News

Veeder to perform at the Holwell Auditorium

By Scott Wagar

03/03/2015

One of North Dakota’s best folk and Americana artists will be performing in Bottineau on March 13 and is planning a big show in support of preserving Old Main in the community’s reclaiming project of the 108 year old structure. 

Veeder has been writing and performing music since she was a child. She was born in northwest North Dakota and was raised on a feeder ranch 35 miles southeast of Watford City.

Her dad, who is a folk musician, and will be on stage with Veeder when she comes to Bottineau, infused folk music into his daughter at a young age and brought her on stage with him to perform.

“I started singing with him when I was 10 years old. We toured the state together and doing festivals and any kind of gig we could do.”

At 12 years old, Veeder picked up a guitar and started writing, singing and touring the state. 

Her music ability was so well defined by age 16 she released her first album, “This Road,” which saw such great success it took her out of the state and on a national college and coffee shop tour through a booking agency out of Nashville. 

While touring for the Nashville agency, Veeder attended the University of North Dakota where she earned a degree in communication. 

From college, she went to Fargo and recorded her second album, “A Place to Belong,” and toured for that album.

“I had some great experience with that album and opening for some wonderful musicians and playing at great festivals,” Veeder said. “Music has been my window to this secret world.”

Veeder married in 2006 and she and her husband made their home in Missoula as she continued her journey in music and produced her third album, “Jessie Veeder Live.” 

However, Veeder and her husband missed the farm back in North Dakota and they moved back to her family’s ranch four years ago, making her a fourth generation family member on the feeder farm which turns 100 years old this year.

For Veeder, in her early years of music, the folk and Americana music she wrote and performed was about the rural, prairie, cultural landscape of western North Dakota. Being back, on her family’s ranch, and seeing her corner of the state become one of the largest oil boom regions in the nation, she produced a fourth album called “Nothing’s Forever,” which she says reflects on her being home and the change in the environment. 

Veeder has just completed a new album, “Northern Lights,” which was recorded in Nashville under one of the greats of Nashville, Bill Warner, who has also worked with such musicians as Garth Brooks, Dolly Parton, Mindy Smith and Trisha Yearwood. “Northern Lights” is expected to be out in April of this year. 

During her long career in music, Veeder has been the featured act for the National Cowboy Poet Gathering in Elk, Nev., and the main stage act for the Red Ants Pants Musical Festival. She has shared the stage with such musicians as Dan Seals, Bobby Vee, Black Hawk, Sammy Kershaw, The Wilkersons, Brenn Hill, Martha Scanlan, Keri Noble, Gwen Sebastian and Kay Perkins along with many more.

 She also writes a blog called, “Meanwhile, back at the ranch,” which is about life on her family’s farm; writes a column for the Fargo Forum and is a commentator for Prairie Public Radio.
Through her music she was granted the North Dakota Ambassador Award. 

When Veeder steps on stage in Bottineau, individuals will be given the opportunity to hear some great music from her new album, listen to Veeder tell stories and to see a woman who is a strong supporter of historic preservation for buildings like Old Main.

“I wouldn’t be back in my hometown, and home state, if I didn’t believe in the resurrecting, preserving and celebrating of our history and our heritage and taking this community into the future,” Veeder said. “I think seeing a community like yours rally together behind the cause of this piece of history is so inspiring. I want to be involved in it and maybe get people together to see how important this building is. It’s an honor for me to be there and help with this effort. So, I am happy to be part of it.”

The concert on March 13 will take place at the Holwell Auditorium with the curtain going up at 7:30 p.m. The ticket counter opens at 6:45 p.m. that evening.

Resources: Jessie Veeder and jessieveedermusic.com.