Bad ideas, VCRs, crumbling factories, hairy dogs, questionable tattoos…all are fair game for Nova Scotian funeral director-turned-songwriter Terra Spencer ~ and the songs are good ones, judging from the accolades her four albums have received, and from the calibre of her collaborators, which include Dave Gunning, and Matt Andersen, 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.

Although her butterscotch voice, deft fingerstyle guitar, and gospel-charged piano make her a formidable musician, it’s her onstage ease and crackling wit that make each show feel like a knee-to-knee conversation in a room of 5 or 500.