Nashville, TN · americana · indie · folk-rock

Aaron Lee Tasjan

1 upcoming festival

Nashville songwriter with a glam streak and a Grammy nomination for American Roots Song; power-pop hooks and dry, self-aware lyrics dressed up in East Nashville sequins.

Tasjan was born in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1986, and moved several times as a child, ending up in New Albany, Ohio. His parents played music without doing it professionally, and he taught himself guitar at eleven by working out Oasis songs. By sixteen he had performed with folk singer Peter Yarrow and won a guitar award at a Lincoln Center jazz competition.

Offered a scholarship to Berklee College of Music, Tasjan declined it and moved to Brooklyn in 2006. There he formed the glam-pop band Semi Precious Weapons with Justin Tranter, Cole Whittle and Dan Crean, whose debut album was produced by Tony Visconti. Drivin' N' Cryin's Kevn Kinney later took him on tour as a guitarist and mentor, and Tasjan also played guitar in a late lineup of the New York Dolls before leading his own band, the Madison Square Gardeners, for three years.

Tasjan moved to Nashville in 2013 to concentrate on songwriting, releasing two EPs before his full-length debut, In the Blazes, in 2015, followed by Silver Tears in 2016. His songwriting runs on Beatles and Big Star melody rather than twang, with jokes and misdirection built into verses that turn serious in the last line. He produces much of his own work and layers guitars heavily on record.

On stage he often plays solo electric, talking between songs, and his glam presentation sits at odds with the Americana label he gets filed under. He has written for other artists and worked as a sideman, and his songs frequently address being bisexual and the discomfort of finding a place in Nashville's country establishment.

In 2022 Tasjan received a Grammy nomination for Best American Roots Song for 'Diamond Studded Shoes'. He has also worked with BP Fallon and Jack White's Third Man Records, and country singer Pat Green carried Tasjan's 'Streets of Galilee' into the Billboard country chart.

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americanaindiefolk-rock