Nashville-based artist Kara Hesse turns five years of change, grief and self-discovery into Devil & the Dove, a deeply lived-in album that brings her blend of Americana, rock and soul into sharp focus.
Recorded between Seattle and Nashville, the project gradually evolved from a collection of songs into something far more personal. Hesse describes the record as an “absolute rebirth and reset,” and that sense of transformation runs throughout, as she explores what it means to let go of the past without losing the pieces of it that helped shape you. Pasted text
At the center of the conversation is focus track “Vanity,” a stripped-back and thoughtful examination of beauty, self-worth and the value we place on being seen.
Rather than pulling from one autobiographical experience, Hesse wrote the song after years of observing the messages surrounding appearance through movies, magazines, advertising, social media and even childhood toys. Her perspective feels particularly relevant in an era where carefully curated images can blur the line between being noticed and genuinely feeling valued. Pasted text
That message is matched by an arrangement that deliberately leaves room for the songwriting. Originally explored in a more pop-country direction, Hesse ultimately reconsidered the track, slowing it down and rebuilding it around a gut-string guitar — a fitting return to the instrument on which she first learned to write songs. The recording also features acclaimed drummer Charlie Morgan, whose credits include Elton John and Olivia Newton-John. Pasted text
The result is a track that feels intimate without becoming fragile. Hesse’s expressive vocal carries the weight of the lyric while the restrained production allows its central question to linger: how much of our identity have we allowed the outside world to define?
It’s a theme that fits naturally within Devil & the Dove. Hesse’s music has never belonged neatly to one genre, and her background reflects that same freedom. Her career has taken her from Berklee College of Music to Red Rocks Amphitheatre, performances alongside B.B. King, Al Green, Buddy Guy, Steve Miller Band and Howie Day, and television placements on CBS’ Scorpion and DirecTV’s You Me Her. Pasted text
But Devil & the Dove feels less concerned with where Hesse has already been than with who she has become along the way. Working closely with Nashville engineer Pat Lassiter, Hesse stepped more confidently into the producer role, trusting her instincts and resisting the pressure to make decisions based on trends or expectations. Pasted text
That growth gives the album its emotional backbone. There’s grit here, but also release; reflection, but also forward motion. Hesse calls her sound Americana Rock Soul, and Devil & the Dove makes a convincing case for leaving it at that rather than forcing the music into a narrower box. Pasted text
With “Vanity,” Hesse ultimately lands on a simple but resonant idea: “The mirror can show you what you look like, but it can’t tell you who you are.” Pasted text
On Devil & the Dove, she sounds increasingly certain of the person standing on the other side of that reflection.
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About Kara Hesse
Nashville-based artist Kara Hesse blends grit with grace through a sound rooted in Americana, rock and soul. Born in Wichita, Kansas, and raised in Boulder, Colorado, Hesse grew up in a musical family where instruments were always within reach. Her father played in bands throughout her childhood, and some of her earliest memories were spent tagging along to rehearsals. Around eight years old, watching a female-fronted band tear into Linda Ronstadt’s “You’re No Good” from the top of a basement staircase, Hesse decided that music was what she wanted to do with her life.
Songwriting followed at 14, when her father handed her Carole King’s Tapestry and challenged her to learn the record and then write a song of her own. She did, completing her first original, “In Time,” on guitar that year. Before long, Hesse was following her father into Denver’s blues and rock clubs, sitting in with seasoned musicians and developing her voice and instincts onstage. At 15, she was hired to sing background vocals on a local artist’s record, marking her first paid studio session and beginning a lifelong love affair with the recording process.
Hesse later attended Berklee College of Music on a vocal scholarship, but ultimately returned to Colorado to pursue music professionally. By 22, she had already set her sights on one of Colorado’s most iconic stages: Red Rocks Amphitheatre. After writing down the goal every morning and night, she achieved it that same year, performing at Red Rocks as part of Denver classic rock station 103.5 The Fox’s band on a bill with B.B. King, Al Green and Buddy Guy. Her live career has since put her on stages alongside Steve Miller Band and Howie Day, while also singing background harmonies for Courtney Marie Andrews on a show with Tyler Childers.
Her path eventually led to Nashville, though it wasn’t originally part of the plan. Hesse first came to Music City in 2019, driving cross-country from Seattle with her guitar, inventory from her handmade brand Roadworn, a mannequin and a bull skull named Clarence in tow. During the trip, she stepped onto the stage at a Monday night open mic at Winners and performed “Old Fire.” Footage of the performance landed on Undiscovered Nashville, and within days, Ward Guenther invited her to perform at Whiskey Jam. After returning to Nashville for extended stays over the next several years, Hesse officially made the move in 2022.
Along the way, her songwriting has traveled beyond the stage. “Better By Morning,” the title track from her debut EP, earned her first television placement on CBS’ Scorpion, while “I Know How To Love” was featured in the DirecTV series You Me Her. More recently, tracks “Sigh of Relief” and “No Good Reasons Why” have been picked up for a Hollywood shopping deal.
That journey now converges on Hesse’s latest album, Devil & the Dove. Five years in the making and pieced together across studios from Seattle to Nashville, the project draws from a lifetime of lived experience, pain, release and reinvention. Hesse worked closely with Nashville engineer Pat Lassiter to bring the different chapters of the record into one cohesive body of work, with musicians spanning her West Coast band and Nashville community. “Vanity” features drums from acclaimed musician Charlie Morgan, whose credits include Elton John and Olivia Newton-John.
For Hesse, Devil & the Dove represents far more than another release. It is a reset, a closing of one era and the beginning of another. Her voice today reflects that evolution: lived-in, vulnerable and increasingly unafraid of stepping outside of any single genre. Pulling from a wide musical palette that stretches from Aretha Franklin, Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt and Chaka Khan to Marcus King, Gary Clark Jr., Chris Stapleton, Grace Potter and Ray LaMontagne, Hesse describes her world simply as Americana Rock Soul.
Running parallel to her music is Roadworn, Hesse’s handmade brand that began accidentally while she was spending long stretches on the road. What started with makeshift looms, shoeboxes and handwritten inventory has grown over the last decade into both a creative outlet and an integral extension of her artistry. For Hesse, the connection between the two worlds is natural: whether it is a handmade piece or a song, both can carry a story, hold a memory and connect people long after they leave her hands.
With Devil & the Dove marking a personal and creative rebirth, Hesse is already looking ahead. After years spent building, experimenting and finding her footing on her own terms, she enters her next chapter with a fuller sense of who she is, and plenty left in the tank.
