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Tresa Jordan is a singer
strong enough to wear her heart on her sleeve, even when it’s bruised
and broken. That’s because she knows the transformative power of country
music. She knows the greatest songs resonate because they tap into
universal themes of love and loss, joy and pain. She knows because she’s
lived life. She’s chased dreams and dealt with heartache. Writers are
told to write what they know. Tresa knows real life. She also knows
music. It's been a part of her life from the very beginning.
Like the songs she
writes, Tresa's story is grounded in reality. Once she moved to Music
City, she and her friend got jobs waiting tables to pay the bills while
they honed their craft. Tresa met another struggling musician and fell
in love. They were soon married and began having children. Tresa put her
career on hold to raise a family.
Less than seven years
later, she found herself in the same situation many women find
themselves in. She had three children, a mortgage, and a marriage going
south. Despite all attempts for her and her husband to work things out,
their efforts were failing. She began writing to deal with complex
emotions of what was ultimately a divorce and rediscovery of herself and
her music.
The songs poured out of
her and she began to heal. She knew that music was integral to who she
was and had to be a part of her life. She put her life back together
with a newfound confidence. Through it all she kept writing.
The songs kept getting
better and so did her life.
She fell in love again
and married a man who fully supported her musical career.
She began recording songs
about her experiences, songs about life. She recorded songs about the
first flush of love and how it can die. She chronicled a marriage
falling apart. There were songs about pushing through the pain and
finding true love. Songs about mistakes. Songs about triumphs.
Tresa's self-titled debut
album. The 10-song disc doesn't have an electric instrumentation. That's
by design. "The sound of acoustic instruments is so beautiful and
clear," says Tresa. "You can muddy up songs with a lot of electrics and
a big production. My songs lend themselves to an acoustic arrangement.
They’re organic, raw and natural. The instruments match the lyrics."
“I have to write songs
about things I’ve experienced," she says. "I know some writers can just
come up with an idea and write it out of thin air. I can’t do that. It
has to be something that I’ve been through or an emotion that I’ve dealt
with. There has to be some kind of truthfulness to a song or it won’t
resonate with people.”
Her music will resonate
with country fans, because she's singing their life back to them. She's
found the words and the music to communicate the trials and triumphs of
ordinary people. She doesn't sing about fairytales, she sings about real
life.
And Tresa Jordan knows
real life.
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