Known for her unique voice and heartfelt performances, Jemma Hicken (Jemma & the Good Thing) is a songwriter from Cortes Island, BC. With a pop song forever stuck in her head and a folk song forever stuck in her heart, Jemma crafts catchy and cathartic tunes that have charmed audiences on both sides of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Drawing on the humour and sentimentality of John Prine, the earnestness of Paul Simon and Ingrid Michaelson, and the fire of Ani DiFranco, Jemma is a songwriting force. Based in Edmonton for three prairie winters, Jemma was featured at the New Moon Folk Club, SkirtsAFire Festival, Kaleido Fest, and won the 2019 Bent River Songwriting Competition. The pandemic brought her back to her Gulf Island home, and in 2024 she can be found touring up and down Vancouver Island, most notably debuting at festivals such as Vancouver Island Music Fest, Love Fest, and Woodstove Festival. Jemma released her debut album, Get It Together, in July 2023. Jemma & the Good Thing is a project of many iterations; the Good Thing is often other musicians, or sometimes it’s just Jemma’s tenor guitar. The common denominator is always Jemma and her songs.
We respectfully acknowledge that the Filberg Festival takes place on the unceded traditional territory of the K'omoks First Nation, Gila 'kasla...Hay ch q'a'.
