Americana Singer Performs at UKZN

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Folk/Americana songstress Jaspar Lepak performed at UKZN’s Centre for Jazz and Popular Music.

Lapek travelled from her home in Seattle in the United States to debut her new album. Special guests included her husband Kale Lepak (accordion and harmonies) and Richard Haslop (mandolin and dobro).

The Lepaks lived in Durban from 2009 to 2011 during which time Jaspar performed on some of KwaZulu-Natal’s premier stages including Splashy Fen, White Mountain Music Festival, and the Barnyard Theatre.

She also recorded and released her sixth album Forgiving Wind which was hailed by Rolling Stone South Africa as an album full of “beauty and original charm”.

Lepak returned to KwaZulu-Natal this month to reunite with local musicians for three special shows, the first at UKZN’s Centre for Jazz and Popular Music.

Lepak started writing songs just after university and while living in Minneapolis. Between 2004 and 2009 she recorded five full length albums before heading for Durban. 

Her music found an enthusiastic audience, and in 2011, she recorded her sixth original CD, Forgiving Wind. Best known for her bell-like voice and introspective storytelling, Lepak sings with ‘the kind of Americana, lullaby ghost of a voice that listeners search for in roots music’ (Twin Cities A.V. Club).

She became a Seattle resident in 2012 and tours frequently between her former homes and her new home in the Pacific Northwest. Her seventh album, Wide World, will be released this month.

- Melissa Mungroo and Thuli Zama