It was an unseasonably warm day in mid-January when Jeff Littlejohn came out to Hillsborough to record a few songs to send to our musical director, Ardie Dean. He parked himself in our small studio space next door, surrounded by guitars, photo developing detritus and cobbled-together audio equipment; you could hear the takes standing outside the door. One of our interns from France, Raphaël, stood at the computer, queuing up rhythm tracks and making sure the audio was getting captured clearly. I was there to try and get a nice video of Jeff together, but it was hard to find a place to stick a camera in such a small space. Jeff was a good sport, and game for having a light in his face while he laid down rhythm, lead and vocals for one of his original songs all about a lady sticking to the old aphorism “the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.”

I remember the first time I saw Jeff, when he came by the office for a photo shoot dressed in black jeans, a vest and a black leather hat—he cut an imposing figure. That Sunday, though, he was all smiles and excitement, ready to try at songs over and over again until they were right. He was inspired to play music from a young age, when he was growing up in Roper, N.C. and listening to Chuck Berry and Jimmy Reid play guitar. Jeff plays acoustic blues driven by both the strength of his voice and the obvious enthusiasm for music; we’re excited to be adding him to our Musical Development program. Check out the video for one of his songs below and let us know what you think: