So what sets [Pamela Means] apart…? For starters, Means plays a snarling, energetic guitar. She’s got chops – more than the other gentle pickers of her ilk will ever have. Means’ voice is hard-wired to her heart: emotional, raw, angry when it needs to be, yet supple and warm as an embrace. The truth may not always be pretty, but Means is a stunningly effective messenger.” – Oregon Live, Portland OR
A multi-talented performer, singer, songwriter, composer and producer, Pamela Means’s multiple honors include being named Falcon Ridge Folk Festival’s “# 1 Most Wanted New Artist,” “Wisconsin Folk Artist of the Year,” “Wisconsin Female Vocalist of the Year,” and her politically provocative album, Single Bullet Theory, was voted 2004’s “Outmusic Outstanding New Recording.” Pamela Means was twice voted “Best Acoustic Act” of the year in her hometown of Milwaukee, WI; and after setting up shop in the bustling ‘burbs of Boston, Mass., Pamela was nominated for an “Outstanding Contemporary Folk Artist” Boston Music Award. Curve Magazine calls her “one of the fiercest guitar players and politically-rooted singer-songwriters in the music industry today.”
Consistently honing her craft, Pamela Means garnered acclaim with her seminal jazz recording, the “insanely brilliant” (Press Herald, Portland ME), Pamela Means Jazz Project, Vol. 1, in which, “Means takes her rightful place among contemporary superstar jazz vocalists such as Cassandra Wilson and Norah Jones” (Curve Magazine). Pamela Means Jazz Project, Vol. 1 was also named a “Top Ten Album of 2007” (Muruch Entertainment Blog).
From recording her first tape in the living room of Violent Femmes bassist Brian Ritchie, Pamela Means has gone on to share stages with artists including Ani DiFranco, Pete Seeger, Indigo Girls, Joan Baez, Howard Zinn, Angela Davis, Eve Ensler, David Strathairn, Neil Young, Shawn Colvin, Richie Havens, Patty Larkin, Melissa Ferrick, Violent Femmes, Television, The Radiators, Adrian Belew, Leo Kottke and Janis Ian. Pamela Means has performed at notable venues such as the Newport, Falcon Ridge and Clearwater Folk Festival(s), SXSW Music Conference, and internationally, at the eminent Woodford Folk Festival (Australia), Stockholm Pride (Sweden) and Jazz Cafe Alto (The Netherlands). Pamela Means has also composed for and licensed music to PBS, independent filmmakers and folk poet Alix Olson’s multi-award-winning film and CD projects.
With virtuosic musicianship, razor wit and a disarming sense of humor, Pamela Means is building a vibrant and remarkable career, delighting audiences from Anchorage to Amsterdam to Sydney to Stockholm to Honolulu and New York. Thrilled audience members often exclaim they’ve ‘never seen anyone play guitar like Pamela Means!’ Plus, Ani DiFranco said to Pamela Means, “you groove so deep, so deep I can’t get out. And I wouldn’t want to.” We guarantee you won’t want to either.