Tamara Lewis
Seattle, Washington, United States | SELF
Music
Press
Tamara Lewis is a sophisticated chanteuse with a fine, clear, supple voice with just a touch of Everywoman world-weariness, perfect for the bruising songs she writes.
Her CD, Long Time, No See is a swingy, torchy, grown-up listening that is smoothly professional and buoyed by lively arrangements. It should propel her forward in the Adult Contemporary field.
She's got it. - Victory Review by Tom Peterson
This is just the type of story we like.
Twenty-year career gal turns to music and beats the odds.
The song Listen Me Back is beautiful vocals with a meltdown (as if it needed a violin, Lewis' voice IS a violin, a perfect blend).
Many of the cuts, like Just Because, have a great old western swing-bluesy feel, good for slowwwww dancing. He's Not You sounds like a good old Patsy Cline heartacher.
This Cd is good folk, good blues, good country. Lewis is definitely a woman on the rise. - Cheryl Bruedigam with Women's Rising Music
I can't believe how much I love this CD. I basically sat there during the first listen, trying to comprehend how beautiful this voice is. Tamara Lewis' voice is flawless, crystalline, and heavenly. Take that voice and match it with one of the purest genres of music, Americana, and flavor it with country and classical, and you have an album Pasty Cline would fall madly in love with and want to sing from start to finish.
As if the voice weren't enough, Lewis also gets serious props for her songwriting. She tackles such topics as aging, illness, and loss, but she is not all swirling darkness and introspection. She has a real spunky sense of humor too.
As for me, I just sat in silence when this thing was over. You don't just jump up after hearing this and make a phone call or do laundry. You just sit and savor it. Tamara is an artist to watch. Whoever is watching her right now should get her back into a studio.
I want more. - Jennifer Layton with Indie-music.com
What a wonderful recording, especially for someone so new to performing and songwriting. Tamara's huge heart, with all its creases and careworn marks, is right there where anyone can see it. Her writing reminds me of Alice Walker's remark (and I loosely quote), "..my heart has been broken so many times it's broken wide open and I can feel the wind rush right through it." That wind is what you hear in these songs.
But what really gets to me is her voice and the Patsy Cline lode that is mined with every note--plaintive but not foresaken, yearning but not giving up, nuh uh, no how. Can't wait to see what happens next for this lovely singer. - Leah Kauffman, CD Baby Review
Tamara is one of the most engaging performers I have seen on the Seattle acoustic music scene.
She is so funny that she should call herself a singer/songwriter/comedienne. - Bill Lippe, house concert host
Once in a while a musician comes around who just absolutely captivates you. That is what Tamara's style and writng do for me. Her stage craft and her ability to joke with the audience is perfect in every way. - Russ Bevill, sound engineer
Discography
Livin' Down River-- released in September 2008
Long Time, No See-- released November 2006
Photos
Bio
Singer/songwriter, Tamara Lewis, drops the filters that we live with every day and stands alone in her songs. She writes primarily in a contemporary folk style with country and blues influences. Her voice is comforting, crystalline, powerful and guileless. As a performer, Tamara is both engaging and incandescent and unquestionably leaves a mark on the audience from opening note to last.
The rest of my story is about getting a second chance at life through music.
I was diagnosed with a serious illness in my early thirties and remained profoundly ill for over a decade. When I finally started getting better, I began searching for a creative outlet and so I started to play guitar. A couple of years later I began writing songs and performing and by 2006 I celebrated my return to the world with the release of my first CD, Long Time, No See. Two years later, I released my second CD, Living Down River. Tom Peterson of Victory Review wrote in his review of Living Down River: "Tamara's advancement indicates an otherworldly intelligence and work ethic" and "She's got it."
Because I started songwriting later in life, I have a deep well to draw from including my 20-year career as a psychotherapist, many years worth of conversations with friends, and the experience of my long illness. My songs do contain painful truths, but as Jennifer Layton of Indie-music.com wrote, "her songs are not all swirling darkness....she is clever and has a spunky sense of humor too."
I have been influenced by my two guitar teachers, Northwest legend, Linda Waterfall and Prairie Home Companion's Pat Donohue. I am inspired by the vocals of Alison Kraus and Patsy Cline and the songwriting of Nanci Griffith, Cheryl Wheeler and Patty Griffin.
I pride myself on giving audiences a full experience in live performances--I want my songs to shine light on the deepest parts of the listeners, to tell their stories for them and help them know that they are not alone, but I also want them to be entertained by fresh ideas and clever or humorous lyrics. I consider the stories I tell in between songs and the introductions to songs a chance to make the audience laugh and as important as the songs themselves. I was described by one house concert host as a "singer/songwriter/comedienne."
To quote Jennifer Layton from Indie-music.com, “Her voice is flawless, crystalline and heavenly.” and “She could sing the directions off a box of Pop Tarts and I’d download it.”
Tamara’s songwriting is inspired by conversations with friends, her 20-year career as a psychotherapist and from a surprisingly rich source: her survival of over a decade-long serious illness, which turns out to resonate deeply with many listeners who have also struggled over long periods of time. She mines these deep shafts and writes bravely and beautifully about life’ painful truths and delivers them with heartrending vulnerability. Then she brings listeners back to safety with songs that are deeply comforting or delightfully clever and with a stage presence that is incandescent, engaging and funny.
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