About

Nashville-based husband-and-wife duo Mike T. Lewis and MaryBeth Zamer, known on stage as The Twangtown Paramours, have made a name for themselves defying boundaries with their award-winning catalogue of Americana, Folk, and Blues anthems. With a slew of accolades for their first three full-length albums, they’ve earned a loyal following, balancing serious instrumental and vocal chops with witty stage banter and a lighthearted approach to life. With their third album, Double Down on a Bad Thing, The Twangtown Paramours shifted gears to showcase a full band, electric, groove-oriented, upbeat, soul-infused, and retro blues sound. Their soon-to-be released fourth album, The Wind Will Change Again, is an acoustic Folk record consisting of a collection of songs that the Twangers call their best to date.

Hit songwriter, session musician, and producer Mike Lewis was born in NYC, but his sound is informed by a mix of experiences across the country’s major music centers, including NYC, L.A., Austin, and Nashville. He began learning classical and jazz guitar at age eight, studying under Leonid Bolotine, William Matthews, and Barry Galbraith, before earning degrees at Columbia in New York City and the Grove School of Music in Los Angeles. He wrote a #1 platinum pop hit ranked the 2nd biggest-selling female ballad of all time in Korea, and occasionally plays upright bass for Jimmie Dale Gilmore. 

Born in Washington D.C., lead singer MaryBeth Zamer was raised on a mix of opera and American songbook music, singing along to Dean Martin and Ella Fitzgerald, before discovering Little Feat, Bonnie Raitt, and the blues in high school. A fixture in the Washington, D.C. club scene for years, MaryBeth performed with popular local cover band, Ignition and sang backup vocals for Eva Cassidy’s band, Method Actor. “Eva was a huge influence on my singing style,” MaryBeth says. “She taught me to go beyond having fun and hitting the right notes, to sing in a way that conveys real emotion.” 

MaryBeth and Mike met and started dating in 2009, while both were working on separate musical projects. “The relationship came first,” says MaryBeth, “but I kept hearing songs he’d written that I loved, and I wanted to add my own vocal spin to them. I felt like I could interpret and deliver Mike’s songs the way he intended them to be.” The Twangtown Paramours released their debut self-titled album via Inside Edge Records just a year later in 2010, a well-received, pop-infused folk album that rose to #11 on the Folk charts. In 2012, they released their second full-length project, The Promise of Friday Night, a narrative-driven, acoustic folk album that hit #2 on the Folk charts, #150 on the Americana charts, and #7 on Deep Roots Magazine’s top 50 albums of 2012. In the following years, the pair became three-time finalists at the Kerrville New Folk Competition in Kerrville, TX and winners of the Wildflower Contest in Richardson, TX. They also had the honor to open for major acts such as Joe Ely, Claire Lynch, and Jimmie Dale Gilmore.

In February of 2022, their third album, Double Down on a Bad Thing came in at #11 on the UK indie Blues chart and #18 on the U.S. RMR Contemporary Blues chart. The Christmas bonus track was played over 215,000 in 16,000 U.S. stores and malls last December, and another song from the album is currently being played about 60,000 times a week in over 20,000 U.S. stores and malls.

In addition to their elaborate musical pedigrees and critically-acclaimed release history, what makes The Twangtown Paramours unique is the purity of their priorities: They are committed to making top-notch music. Their new album, The Wind Will Change Again, due to be released to the public before the holidays and to radio in the U.S. and U.K. January 3, 2024, is an acoustic exploration of some of the best songs the duo has written and that they often play live. Included on the album are emotional and thoughtful songs such as “The Garden” and “Old Friends”, the fun-loving bluegrass influenced tune, “Sincerely Yours No More,” and heartbreaking ballads co-written with well-known Nashville songwriters, Paul Craft and Fred Koller. Also on the album are two of the Twangers’ favorite songs to perform live: Jimmie Dale Gilmore’s “Tonight I Think I’m Gonna Go Downtown” and Adam Schlesinger’s “That Thing You Do.”

The Wind Will Change Again also features some of the best musicians to be found anywhere. Players include Rick Lonow (Poco)on drums and percussion, Grammy winner Jim VanCleve on fiddle and viola, Rave Tesar (keyboardist and music director for the band, Renaissance), Ed Alstrom (renowned session pianist and organist), and #1 accordion Nashville session player Jeff Taylor.

The Wind Will Change Again was acoustically and eclectically produced by Mike Lewis with songs that run the gamut of emotions from fun to heart-breaking to the philosophical. This is what David McGee, editor of Deep Roots Magazine had to say about the upcoming album: "In the performances’ acoustic majesty, we hear the Twangtown Paramours as we’ve not heard them before, thereby bringing into bold relief the depth of their messages and the beauty of their art. Right on time for a most chaotic time in our collective history, The Wind Will Change Again is built to last. And so it will.