Pamela Means

Friday, April 21, 2006

Pamela Means is a Boston-based, Out (spoken), biracial artist whose "kamikaze guitar style" and punchy provocative songs have worn a hole in her guitar. Means strays beyond the boundaries of the traditional singer-songriter genre by incorporating jazz, rock, and blues with an Afro-beat backdrop, creating her own inimitable style and sound.

Armed with razor wit poetry and irresistible charm, Pamela Means' "powerful [songs]" (Time Out Magazine, New York, NY) set the status quo and the stage afire.

Pamela Means' many honors include, most recently, the 2004 Outmusic Outstanding New Recording (Female) Award for her self-produced album, Single Bullet Theory. Pamela Means was also named Falcon Ridge Folk Festival's #1 "Most Wanted New Artist", as well as Wisconsin's "Folk Artist of the Year", "Female Vocalist of the Year", and "Best Acoustic Act". Pamela has also been a Boston Music Award Nominee ("Outstanding Contemporary Folk Artist").

Currently, Pamela performs over 150 shows a year, nationally and internationally, at theaters, clubs, coffeehouses, colleges, and festivals, most notably the Newport Folk Festival, Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, South by Southwest Conference, and Stockholm Pride. Means is also a favorite at innumerable regional Gay Pride events, Women's History conferences, Take Back the Night rallies, and Black History Month celebrations. Pamela has shared the stage with artists including Ani DiFranco, Joan Baez, Neil Young, Shawn Colvin, Richie Havens, Patty Larkin, Melissa Ferrick, Violent Femmes, Pete Seeger, Janis Ian, Bif Naked, and Ferron.

Pamela Means' incessant touring takes her country to country, town to town, punctuating each performance with her radical feminist fueled driving rhythms, lyrical indictments, and her "have-to-see-it-to-believe-it" guitar chops. Pamela Means is currently promoting her fifth independent album, Single Bullet Theory (Wirl Records), in which "...Means fires off what is easily one of the best musical summations of our current political situation.." (Bay Area Reporter, San Francisco, CA).

With Truth as ammunition, a Pamela Means performance brings the fight for social justice and human dignity to the forefront of a new generation.