To call jeremy messersmith a musician is a half-truth: he’s also a storyteller who carefully crafts songs that narrate life. Born in Charleston, SC and raised in rural Washington, messersmith began playing music in church at a young age. After a promising trumpeting career was tragically cut short due to braces, jeremy turned to the guitar as his instrument of choice.
His debut record, The Alcatraz Kid (2006), featured quiet, melancholic songs recorded in a basement studio. The album drew the attention of Twin Cities local hero Dan Wilson (Trip Shakespeare, Semisonic), who then produced messersmith's follow-up, The Silver City (2008), which gained regional recognition. With The Reluctant Graveyard, messersmith’s renown for elegant, literate songcraft began to build nationally when it was named one of NPR’s Top 10 Albums of 2010.
His release Heart Murmurs on the prestigious Glassnote Records label was named one of the “14 Musical Acts To Watch in 2014” by Time Magazine and gained praise from The New York Times, USA Today, Paste Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Spin, and Rolling Stone among others. He appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman, performed an NPR Tiny Desk Concert, and opened for Barack Obama.
Following the surprise release of a digital album and songbook entitled 11 Obscenely Optimistic Songs For Ukulele: A Micro-Folk Record For The 21st Century And Beyond, messersmith embarked on a pop-up tour around the US, performing 80 free “micro concerts” for crowds in public places all over the country. The songbook was jam-packed with ridiculous songs about kittens, world peace, flying cars, and the transformative power of love.
His most recent full-length album, Late Stage Capitalism (2018), was a decadent orchestral record filled with catchy pop tunes. In September 2020, messersmith launched his indie folk side project Mixtape for the Milky Way, a collection of sad, beautiful, nonfiction songs, sonically minimalist and delicately produced by John Mark Nelson.
