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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 three 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. With their third album, Double Down on a Bad Thing, The Twangtown Paramours shifted gears to showcase a
full band, electric, groove-oriented, upbeat, soul-infused, and retro
blues sound. Their soon-to-be released fourth album, The Wind Will
Change Again, is an acoustic Folk record consisting of a collection
of songs that the Twangers call their best to date.
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.
In February of 2022, their third
album, Double Down on a Bad Thing came in at #11 on the UK indie
Blues chart and #18 on the U.S. RMR Contemporary Blues chart. The
Christmas bonus track was played over 215,000 in 16,000 U.S. stores and
malls last December, and another song from the album is currently being
played about 60,000 times a week in over 20,000 U.S. stores and malls.
In addition to their elaborate
musical pedigrees and critically-acclaimed release history, what makes
The Twangtown Paramours unique is the purity
of their priorities: They are committed to making top-notch music.
Their new album, The Wind Will Change Again, released to the
public and to radio in the U.S. and U.K. on January 3, 2025, is an
acoustic exploration of some of the best songs the duo has written and
that they often play live. Included on the album are emotional and
thoughtful songs such as “The Garden” and “Old Friends”, the fun-loving
bluegrass influenced tune, “Sincerely Yours No More,” and heartbreaking
ballads co-written with well-known Nashville songwriters, Paul Craft
and Fred Koller. Also on the album are two of
the Twangers’ favorite songs to perform live: Jimmie Dale Gilmore’s
“Tonight I Think I’m Gonna Go Downtown” and
Adam Schlesinger’s “That Thing You Do.”
The Wind Will Change Again also features some of the best musicians to be
found anywhere. Players include Rick Lonow
(Poco)on drums and percussion, Grammy winner Jim VanCleve on fiddle and
viola, Rave Tesar (keyboardist and music director for the band,
Renaissance), Ed Alstrom (renowned session pianist and organist), and
#1 accordion Nashville session player Jeff Taylor.
The Wind Will
Change Again was acoustically and eclectically
produced by Mike Lewis with songs that run the gamut of emotions from
fun to heart-breaking to the philosophical. This is what David McGee,
editor of Deep Roots Magazine had to say about the upcoming album: "In
the performances’ acoustic majesty, we hear the Twangtown
Paramours as we’ve not heard them before, thereby bringing into bold
relief the depth of their messages and the beauty of their art. Right
on time for a most chaotic time in our collective history, The Wind
Will Change Again is built to last. And so it
will.
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