Jesse Roper

electric blues · blues · americana

Jesse Roper is a Canadian rock and rhythm-and-blues singer and guitarist based in Metchosin, British Columbia, the rural community outside Victoria where he grew up. Born in 1982, he was given a guitar by his father at six but stage fright kept him off stages into his late twenties; he worked a series of jobs, including eight years as a painter, before turning to music professionally. His second album, Red Bird, arrived in January 2015 with a sold-out Victoria release show and was followed that year by a dozen festival dates, among them Rock the Shores and Rifflandia, plus a Folk Alliance International showcase. Access to Infinity came in February 2018, Horizons in September 2022 and Way Down in the Valley in 2025. Horizons was made with Juno-nominated producer Gus van Go, known for records by Metric, The Stills, Whitehorse, Arkells, The Trews and Sam Roberts, working alongside Werner F; Roper has described the sessions as unusually exacting, with nothing allowed to stand at merely adequate. Van Go also produced Daisy Wake Up, a six-song EP released in May 2026 on Blue Heron Music that alternates hard-driving rock tracks with stripped-back breakup ballads. Earlier singles include Cupid (2015), cut at Bear Creek Studios with producer Ryan Hadlock. Roper's recordings draw on vintage soul and blues while keeping a modern indie edge, and his live show is built around guitar playing and a loud, soul-inflected vocal. He has shared bills with Booker T. Jones, Colin James, Beth Hart, Burton Cummings, Keith Urban and Tower of Power, and his songs have been licensed for advertising by CN Rail, Salomon and Upslope Brewing. He is represented by Paquin Entertainment.

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