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    Pamela Means Interrogates Social Ills Through Music

    By Michele Karlsberg–

    Happy New Year. Happy Inauguration. With that, and our past president, comes to mind the Pamela Means song “Impeachment Now!” and her recently released tenth album Pamela Means and The Reparations: Live at Northfire.

    Pamela is a restless artist fronting many varied projects including a Billie Holiday-era jazz quartet (Pamela Means Jazz Project), solo acoustic performances of The Beatles’ Abbey Road album in its entirety, a nascent instrumental jazz guitar duo, and work as a multi-award-winning solo singer-songwriter. This is the first release with her new acoustic trio, The Reparations. 

    “If Black warrior poet/feminist political activist Audre Lorde had taken up folk singing, she might have attacked her guitar and wrapped her lyrics around it the way Pamela Means does.” 

    Valley Advocate, Northampton, MA

    “The name Pamela Means and The Reparations came to me in a flash and it felt just right,” Means told me for the San Francisco Bay Times. “I like the bold political stance of it, but Reparations also means healing and repair through love and nurturing, which is also what I seek to provide with my music and shows.”

    An in-studio performance, recorded live for a small group of fans at Northfire Recording, in Amherst, MA, Live at Northfire showcases six of Pamela’s original songs. They are primarily politically-charged indictments of our socio-political landscape, plus a dose of romantic reprieve from two mesmerizing ballads.

    Her clever, concise lyrics, presented with soothing to seething vocals, and fleet-fingered fretwork, are elevated with the thick bass lines, infectious conga beats, and lush, velvet harmonies of bassist Cinamon Blair and percussionist I-SHEA.

    Pamela puts her gentle wit, big-loving spirit, and powerful songwriting to work for peace in the world. She just keeps getting better and better. Her voice is strong, her musicality is entertaining, and her commitment to peace is deep, genuine, and consistent.

    She is a Boston-based out(spoken), biracial, independent artist whose “kamikaze guitar style” and punchy provocative songs have worn a hole in two of her acoustic guitars. Armed with the razor wit of a stand-up comic, and having an engaging presence and irresistible charm, Pamela’s “stark, defiant songs” (The New York Times) set the status quo and the stage afire.

    Her commitment to interrogating social ills was fostered by her unique childhood. “As the adopted daughter of a white mother and Black father, I learned about dismantling systems of oppression from the inside out,” she said. Pamela received her first guitar at the age of fourteen, just after her mother died of cancer, and it soon became Pamela’s primary vehicle for expression. It would also serve as a passport out of a life that consisted of poverty, foster homes, and the inner-city life of hyper-segregated Milwaukee, WI. 

    She relocated to Boston, busked in the city subways and famed Harvard Square, founded her own record label, and began touring. Pamela has performed on three continents and across the country, gaining fans and rave reviews from Anchorage to Amsterdam, Sydney to Stockholm, San Francisco to Honolulu to New York, breaking album sales records at national festivals and sharing stages with Pete Seeger, Neil Young, Shawn Colvin, Joan Baez, Richie Havens, Gil-Scott Heron, Adrian Belew, Violent Femmes, Holly Near, and more.

    A timely post-9/11 release, Single Bullet Theory confronts the USA Patriot Act, racial profiling, and the Bush administration, while advocating for the rights of marginalized identities. She also recorded a haunting version of the anti-lynching anthem “Strange Fruit.” 

    Pamela “exhibits a rare emotional fire in today’s folk world,” (Seven Days, Burlington VT) so much so that Ani DiFranco exclaimed, “You’ve got such a deep, deep groove, I can’t get out. And, I wouldn’t want to.” With truth as ammunition, Pamela brings the fight for social justice and human dignity to the forefront of a new generation.

    Michele Karlsberg Marketing and Management specializes in publicity for the LGBTQ+ community. This year, Karlsberg celebrates 32 years of successful marketing campaigns. For more information: https://www.michelekarlsberg.com

    Published on January 28, 2021