BERNICE LEWIS
SANCTUARY RECORDS

"Bernice is a soulful songwriter, with a voice full of light and hope. That combination makes for a powerful artist.
She is really one of the keepers of the flame of Real Songwriting."
Rosanne Cash

"For me, it's about the songs, each different, each a well-thought-out message, each a labor of love," says Bernice Lewis. It has been said that she elevates the experiences of everyday life to an art form.. Her newest CD, She Undoes, (2006) was Recorded in Nashville and produced by Grammy Award winner Charlie Chadwick (Suzi Bogguss, John Carter Cash, Kathy Mattea). It features a duet with fellow singer songwriter Cliff Eberhardt and a jazzy a cappella version of Joni Mitchell’s “a case of you” in additon to a collection of newly penned originals.
 

”Triumph! What a great CD! Bernice writes beautifully and deeply. I love the range of styles. Good Kind of Love is wonderful; spoke right to my heart! Great, jazzy cover of Joni Mitchell’s A Case of You.
Bernice has new wings with the genres she's been exploring, musically and vocally.
Dar Williams

Religion and Release (2000) features guest appearances by some of folk music's finest performers: Dar Williams, Ellis Paul, Brooks Williams, Jennifer Kimball and Alisa Fineman. Seth Rogovoy, Berkshire Living’s Editor, proclaimed "not a bad note on it..."

A regular on the coffeehouse circuit, contemporary-folk radio, and at the major folk festivals, Lewis -- who studied vocal improvisation with Bobby McFerrin, guitar technique with Alex DeGrassi and Guy van Duser, and songwriting with Roseanne Cash and Cris Williamson -- has been a featured performer on NPR’s "Mountain Stage" program, as well as at the Kennedy Center. In 1987, she was a finalist in the prestigeous New Folk Songwriting Contest at the Kerrville (Texas) Folk Festival, where she continues to be a main stage favorite. Her ballad Bridges That Hold was included in Peter, Paul and Mary’s Lifelines video (PBS). She was featured in Yoga Journal for her work with sound and yoga, and has shared the stage with many renowned artists, including Dar Williams, Dixie Chicks, Patty Griffin, Pete Seegar, Ellis Paul, John Gorka, Rory Block, Livingston Taylor, Odetta, Christine Lavin...it’s a long list. She is also a published poet, a sought after producer, and an educator extraordinaire.

She currently teaches songwriting at Williams College in Williamstown, Ma and Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Co, as well as camps and retreat centers. She was recently chosen to be an Artist-in-Residence for the National Park Service. She’s had a thirty-year daily yoga practice, loves good coffee, and her religion is the Grand Canyon.

It has been said that she elevates the experiences of everyday life to an art form. She sings from a woman's perspective with wit and eloquence in distinctive, powerful vocals... With attention equally divided among matters of the earth, matters of the soul and matters of the heart, Lewis has staked out as her territory the sum of contemporary existence, and by giving so generously of herself she helps illuminate the lives of others."
 

blewis@williams.edu
www.bernicelewis.com