equivalent of a college education. I learned how to be in a band, about gear, about club owners, audiences, hecklers, the dangers of partying… It was an irreplaceable education. I was learning on my feet and I wasn’t in a lot of debt at the end of it.” The Middle Years After leaving the band, Heather took a full-time job and kept music as a creative outlet. She played with other musicians part time and sang with an a cappella group, eventually becoming its director. Dealing with her life’s cataclysms took a toll. Her father lost his brother at an early age and it left him withdrawn. Cancer then claimed him in 1998. Heather lost her mother in 2007. Around 2003, she entered a relationship in which she subjugated her own goals to support her partner’s agenda. The arrangement turned out to have a stifling effect on Heather’s life and creativity. Her day job at a children’s library provided some solace. She loves children and they’ve always provided an uplift for her. Somewhere around 2007, as her spirit began waking up, she wrote songs privately. The Unfolding In 2010, Heather broke away. Fighting the terror of that first step into the unknown, she quit both the relationship and her job at the library and set out to make a new life for herself, doing music full time. The person we see today began to emerge. We can hear the stirrings of her turbulent reawakening on her 2010 release, Make It Mine. In “Little Bluebird,” she sings, Tell me why can’t I have wings like you? and also, on the title track, … isn’t it a miracle to be alive? / To feel that spark of passion along your spine? / So whether it’s evolved this way or been some grand design / I’m gonna take this life and make it mine. After living seven years in the border town of Fryeburg, Maine, Heather moved a short distance to Conway, N.H., where she lives today — also where she’d begun playing solo piano in 2003, at the White Mountain Hotel (she still plays there regularly). It was only about a 15-minute drive, but light years removed from her previous life. It took some time for Heather to become comfortable with showcasing her voice. During her time with the North Atlantic band, she avoided the role of lead singer, even though her fellow band members pushed her to sing more. She preferred singing harmony, as she’d learned to do in school and church choruses. Putting her vocals up front had seemed too personal, too exposed. Today, in her big, bell-pure alto, she loves to sing both covers and her own songs. After moving, she began attending open mics in the area, trying out new songs and meeting the members of her current trio in the process. She met multi-instrumentalist Davy Sturtevant at one and bassist Shawn Nadeau at another. Heather and Shawn began performing as a duo (they’re also a couple). Together, they recorded Heather’s next album, The Hard Work of Living (2013). Here again, we see the evolution of her journey. In “Nothing Left,” she sings, There is nothing left here for me / Nothing for as far as my crying eyes can see / There is nothing left for me here / Nothing that’s worth me shedding another tear. The Trio Heather brought Davy Sturtevant into the studio for two tracks of The Hard Work of Living. When she got an official showcase at the Southeast Regional Folk Alliance (SERFA) in 2014, both Davy and Shawn joined her and the trio fused. Motherless Child (2014) and Still She Will Fly (2015) both feature the trio. “Still She Will Fly” was the #2 single on the Folk radio charts for the year in 2015. Davy’s Dobro playing supports Heather’s voice beautifully as she sings about waiting for someone long gone: Easy come and easy go / It’s another new day or so they say / I’m still here And I’m wondering whether I should stay or fly away. Three other songs were also in the Top 100 singles on Folk radio in 2015. With Motherless Child, Heather answered the call of fans who clamored for a recording of the piano-based, jazz-inflected songs they’ve heard her do solo for so many years. On “The Gumbo’s Too Hot,” she executes a jellyroll piano blues so adeptly, and sings with such torchy expertise, The gumbo’s too hot / But your biscuits are fine / Yeah, you’re no good in the kitchen / But I’m glad that you’re mine, one can envision listening to her in a New Orleans club (as some lucky folks have already done). In a mood shift, the beauty of her virtuosic piano instrumental interpretation of “Norwegian Wood” left me misty-eyed. Upcoming concerts for the Heather Pierson Trio in our area include Feb 26th, 7:30pm,at Spiral Sounds Concerts in Jersey City, NJ and March 4th, 7:30pm at CT Folk, 704 Whitney Ave., New Haven, CT Heather Pierson is a musician who I hope will play the New York City area more often. She’s someone worth hearing and someone worth knowing better. Much of who she is personally can be found in her blog on her website, where she shares many intimate reactions to events in her life. We’re privileged to have had the opportunity to make her acquaintance. Website: http://www.heatherpierson.com

About two minutes into an unplugged showcase set at the Acoustic Live booth during the 2013 Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, Brad Cole motioned with his head, urging a bystander to join his impromptu support band. A young woman strolled up playing a melodica — a hand-held keyboard instrument powered by blowing air into a tube. When Brad encouraged her to expand upon her solo, she unleashed an inventive jazz take on Brad’s song “Something About Goodbye.” It was impressive. Heather Pierson had just announced her presence into my little corner of the musical landscape. Over the next two years, I would continue to be impressed. In a recent interview, I discovered the evolutionary process of this musical powerhouse.

Roots

Heather Pierson was born in Joplin, Mo., in January 1976, and later lived in the single-traffic-light town of Galena, Kan. When she was 5, her parents, seeking a major change, moved to Hebron, Maine, a small town of around 500 residents. The family owned a piano. Her father, a machinist with a musical streak, immediately got out his old “Teaching Little Fingers To Play” books and began showing her the basics. About a year later, a gifted singer, flautist and piano teacher, Helen Davidson, moved to Hebron. Heather started taking lessons from her and didn’t stop until she was 16. She went at it so relentlessly, her parents actually tried to persuade her (unsuccessfully) to do other things. At around 6, she also began singing in the children’s church choir. She said, “I never had formal vocal training. The chorus was my training — learning how to shape the notes right, how to sing in harmony with other people.” When she was 12, her father asked for strings for his old Gibson acoustic guitar as a Father’s Day gift. He then promptly showed her how to play guitar.

