We are excited to announce that Jared Oluwa has been added as one of our mentors for 2026!

Jared Oluwa is a rapper, singer and custom hip-hop producer from Los Angeles who got the gift of entertainment from both parents. With a track record of having music placed on multiple platforms, his work has been featured on Nickelodeon, AMC, Facebook, MTV, Bravo, The NFL, BET, 102.3 KJLH and national campaigns like KFC.

When it comes to advocacy, Oluwa is involved with Organizations like The Recording Academy, Youth Mentoring Connection, SONA (Songwriters of North America) & The Guild of Music Supervisors.
With a passion of supporting fellow musicians, Jared often travels the country to facilitate workshops about life skills, collaboration, personal development and ways to navigate common challenges. His teaching style helps artists understand the importance of being professional, reliable and how to turn FUN into FUNds.

Jared has presented workshops at NAMM, the DC Music Summit, CU Denver, Durango Songwriting Expo, UCLA, Spelman and CSUN to help musicians create longevity. Learn more on his LinkedIn profile

This year at Cacapehon we will have our JBL sound systems again. The PRX One system has been a huge boost for our concerts, open mics and performance workshops and the JBL Series 7 monitors have given us great sound with enough clean volume for the packed mixing and mastering workshops.

Cacapehon retreat started as two separate programs, the “Mountain Recording Retreat” in 2016 and the “Mountain Songwriting Retreat” in 2018, but after an experimental combined event in 2021, we found that the participants loved the new format. The two programs are now combined, with the possibility of adding more components in the coming years. Also, so many participants from the recording side and the songwriting side have become such good friends, we could not bring ourselves to tear them apart now!

The new name “Cacapehon” was launched for the 2024 edition of the retreat. The name is one of the Anglicized versions of an old Shawnee word, likely meaning “Healing Waters”. There is also speculation that the name may have meant “to appear,” “to rise to view,” and “to be found again.” Other variant spellings of this word can be found throughout the Capon Valley, including the beautiful Capon Springs Resort, where our retreat is held. We chose the variant that George Washington used in his journals from 1732.

The titles says we have the same goals, but maybe the truth is that the goals are becoming more into focus. The retreat is completely packs with education, but the reality is that over the years it has become clear that the gathering of wonderful people is the heart and soul of Cacapehon.

Learn more about the name here