Aaron Espe

A singer and songwriter now based in Nashville whose material explores love, loss, family, faith, and other elemental dimensions of everyday life, Minnesota-born Aaron Espe cultivated a loyal grassroots audience throughout the second half of the 2000s, then relocated to Music City and joined the Nettwerk roster. Although his sincere folk-pop material began attracting wider attention through the 2012 release Three and the 2013 album Safe Enough to Wander, he simultaneously built a parallel livelihood placing original compositions in multiple television series. Momentum increased with the streaming success of the 2015 track “Making All Things New,” after which he issued the 2017 album Passages along with assorted singles and an additional EP.

Born in Roseau, Minnesota, on August 27, 1981, to a piano teacher and an electrician, Espe first encountered music through church singing. At six he started piano lessons; at fourteen he took up guitar after his grandfather supplied an instrument and demonstrated several foundational chords. Between 2002 and 2004 he attended the University of North Dakota, majoring in English language and literature while already performing locally. His studies ended prematurely when Storyhill invited him to open a series of Midwest concerts, an opportunity that accelerated his touring schedule and helped solidify an independent following.

That momentum led to the self-released debut My Whole Life in 2005, followed in 2008 by Songs from a Small Town, co-produced by Storyhill co-founder Chris Cunningham. The same year also brought the holiday collection Christmas Songs. Espe spent the majority of 2009 and 2010 pursuing creative writing at Colorado State University, yet continued performing across the United States and in Ireland, where he had established an audience. He departed Minnesota for Nashville in 2011 to expand his songwriting opportunities. Once there he issued two albums in 2012—Three and Tennessee Sky—signed with Nettwerk Records, and closed the year with the five-song EP Through Frozen Forests.

After releasing Safe Enough to Wander in 2013, Espe concentrated on writing for other artists, resulting in “Beyond the Sun” being featured on the series Nashville and additional placements in The Fosters and Grey’s Anatomy. The 2015 single “Making All Things New” appeared on prominent playlists and registered strong streaming figures. In 2017 he offered the covers EP Blackwall Way and, several months later, his Nettwerk debut Passages, produced by Brian F. Joseph (Bon Iver, Sufjan Stevens). The EP Wonder arrived in 2019, succeeded the following year by the singles “Only Time” and “Sunny Day.”