Megan Jerome has returned to a simple piano sound for her new album Bloomers.
Surrounded by the headlining band’s crate amplifiers and electric steel guitars, Megan Jerome appears particularly delicate, sitting at a small keyboard with an accordion tucked under her arm.
But once Jerome belts out a few of her signature cabaret-style songs, that first impression fades quickly – she already has the audience howling out choruses and slamming pint glasses down onto their tables.
Bigger, more boisterous audiences are a reality Jerome is becoming accustomed to.
“That’s a really recent development, and it’s a thrill,” Jerome explains. “I just hope that continues to grow and keeps happening.”
And after nearly a decade spent writing and performing her way into the heart of downtown Ottawa’s music scene, Jerome’s performance schedule is busier than ever.
Later this month, she will be launching her newly recorded third album, “Bloomers,” with a release celebration at the National Arts Centre.
Having played in a number of groups and collaborations over the years, Jerome – now well into her 30s – has simplified the operation this time around.
These days, it’s just her songs on the piano with help on the drums from husband Mike Essoudry.
“She does the writing,” Essoudry admits with a grin. “I love the clarity of Meg’s songs . . . They’re all very beautiful.”
Her repertoire of original songs is impressive, considering she has only been crafting them since she was in her late 20s.
Born in Sudbury and raised in Ottawa, Jerome pursued a degree in mining engineering from Queen’s University before returning to the city to study jazz music at Carleton University.
After she graduated, she started taking songwriting more seriously as a profession.
“I always thought it would be something I’d do for fun on the side, but then I started to do it more and more,” she explains.
Her early compositions – reflecting a folky twist on the jazz she fine-tuned at Carleton – brought her to a wide variety of stages in and around Centretown. She has performed at multiple jazz festivals, both outdoors near Elgin Street and inside the National Arts Centre as a part of the Composers’ Collective.
The latter locale is one she visits regularly for dance classes.
“I met a whole gang of theatre people in Ottawa who are doing really creative things,” she says.
Robert Turner is a longtime friend of Jerome’s and worked with her and Essoudry at the Ottawa Folklore Centre.
Ever since the three quit their jobs on the same day, he has kept in touch with the couple, and even now regularly attends her performances.
He recalls his first time watching her perform, with a “great and very fun little band” called Four Little Cars.
While a lot has changed musically since then – Four Little Cars delivered a jazzier sound than one would hear in her current work – Turner believes it was a change for the better.
“Her stagecraft, and being a performer, has really improved dramatically,” he says. “It’s really, uniquely her.”
Jerome’s gift for songwriting and creative keyboarding is one she has started passing along to local youth, through teaching piano lessons to children at her home studio.
Her teaching method is unique. Along with structured progress through levels of piano theory and technical skills, Jerome encourages the children to use their creative muscles, working with them to play improvisations and write their own songs.
“It’s really, really inspiring. Especially the young kids are excited, because they have no barriers to their creativity,” she explains.
Essoudry agrees that there’s a lot to gain from Jerome’s lessons – if the student is prepared to make a serious commitment to music.
“She’s a very demanding teacher,” he explains. “One of the things she focuses on is making the kids have a really strong connection with music.”
Jerome’s love of working with youth has spread into Centretown.
Last year, the Ontario Council of Folk Festivals selected her to be a mentor for a young singer-songwriter during the course of their annual conference.
She says her music professors at Carleton emphasized creative output, and were a significant inspiration for the approach she takes to working with young musicians.
“It was a tiny program, at the time, with really amazing professors,” she recalls. “That’s a very fun way to learn, you know? You’ve got somebody who knows more than you do, who can help you filter through information.”
But even with the unexpected growth of her reputation as both a performer and a teacher, Jerome says she has stayed true to herself through the whole process – and found a widespread local acceptance of her genuine approach.
“There are lots of places where I don’t fit in. I’m not an indie rocker, I’m not alt country,” she explains, adding that cities such as Montreal and Toronto might be too “self-consciously hip” to enjoy her music the same way Ottawa crowds have.
And Jerome insists she is never content to rest on her laurels.
Over the past year, she signed herself up for vocal coaching, all the while working hard to improve her stage presence and musical form.
“Somebody told me the other day that they don’t know how I’m doing it, but every time I perform there’s more richness in my voice,” she recalls. “What I’m doing is practising… I’m working on singing, I’m working on piano playing, I’m working on musicianship.”
Her plans for the future are as ambitious as they are quirky. She plans to play a set of “improvised accordion” music at the upcoming Ottawa Fringe Festival, and hopes to continue her involvement with the SAW Cabaret and Ottawa’s dance community.
Jerome says these days, she feels more liberated as an artist.
“After jazz school, I think I was hoping to impress some jazz musicians with my music,” she says. “I’m not as concerned about impressing anymore, and that makes everything a lot more fun.”
She believes that her new CD “Bloomers,” which she is set to release on April 29, will reflect the big changes in her both her persona and her approach to music.
“It’s a big difference,” she says of the new album, which is currently receiving finishing touches in the studio.
“I think it’s a bit sexier than the other CDs that we’ve had.”
While Essoudry says that he agrees that the sound has shifted towards a slightly more sultry style of composition, he believes she has held on to one intrinsic quality that has been there since the very beginning.
“Some of the sentiment is sexy,” he explains, “But some of the aesthetic is also beautiful.”