Bad ideas, VCRs, crumbling factories, hairy dogs, questionable tattoos…all are fair game for funeral director-turned-songwriter (and newly-minted 2026 Canadian Folk Music English Songwriter of the Year) Terra Spencer. And the songs are good ones, judging from the accolades her four albums have received, and the caliber of collaborators like Matt Andersen, Dave Gunning, and David Francey, who welcomed Terra as a co-writer and performer on his JUNO-winning album ‘The Breath Between’. Cinematic storytelling is a hallmark of many great Canadian folk songwriters, but in Terra’s case, it is charged with the wood-paneled ’70s warmth of Elton John, Karen Carpenter, and Jackson Browne. As a fun-loving and fearless solo performer, Terra has played some of Canada’s most renowned festival stages, including Mariposa, Stan Rogers Folk Festival, and Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival, where her Maritime waltz “Lunenburg Moon” has become an unofficial anthem. Think Steve Poltz and Carole King’s East Coast cousin.

Terra grew up as an only child on the banks of the Avon River with the world’s highest tides, surrounded by country music. As a shy teen, she took refuge in her grandparents’ basement where she played Broadway show tunes on a battleship upright piano, learning guitar in secret from her granddad’s Chet Atkins records. Her passion for songwriting came much later, after being hired on as a backup singer while scooping ice cream at a festival by country performer Ryan Cook. Their travels set the stage for Terra’s solo debut in 2018, blooming into a career that quickly overshadowed her funeral ambitions, taking her across Canada and to the US, UK, and Germany.

Her solo fourth album ‘Sunset’ was named the 2024 Penguin Eggs Album of the Year (alongside Julian Taylor’s ‘Pathways’) and 2025 Music Nova Scotia Folk/Roots Recording of the Year, and garnered her a CFMA nomination for 2026 Solo Artist of the Year. It features guests from East to West, including Matt Andersen and Stephen Fearing. Although her butterscotch voice, deft fingerstyle guitar, and gospel-charged piano make her a formidable musician, it’s her onstage ease, spirited spontaneity, and crackling East Coast wit that make each show feel like a knee-to-knee conversation in a room of 5 or 500, on either side of the Atlantic. “The real deal.” – Ron Sexsmith

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