Critically acclaimed Boston singer- songwriter Thea Hopkins calls her music American Short Story Folk: concise, striking narratives, they tell of American romance and tragedy in modern terms. In 2004, folk icons Peter, Paul & Mary recorded one of her songs, "Jesus Is On The Wire" on their album “In These Times,” and described the song as a "compelling composition with a riveting story-telling style. This is one of the most important songs we have sung in recent years." Thea's composition is the only new song to be performed in its entirety in P,P & M's most recent PBS-TV special, the career retrospective "Carry It On."

Her new album, “Chickasaw,” has just been released. It contains the instrumental work of pianist Tim Ray (Lyle Lovett, Jane Siberry), guitarist David Goodrich (Chris Smither, Peter Mulvey), bassist Richard Gates (Suzanne Vega, Patty Larkin), cellist Natalie Haas (Alasdair Fraser, Mark O’Connor), and guitarists Bob Metzger (Leonard Cohen) and Steve Sadler (Kerri Powers, The Swinging Steaks). Drummer Kathi Taylor, fiddler Ian Kennedy, and harmony vocalist Chris Thompson complete the extraordinary sound. The album was engineered by Gerry Bellegarde and Larry Luddecke, mixed by Chris Rival and mastered by Ian Kennedy.

Among the 12 songs are two of a political nature, a new version of the Matthew Shepard story-song, "Jesus Is On the Wire," and the anti-war “River of Fire.”

In February of 2005, the nationally syndicated radio program "Acoustic Café" selected Thea's music for their monthly feature devoted to a new artist, "One To Watch." In 2004 in the Washington Post, Richard Harrington wrote that P, P & M’s album "In These Times" showcases "several promising new writers. The standout here is Thea Hopkins."

Thea Hopkins' debut album, "Birds of Mystery," was named one of the Top Ten local albums of the year by the Boston Herald. "A gorgeous dusky voice wraps itself like mist around country-folk songs of tenderness and substance," wrote Herald staff-writer Sarah Rodman.

In 2004, Thea's song "Western Town" was included in the CD "The Best of Boston Songwriters." In 2003, 2004,2005 and 2006 Thea received ASCAP Plus awards for song-writing. Thea was named as a finalist in the 2004 Boston Folk Festival songwriter contest. There were 350 entries. She won 2nd place in the contest. She was a semi-finalist in the 2005 International Songwriting Competition.

She has opened for Richie Havens, Maura O'Connell, John Hammond, Ellis Paul, Susan Werner, Connie Kaldor, Tracy Grammer, Brooks Williams, The Burns Sisters, Kris Delmhorst and Katy Moffatt. She has performed at Club Passim, Johnny D's, Natick Center for the Arts, Fall River's Narrows Center for the Arts, Cafe Fantastique, Vermont's Middle Earth Music Hall, Tupelo Music Hall, the Uncommon Ground in Chicago, the Sundance Film Festival, The Coffee Gallery in the L.A. area, and in New York City at CB's Gallery,Cornelia Street, the Postcrypt Coffeehouse and The Bitter End. She's received airplay on WUMB-FM and WERS-FM, among other non-commercial radio stations.

Thea comes from a mixed-ethnic heritage, with significant Native-American ancestry from both sides of her family. Her mother grew up on Martha's Vineyard, in the rural Gay Head area that is now the Wampanoag tribal land known as Aquinnah. Her uncle Donald was, for 52 years, the chief of the Vineyard's Wampanoag Indian tribe. Thea's song "Just a Soul," from Birds of Mystery, was dedicated to Thea's late aunt Patsy. Thea also comes from African-American, Irish, French and Portugese heritage.

Thea Hopkins' music on Amazon.com

Page put together (with info & pics from Bob Gramann ) by Ernest Ackermann.
Send rants/rave to above mentioned Ackermann
Last Time I changed anything on this page:

Enter your search terms Submit search form   Web webliminal.com

This site is hosted by Webliminal.com, a site on one boundary of the Web. Visit the site, and while you're at it take a look at some of Ernie's books about the Web.

 Feedback on this Web site