Asheville, NC · Independent Artist · Est. 2005
Electronic Press Kit
Jodi McLaren, queer mega-feelings folk rock singer-songwriter.
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Unexplode the Bombs
Jodi McLaren
Love Will Find a Way (Soul Seed Song)
Jodi McLaren & Rachael Maddox
When the Dust Settles
Jodi McLaren
Big Catch
Jodi McLaren
Bio
Jodi McLaren, based in Asheville, NC, is a queer mega-feelings folk rock singer-songwriter with a joyful heart and a calming presence. Her music is inspired by Anaïs Mitchell, Brandi Carlile, Rising Appalachia, Carsie Blanton, Beautiful Chorus, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan and many others. Her latest single, Unexplode the Bombs, is a prayer for collective liberation, inspired by Palestine. By imagining the destruction of war in reverse, the song invites us to grieve all that has been lost, and to protect all that can still be saved.
From 2022–2025, McLaren was a contract music therapist for Pyramid Healthcare, serving hundreds of teens and adults in recovery for addiction, eating disorders, and mental health challenges.
In 2020, McLaren won first place in the Hidden Voices songwriting contest at Asheville’s Grey Eagle. In 2019, she completed her first solo National Queer Your Living Room Candle Light tour, bringing queer communities together in 30 living rooms and back yards across the US for intimate stories and songs about love and coming of age as a lesbian in the 2000s to 2010s. She opened for activist folk duo Emma’s Revolution in 2018.
From 2015–2018, McLaren worked as a full-time music therapist, where she led songwriting workshops with veterans, people with disabilities, stroke survivors, cancer survivors, inmates, kids, people with acute mental health issues, and mothers in addiction rehab.
She can be found traveling and hiking around with a ukulele in her backpack, ready to sing a community into being with whomever is around. Her music is intimate, courageous, playful, honest and overflowing with love.
Discography
- Unexplode the Bombs (2025)
- Love Will Find a Way (2021)
- When the Dust Settles (2021)
- QYLR Live Album (2019)
- Big Catch (2018)
- Our Lines (2007)
- Believe Me (2005)
Photos
Photo credit: Megan Smith. Click an image for the full-size version.
Music video
Drawn to You by Jodi McLaren, recorded live in Todos Santos, Mexico, 2018.
Press
Singer-songwriter
Featured in Paste Magazine for her duo project, Rainglow.
Music therapist
Jodi is also a Board Certified Music Therapist and has been featured on local and national news, radio, and podcasts for her work bringing music and songwriting to prisons, hospitals, and indigenous community centers.
- US News article
- KUNR Public Radio
- KNPB: ArtEffects TV Episode
- 2 News TV
- BestMedicine article
- Podcast: Music Therapy, St. Paul Island
- Featured 2021 Seminar Speaker
Contact
For booking inquiries, please email jodi@jodimclaren.com.