Nashville-based husband-and-wife duo Mike T. Lewis and MaryBeth Zamer, known on stage as The Twangtown Paramours, have made a name for themselves defying boundaries with their award-winning catalogue of Americana, folk, and blues anthems. With a slew of accolades for their first two acoustic full-length albums, they’ve earned a loyal following, balancing serious instrumental and vocal chops with witty stage banter and a lighthearted approach to life. They don’t take themselves, or the world, too seriously. Now poised to release their third full-length album, Double Down on a Bad Thing,
The Twangtown Paramours are shifting gears to showcase a full band, electric, groove-oriented, upbeat, soul-infused, and retro blues sound. “We want people to have fun, to cheer up, to dance, and to start sporting a positive attitude, dammit,” says Mike. Hit songwriter, session musician, and producer Mike Lewis was born in NYC, but his sound is informed by a mix of experiences across the country’s major music centers, including NYC, L.A., Austin, and Nashville. He began learning classical and jazz guitar at age eight, studying under Leonid Bolotine, William Matthews, and Barry Galbraith, before earning degrees at Columbia in New York City and the Grove School of Music in Los Angeles. He wrote a #1 platinum pop hit ranked the 2nd biggest-selling female ballad of all time in Korea, and occasionally plays upright bass for Jimmie Dale Gilmore. Born in Washington D.C., lead singer MaryBeth Zamer was raised on a mix of opera and American songbook music, singing along to Dean Martin and Ella Fitzgerald, before discovering Little Feat, Bonnie Raitt, and the blues in high school. A fixture in the Washington, D.C. club scene for years, MaryBeth performed with popular local cover band, Ignition and sang backup vocals for Eva Cassidy’s band, Method Actor. “Eva was a huge influence on my singing style,” MaryBeth says. “She taught me to go beyond having fun and hitting the right notes, to sing in a way that conveys real emotion.” MaryBeth and Mike met and started dating in 2009, while both were working on separate musical projects. “The relationship came first,” says MaryBeth, “but I kept hearing songs he’d written that I loved, and I wanted to add my own vocal spin to them. I felt like I could interpret and deliver Mike’s songs the way he intended them to be.” The Twangtown Paramours released their debut self-titled album via Inside Edge Records just a year later in 2010, a well-received, pop-infused folk album that rose to #11 on the Folk charts. In 2012, they released their second full-length project, The Promise of Friday Night, a narrative-driven, acoustic folk album that hit #2 on the Folk charts, #150 on the Americana charts, and #7 on Deep Roots Magazine’s top 50 albums of 2012. In the following years, the pair became three-time finalists at the Kerrville New Folk Competition in Kerrville, TX and winners of the Wildflower Contest in Richardson, TX. They also had the honor to open for major acts such as Joe Ely, Claire Lynch, and Jimmie Dale Gilmore.
Twangtwon's Info
https://www.thetwangtownparamours.com
https://open.spotify.com/artist/0ZMbWnqq5aCDE910lU5TSP?si=hI7PqEONSqCd7LAVm67i6w
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