Terry Okey is a songwriter, guitarist, and singer whose songs and stories will groove, move and soothe you down the road. 

It is uncommon to find an artist who can draw from so many traditional styles, and yet effortlessly combine them into wonderfully new soulful songs. He draws from a range of emotions in crafting his songs, and they sound fresh, yet also seem instantly familiar. “I have always loved music and I really connect with the feel of blues, country, americana, rock, bluegrass, and r&b”. It took him many years of studying these styles to become fluent in their writing. 

In the meantime he manned the guitar as a sideman for many musical acts and he took sojourns into blues rock, punk, brit-pop, country and cover bands. “I had a great time but in the end I had to create my own songs and stories and be true to the music”, Terry says.

His songs discuss all the emotions of life; love, loss, partying, traveling, loneliness, and even death. “Essentially they are about the road of life, and the feelings everyone has felt, they connect with you in these songs” he says.

Terry uses a wide array of guitars to present his songs. He plays a traditional steel-string Martin acoustic for part of the show, but also wields several resonator guitars for slide and finger-picking.  A “resonator” guitar is a guitar that has a chrome resonator ring (somewhat resembling a pie plate) embedded in the body for a special blues or bluegrass sound.  He creates other worldly soundscapes on a nylon string flamenco guitar, an acoustic 12 string, and at one point teases the past out of a solid chrome Dobro guitar. Amazingly adept at playing the authentic styles of these guitars, he also jumps categories and utilizes them in the creation of modern songs.

Terry spent so much time concentrating on playing live and writing that he sorely neglected recordings, and to date only has a handful of recordings (available here). Which is why he turned to the new online platforms to share, teach, play, and fund the over 100 songs he has written. He plays live shows on his YouTube channel on Mondays and Wednesdays, and also has timely video releases, guitar and music lessons, and more.

See  Terry's YouTube channel here:     https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpuFzhNzMgmde_RQ3oCtOwA

Terry can be seen regularly in the wider Southern California area. Terry grew up in San Diego, California which has also been home to top rootsy talents like Jason Mraz, Jim Croce, Chris Thiele and Nickel Creek, Eddie Vedder and The Beat Farmers.