Band Times

At 14, Heather asked for an electric bass and amp for her birthday A few months later, at a neighborhood Fourth of July party attended by a number of musicians, Heather was jamming on bass with them and was invited to join a band. She spent the next two years in a group with three adults, playing rock and blues. When she told the guitarist she played piano (“but only classical”), he brought in a Hammond organ for her to play and told her to use what she knew about music, “just play and make it up.” She recounted, “It opened all these doors in my mind about how to play with other people, improvise and create something new. It was huge.”

Heather had sung in chorus all through elementary, middle and high school. She also had played solo piano in school assemblies. Although she was a good student, she didn’t like school and managed to graduate early, in 1992, at 16. Everyone expected her to go to college for music, but Heather had other ideas. She wanted to get on with her life as a musician. After high school, she spent four years in the band North Atlantic. They were very busy, playing a lot of country rock all over New England. “I consider that time of my life to be almost the equivalent of a college education. I learned how to be in a band, about gear, about club owners, audiences, hecklers, the dangers of partying… It was an irreplaceable education. I was learning on my feet and I wasn’t in a lot of debt at the end of it.”

The Middle Years

After leaving the band, Heather took a full-time job and kept music as a creative outlet. She played with other musicians part time and sang with an a cappella group, eventually becoming its director.

Dealing with her life’s cataclysms took a toll. Her father lost his brother at an early age and it left him withdrawn. Cancer then claimed him in 1998. Heather lost her mother in 2007. Around 2003, she entered a relationship in which she subjugated her own goals to support her partner’s agenda. The arrangement turned out to have a stifling effect on Heather’s life and creativity.

Her day job at a children’s library provided some solace. She loves children and they’ve always provided an uplift for her.

Somewhere around 2007, as her spirit began waking up, she wrote songs privately.

The Unfolding

In 2010, Heather broke away. Fighting the terror of that first step into the unknown, she quit both the relationship and her job at the library and set out to make a new life for herself, doing music full time. The person we see today began to emerge. We can hear the stirrings of her turbulent reawakening on her 2010 release, Make It Mine. In “Little Bluebird,” she sings, Tell me why can’t I have wings like you? and also, on the title track, … isn’t it a miracle to be alive? / To feel that spark of passion along your spine? / So whether it’s evolved this way or been some grand design / I’m gonna take this life and make it mine.

After living seven years in the border town of Fryeburg, Maine, Heather moved a short distance to Conway, N.H., where she lives today — also where she’d begun playing solo piano in 2003, at the White Mountain Hotel (she still plays there regularly). It was only about a 15-minute drive, but light years removed from her previous life.

It took some time for Heather to become comfortable with showcasing her voice. During her time with the North Atlantic band, she avoided the role of lead singer, even though her fellow band members pushed her to sing more. She preferred singing harmony, as she’d learned to do in school and church choruses. Putting her vocals up front had seemed too personal, too exposed. Today, in her big, bell-pure alto, she loves to sing both covers and her own songs.

After moving, she began attending open mics in the area, trying out new songs and meeting the members of her current trio in the process. She met multi-instrumentalist Davy Sturtevant at one and bassist Shawn Nadeau at another. Heather and Shawn began performing as a duo (they’re also a couple). Together, they recorded Heather’s next album, The Hard Work of Living (2013). Here again, we see the evolution of her journey. In “Nothing Left,” she sings, There is nothing left here for me / Nothing for as far as my crying eyes can see / There is nothing left for me here / Nothing that’s worth me shedding another tear.

The Trio

Heather brought Davy Sturtevant into the studio for two tracks of The Hard Work of Living. When she got an official showcase at the Southeast Regional Folk Alliance (SERFA) in 2014, both Davy and Shawn joined her and the trio fused. Motherless Child (2014) and Still She Will Fly (2015) both feature the trio. “Still She Will Fly” was the #2 single on the Folk radio charts for the year in 2015. Davy’s Dobro playing supports Heather’s voice beautifully as she sings about waiting for someone long gone: Easy come and easy go / It’s another new day or so they say / I’m still here And I’m wondering whether I should stay or fly away. Three other songs were also in the Top 100 singles on Folk radio in 2015.

With Motherless Child, Heather answered the call of fans who clamored for a recording of the piano-based, jazz-inflected songs they’ve heard her do solo for so many years. On “The Gumbo’s Too Hot,” she executes a jellyroll piano blues so adeptly, and sings with such torchy expertise, The gumbo’s too hot / But your biscuits are fine / Yeah, you’re no good in the kitchen / But I’m glad that you’re mine, one can envision listening to her in a New Orleans club (as some lucky folks have already done). In a mood shift, the beauty of her virtuosic piano instrumental interpretation of “Norwegian Wood” left me misty-eyed.

Upcoming concerts for the Heather Pierson Trio in our area include Feb 26th, 7:30pm,at Spiral Sounds Concerts in Jersey City, NJ and March 4th, 7:30pm at CT Folk, 704 Whitney Ave., New Haven, CT

Heather Pierson is a musician who I hope will play the New York City area more often. She’s someone worth hearing and someone worth knowing better. Much of who she is personally can be found in her blog on her website, where she shares many intimate reactions to events in her life. We’re privileged to have had the opportunity to make her acquaintance.

Website: http://www.heatherpierson.com

Heather Pierson

Chrysalis Unfolding

by Richard Cuccaro