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 She
puts her guitar in the trunk of her car and does an average
of 150 live shows a year criss-crossing the country. She follows
her own vision for her music and her soul/blues/rock/acoustic/
alternative style has brought comparisons to Ben Harper, Cat
Power, Neko Case, Patty Griffin, Martin Sexton and others. She
came up listening to all of those artists and also to Ella Fitzgerald,
Billie Holiday, Eva Cassidy Erykah Badu and Lauryn Hill. She
has traveled in several directions as well in her recordings
and bands while defining her own personal sound and style, and
this road has lead her to take the reins in her own hands and
draw her own map from here forward.
Mieka Pauley was born in Boston and raised in Kentucky, Colorado
and South Florida. School brought her back to Boston where she
makes her home. She started singing as a child and studied classical
voice and piano. In high school she sang in alt rock garage
bands and Motown funk bands and in jazz, classical and church
choirs. In high school she taught herself guitar on an uncle’s
old acoustic, then cut her teeth in college playing on the street
corners of Harvard Square. She learned how to write code and
built her own website. Her immediate ability to captivate audiences
quickly made her a favorite of Boston's best clubs including
the Paradise Lounge, House of Blues, Club Passim, and Kendall
Café – next at New York's renowned Bitter End, Living Room,
Makor, Knitting Factory and Village Underground – and then at
the best clubs and festivals throughout the U.S., North, South,
East and West.
She graduated early from Harvard in 2002 with a degree in Biological
Anthropology and went out that same summer and won the BMI/Rock
Boat Song Contest, took top three honors at the famed Telluride
Bluegrass Festival’s Troubadour Competition, and hit the road
solo full-time. By 2003 she was invited to perform at four of
the top music festivals in the country: The Newport Folk Festival,
On The Bricks in Atlanta, Dancin' In The District in Nashville
a return trip to The Rock Boat and made her UK debut. 2004 included
the month-long Citizen Cope Northeast Tour; the first ever BMI/NACA
See It Hear First showcase; sharing a bill with Eric Clapton
at Boston's Tweeter Center; and winning the prestigious Rocky
Mountain Folks Fest Songwriter Showcase. In 2005 she was nominated
for a Boston Music Award; won the first ever Starbucks Emerging
Artist Award; and recorded a new EP with producer John Alagia.
In 2006 she was nominated for two Boston Music Awards; made
her acclaimed SXSW debut and had her first independently released
radio single added into regular rotation at Top 10 Market Tastemaker
Station WBOS.
She has appeared on the road with Eric Clapton, Black Eyed Peas,
John Legend, Wyclef Jean, Ben Kweller, John Hiatt, Citizen Cope,
Blues Traveler, Martin Sexton, Mindy Smith, Jason Mraz, Edwin
McCain, Shawn Mullins, Edie Brickell, Talib Kweli, Ben Lee,
and Erin McKeown among many others. Northeast Performer calls
her “a version of Sarah McLachlan with a switchblade in her
shoe,” The Boston Globe “like Aretha in the husky vocal turns,”
and The Cornerstone Player as “the next meaningful female voice
of her generation.”
Mieka lays it out in her own lyric: “Do it bravely, save me
from the weak and lazy – if you can’t face it don’t do it at
all.”
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