HEATHER PIERSON

Heather Pierson is a nationally touring singer/songwriter, pianist, community song leader, educator, and poet living in Western Maine.  On her own record label, Vessel Recordings, Heather has released 18 albums and several singles of her original music, spanning from jazz to folk to a cappella chants.  In a career spanning over three decades, Heather has performed on some of the world’s most beloved stages for both folk and jazz music, including Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs, NY and The Spotted Cat in New Orleans.

Heather’s 2026 solo release, Alone At Last, is a collection of original ragtime piano compositions that was hailed by Jazz Weekly as ‘impressively sassy’ and by NYC Jazz Record as ‘evocative’ and ‘joyful’.  The Syncopated Times said that ‘Heather has the potential to become an important voice in the ragtime world.’

Upon the release of her trio’s album Back To The Light in 2024, which reached #1 on the Contemporary Folk Music charts, Americana Highways Magazine declared that Heather’s voice ‘sounds like timeless wind moving slowly through the trees’.  Her trio, with Shawn Nadeau on bass and Craig Bryan on drums, is widely known in their native Northeast for their annual Charlie Brown Christmas tour, wherein they share their interpretations of the work of Vince Guaraldi.  

Heather’s original works for community singing are one half of Heart Songs & Circle Songs, a project co-founded in 2017 with Rev. Bernice Martin.  Together, they have created and continually offer a repertoire of over 200 songs that are sung by community, church, and hospice choirs and lovers of singing around the world.   To date, they have released three albums of original songs, and a fourth, There’s A Light, will be available in the fall of 2026.

‘Groove plus melody equals joy’ - this is the motto of The Potboilers, an immersive, collaborative, spontaneous, multi-genre jam-band/musical experience. Joining Heather’s keyboards and vocals in this project are Rafe Matregrano on guitar and vocals and Trio-mates Shawn Nadeau on electric bass and Craig Bryan on drums.  They have already garnered a diehard following in northern England and a reputation for their imaginative originals and inventive covers of artists as varied as Dolly Parton, Frank Zappa, and The Allman Brothers.  Their debut album of originals is planned for a late 2026 release.

In 2021, Heather reunited with dear friend Leah Boyd to form a new duo, Peaceful Means, creating and sharing original and choice cover songs to support and lift up nonviolent consciousness.  In late 2023, they ran a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund their 9-song debut album, which was released on April 5, 2024.   A successful second album Kickstarter campaign ran in early 2026, and their follow-up, called Let Love Show The Way, is planned for an October 2026 release.

When she isn’t touring or teaching, Heather enjoys birding, hiking, being in the kitchen, practicing meditation, and pondering the tough questions.