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Athens, Georgia native turned New Orleans Folk Rock Diva Lilli Lewis is a voice for the
voiceless in Americana, her third full album for Louisiana Red Hot Records, lauded by NPR,
Rolling Stone, Offbeat Magazine and the New Orleans Times-Picayune. Trained as an opera
singer and classical pianist, singer-songwriter Lewis has been a composer, producer and
performing artist for over two decades. She has been known as the Folk Rock Diva since
performing in the Folk Rock band The Shiz, founded with her wife Liz Hogan.
Lewis issued three previous releases on Louisiana Red Hot Records where she serves as VP
and the Head of A&R: The 2018 The Henderson Sessions, 2019’s We Belong, and the 2020 My American Heart Red + Blue EP. In 2020, Lewis also released a single she co-wrote, co-
produced and performed — the “Mask Up” anthem for a public health campaign from Louisiana
Red Hot Records and WHIV-FM featuring New Orleans favorites Kirk Joseph, Glen David
Andrews, Roland Guerin, James Andrews, and Erica Falls.
Since the shutdown, Lewis has performed a powerful set for the Kennedy Center’s Arts Across
America series, sang "My American Heart" for a voters' rights benefit (where Broadway star
Mandy Patinkin compared her voice to “the color of light”), and performed for WWOZ-FM's
Piano Night benefit alongside celebrated artists like Jon Batiste, Ivan Neville.
Her full ensemble, known at home as the Lilli Lewis Project, refers to itself as “not so much a
band but rather a pan-generational cult of radical decency” willing to traverse any musical
terrain, bearing the spirit of days when everyone still seemed to believe music could change the
world.
As the story goes, Lewis’ mother was told her baby probably wouldn’t survive because of lung
trouble in utero. Lewis now uses those same lungs 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 her performances knowing two things: that they are brilliant as they are, and
that they have the ability to use their own brilliance to make a better world.
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https://open.spotify.com/artist/2dh2iaRf6yHgqVmEJok53L