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ph: josh rothstein

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. Her immediate ability to captivate audiences quickly made her a favorite of Boston's best clubs including the Paradise Lounge, House of Blues, and Club Passim – 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, and a return trip to The Rock Boat – and she made her UK debut. 2004 included the month-long Citizen Cope Northeast Tour, the first ever BMI/NACA See It Hear First showcase, a shared bill with Eric Clapton at Boston's Tweeter Center, and the top award at 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 "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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