Aaron Espe

A Nashville-based singer and songwriter whose work reflects love, loss, family, faith, and other universal aspects of the human experience, Minnesota native Aaron Espe built up a sturdy grassroots fan base in the latter half of the 2000s before moving to Nashville and finding a home on the Nettwerk roster. While his earnest folk-pop songs began to gain some traction thanks to releases like 2012's Three and 2013's Safe Enough to Wander, he also focused on an alternate career as an industry songwriter, landing songs on several popular television shows. His career got a boost thanks to the 2015 streaming hit "Making All Things New" and he followed it up with the 2017 full-length Passages as well as several singles and another EP. Espe was born in Roseau, Minnesota on August 27, 1981 to parents who worked as a piano teacher an electrician. His first experience with making music came from singing in church, and when he was six years old he began studying the piano. He added the guitar to his arsenal when he was 14, with his grandfather lending him an instrument and charting a few basic chords. Espe studied English language and literature at the University of North Dakota from 2002 to 2004, though he was also regularly playing local shows by this time. His college career was cut short when he was invited to open a show for the duo Storyhill, who asked him to open a string of Midwest dates for them. As Espe's live appearances and increased touring helped him develop a following, he independently released his first album, 2005's My Whole Life, and Storyhill co-founder Chris Cunningham co-produced Espe's second full-length, 2008's Songs from a Small Town. A seasonal effort, simply titled Christmas Songs, was also released that year. Espe devoted most of 2009 and 2010 to studying creative writing at Colorado State University, though he continued to perform around the United States and in Ireland, where he had developed a following. He left Minnesota and relocated to Nashville in 2011, hoping to broaden his career boundaries as a songwriter. Once settled in Music City, Espe began making up for lost time, releasing two albums in 2012, Three and Tennessee Sky. That same year also saw him sign a record deal with Nettwerk Records, and he released a five-song EP, Through Frozen Forests, as 2012 was drawing to a close. Following 2013's Safe Enough to Wander, Espe focused on his career as a tunesmith over the next several years, with one of his songs, "Beyond the Sun," appearing on the television series Nashville, and others heard in the shows The Fosters and Grey's Anatomy. A 2015 single, "Making All Things New," found its way to several high-profile play lists and put up big numbers on the streaming platforms. With his popularity on the rise, Espe released an EP of covers, Blackwall Way, in 2017, followed a few months later by his full-length Nettwerk debut, Passages, which was produced by Brian F. Joseph (Bon Iver, Sufjan Stevens). Another EP, Wonder, appeared in 2019, followed over the next year by singles like "Only Time" and "Sunny Day." ~ Mark Deming