Jud Caswell

Maine singer-songwriter Jud Caswell writes songs that start close to home: the old farmhouse, the salty shore, a wood full of birdsong. Then they open up until the home they describe feels like yours. Sing Out! Magazine called him "one of the leading songwriters on the scene… highly original and wise beyond his years."

A seventh-generation Mainer, Jud grew up on his great-grandfather's farm, studied music at Dartmouth College, and came home to raise a family. In 2006 he won the Kerrville New Folk competition, where songwriting teacher Pat Pattison called his "Blackberry Time" a perfect song. His co-write "The Weight of the World," with Amy Speace and Jon Vezner, was recorded by Judy Collins and named the #4 folk song of the decade by WFUV in New York.

That success could have kept him on the road for good. But as Jud puts it, "A singer/songwriter does one thing, night after night, in a thousand places. I wanted to be in one place. I figured it was time to go home and do a thousand things." He has spent more than 30 years making music part of everyday life in Maine: concert halls and coffeehouses, libraries and churches, pubs, schools, and senior communities. He plays guitar, banjo, cittern, and whistles, and moves easily between his own songs, Irish and traditional music, and tributes to the songwriters he loves, including Jim Croce and Cat Stevens.

His album Live at the Seagull Shop reached #1 on the Folk Alliance International radio charts in March 2020, and his single "The Great Divide" reached #2 in October 2021. During the pandemic he recorded more than 125 daily videos, The Morning Cordial, which became a two-volume album set of originals and Irish favorites with the Homebound Hooligans.

Teaching and community are at the center of Jud's work. He leads a monthly Song Swap workshop at Thomas Memorial Library in Cape Elizabeth, hosts Songwriters in the Round at Cadenza in Freeport, and brings music-and-movement programs to young children and families. At his Frog Hollow Studio, he has produced records for dozens of Maine musicians.

Jud lives in Topsham, Maine, where he is at work on a new collection of songs.