Clarence Jessop

Clarence Jessop is a self-taught American multi-instrumentalist composer and songwriter. He began playing the piano by ear and composing songs at the age of nine. After learning the melody to the ballad “Oh My Darling, Clementine” in 4th grade music class one day, he came home from school and felt unexplainably drawn to his mother’s neglected, out-of-tune piano. Having never attempted to play it before, he sat down on the bench and began playing an arrangement of the song’s melody with both hands. From then on, he discovered he had the ability to play by ear and started creating original arrangements of songs as well as writing his own. His mother signed him up for piano lessons, which he took until he was eleven, but then quit because he hated reading music. In high school, he taught himself to play the drums, guitar, and to sing, which led him to form a folk band and also sparked an additional passion for recording his own music.


Each song from his debut album 'From Which We Grow' is about a different tree. "I grew up in Montana, surrounded by tall pines and steep mountains. As a kid, I remember watching out the window as the pines swayed back and forth during heavy windstorms. They mesmerized me with their rhythm. This album is inspired by memories of different trees from my childhood. If they had a voice, what would it be?"