LILLI LEWIS
FolkRockDiva Lilli Lewis is a musical polyglot who glides easily between folk, roots, country soul, gospel, and jazz. Born and raised in indie rock capital Athens, Georgia, and musically mentored by New Orleans inspirations with collaborations from Dirty Dozen Brass Band founding member Kirk Joseph to traditional clarinetist Dr. Michael White.
Trained as an opera singer and classical pianist, the former VP and Head of A&R for Louisiana Red Hot Records has been a composer, producer and performer for over two decades. After carving out space as an African American queer woman of size, Lewis’ made her national presence known as a solo artist with her album “Americana” being a top pick everywhere from NPR’s All Songs Considered to Rolling Stone.
In the two years while “All Is Forgiven,” the latest title from Lilli Lewis (out December 1, 2023 and available for preorder October 27) was being written and produced, Lewis played five sets at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival; founded the Black American Music Summit hosted by Folk Alliance International; played an official showcase at AmericanaFest (where she also met Lucinda Williams at an event she co-produced); and supported her childhood heroes The Indigo Girls on five shows in the midwest and southeast. She also released critically acclaimed versions of “Woodstock” by Joni Mitchell and “Creep” by Radiohead, and received the 2020-2021 Best Folk/Country/Americana Album Award from OffBeat Magazine, all while touring in her van across all but two of the contiguous 48 states.
As the story goes, Lilli Lewis should never have been. Before she was born, Lewis’ mother was told her baby probably wouldn’t survive due to lung trouble, so the fact that Lewis now makes a living singing with those same lungs is a gift she never takes for granted. Lewis uses her voice to bring what she calls sacred songs into profane spaces, and though she’s abandoned trying to define her sound, she hopes her audiences leave shows knowing two things: that they are brilliant as they are, and that they have the ability to use that brilliance to make a better world.
“You don’t write an album called ‘All is Forgiven’ unless you have plenty to forgive.”
– Lilli Lewis on her latest from Righteous Babe Records
All Is Forgiven is Lewis’ first title with Righteous Babe Records whose label founder Ani DiFranco once called “a people-friendly, sub-corporate, woman-informed, queer-happy small business that puts music before rock stardom and ideology before profit,” and whose alumni have included Toshi Reagon, Anais Mitchell, Bitch and Animal, and Andrew Bird, to name a few.
Despite all the magic hurling her way in 2023, the album was written at truly difficult time of isolation and sadness. Lewis says “the songs all came almost in a dreamlike state, and I didn’t find out until later that they were there to help me get back up.” While in chronicles a possible path to forgiveness from defiance through self confrontation and all the way to humility, Lewis has found comfort and relief in taking on that work, especially in light of her recent diagnosis of end stage renal disease.
lillilewis.com
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