Singer-songwriter Jessie Ritter hopes to bring the joy

Country singer/songwriter/storyteller Jessie Ritter will perform two hours of her music on May 9 in the Harbor Center’s intimate Listening Room, and perhaps it will lift the spirits of those who hear it — a least a little. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., with music at 7 p.m.

Ritter loves performing her own music, a heartfelt brand of country with a breezy, romantic feel and lots of charm. She hopes after hearing her music, audience members go their way feeling “a little more human, a little more grounded, more connected, with the energy to dream,” she told CanvasRebel.com in an artist interview. 

Ritter says she grew up on her family’s southern Missouri farm listening to country radio over the years, absorbing the sounds of such artists as Lee Ann Womack, Shania Twain and Miranda Lambert. Ritter mostly writes and performs her own music these days, but she is still inspired by a small group of her favorite writer/performers, including Lori McKenna, Natalie Hemby and Cam.

This wife and mother of two young children calls both northwest Florida and Nashville, Tennessee, her home base, and when she tours, it is usually done via the family RV — complete with family.

In fact, she has starred in two seasons of “Camp the Country with Jessie Ritter” on Country Road TV. The first season followed her concert tour of various campgrounds around the U.S. She had a baby en route, but that didn’t stop Ritter and her husband from sharing great adventures, stories and songs around a lot of campfires and in some beautiful locales. In the new Season 2, Ritter and her family camp their way across the great American West, making music and playing shows along the way.

“I feel it is my calling to spread a little joy in this world,” Ritter has said of her music.

Get advance tickets for her Harbor Center show in Slidell at eventbrite.com.