About Jesse

Jesse Vance  Boden lives in Oregon. His life has been that of a gypsy and his guitar has been with him through it all. From The American West to Hawaii, India, Europe and all points in between, music has been his faithful companion. 

Jesse's career as a professional musician started in Hawaii. There, he enjoyed many years performing in fine venues throughout the Islands, including 6 years full time at the Turtle Bay Hilton. 

During his musical life, Jesse  has shared the stage with many of the top musicians of Hawaii and elsewhere, opened for national touring acts, played for crowds of up to 25 thousand people in India, and most recently rocked nightclubs  and concert stages in the Pacific Northwest  with  the Jesse Boden Band. 


Currently, Jesse is recording his second album, a blues based followup to his Americana influenced album,  Scorpio Moon. 

Only You Will Ever Know - true story.  

This is my most autobiographical song to date. Why does a guy who has never lived in the South sound like a hillbilly sometimes? It is not an affectation, it is just the way my voice comes out on certain songs, can't help it, don't want to. The answer is in this song, it is in my blood. My father was from the deep South and though my birth parents gave me up as a baby, it feels like something from them drives me home to the things I love, hill country music, old gospel tunes, and the lonesome sound of Appalachian singers and musicians. I feel at home there, and though my musical tastes are broad enough to include everyone from Mozart to John Coltrane, when I pick up my guitar, very often the echoes of my ancestors' lives and the old time religion that runs through the hills of Appalachia like gold through dirt comes pouring out of me in words and music, streams of consciousness that flow from somewhere I can't deny and would never want to. 

The Story behind The Mill 

In the summer of 2015 I was fortunate to play a festival in a small town on the banks of the Ohio River. The concert was fun, the people were great, the river was beautiful, but I couldn't help but notice that the town appeared to have fallen on hard times. There were many houses for sale for next to nothing, lots of businesses boarded up and closed forever. I asked our host that night what had happened, wondering if it had been the recession. He chuckled softly and said, "Well, that didn't help, but the truth is that what you see here started years ago. See, there used to be a big steel mill right up the river a ways, and you probably saw the old lumber mill as you drove into town. The Mills are where everyone here worked, my Granddad retired after 45 years, my dad did 25 years, but one by one they closed the mills down and we just sort of watched all our jobs go down the river after that." When I woke up in the morning his words were still on my mind. I picked up a cigar box guitar that was lying around, strummed a couple of chords and this song jumped straight out, as if it was determined to be born right there on the banks of the Ohio River. It was the first song I ever recorded on my own, first time I did a music video, and it is first on my album, Scorpio Moon.

Jesse Boden - ASCAP - Seven Devils Road publisher.