Sarah Jane Scouten

Sarah Jane Scouten

Four-time Canadian Folk Music Award nominee, Sarah Jane Scouten’s music delivers a signature mix of vintage folk and country, with modern sounds and subjects. Sarah Jane is steeped in North American and British folk music from years of finding folk music at its source, from the folklorists of Vancouver Island to all-night old time jams in West Virginia, Sacred Harp singing in Kentucky, the song craft of Nashville, two-stepping in Louisiana and her Glasgow roots. Touring throughout North America and Europe, this seasoned performer boasts a top-notch live band and considerable acclaim for her last three full length albums.

Raised in a musical family on Bowen Island BC, where harmony singing was more common than watching television, Sarah Jane commits to her roots, using her warbling voice and knack for storytelling to captivate and transport her audiences. Her songs run the emotional gamut, creating a world of characters who come alive in her often haunting and equally whimsical ballads. Like any songwriter worthy of the name, she explores love with a fine-toothed comb, but isn’t limited to romantic love. Love of a place, a time, the natural world and all its inhabitants tug at her sleeve, which she handles with equal power to delight and break a heart. According to Tom Power of CBC q, “Stan Rogers was able to do it, Ron Hynes was able to do it, Kate McGarrigle was able to do it – and Sarah Jane Scouten is able to do it.”

Her upcoming fourth album “Confessions”, recorded in Toronto with veteran producer Andre Wahl, out now on Light Organ Records, is a further exploration of Americana sounds and song forms. It is a collection of revelatory songs — a series of confessions — which valorize, condemn and eulogize the most important relationships of her life to new harrowing heights.