Tamara Williamson

Born in London, Tamara Williamson was long destined for a life immersed in music after a childhood of classical studies.
Foregoing a career in Opera, Tamara's musical sensibilities began to blossom in a series of small, independent bands she formed in London before relocating to Toronto in 1993, where she joined the band Garden Traffic and then Why the Sky which became Mrs Torrance and was signed with BMG Canada. They released two full length albums and an EP before disbanding in 1998 the band toured extensively, supporting the likes of Jewel and Oasis. Tamara sang with the Rheostatics on many occasions including Maple Leaf Garden's opening for the Tragically Hip
After the split Tamara embarked upon a solo career. Recorded on a fourtrack in her basement 'Nightmare On Queen Street' was described as a "milestone for Canadian music" by Drop D Magazine
Moving away from the autobiographical nature of her debut, Tamara's following two albums 'Unconscious Pilot' (1999) and 'In The Arms of Ed' (2001) shifted the focus onto the stories of other people. The latter album includes a tribute to Andy Kaufman and a song about Sir Oswald Mosley, Britain's leading fascist politician of the 1930's
A fourth solo release 'And All Those Racing Horses' saw Tamara continue to develop her unique brand of looping and production, weaving together trumpets, cellos, violin, mouth organ, ambient samples (including a musical modem) and chord progressions which embrace a pop sensibility but take in all manner of unexpected twists and turns along the way. Her captivating live performances utilising an array of pedals to fully realise the songs in a concert setting have been described as a kind of one-woman choir
As a mainstay on the Canadian alternative music scene Tamara has worked with trip-hoppers King Cobb Steelie and fronts Microbunny, a noise-rock outfit whose music has been featured on Dutch TV, HBO films and PSI Factor amongst others. To date, she has been the only voice ever to grace a Do Make Say Think album, 'And Yet And Yet' (2001).
Prior to the release of 'The Boat' throughout Europe in May 2006, Tamara had toured France with Feist and Shannon Wright as part of the festival "les femmes s'en mêlent" and recorded a Black Session for French national radio. .
2009 Saw Tamara touring in France again as part of "les femmes s'en mêlent" This time Tamara took Rachel Smith along to accompany her on piano and vocals. A compilation was put together called More than an Decade which also came with a recording called Small Songs that Tamara made in her small barn
Tamara has recently been writing some new songs including a song called "James McCavoy" she hopes to release this song to the world soon on cdbaby.com.
Tamara has a company that records music for dressage horses. www.kurboom.com