Biography

CONTACT: pamktate@gmail.com 1-646-285-8504


Pam Tate is a singer's singer, with a voice that's rich and a range that won't quit.

Pam’s career spans thirty years, performing in sizzling blues joints and small cabaret clubs to stadiums of 50,000 fans. Her music fuses blues with rock and jazz, a hallmark of her live performances and four CDs, DIE HAPPY, DANCING ON THE PYRAMIDS, SOMETHING WONDERFUL and, most recently GONNA GET IT RIGHT, recorded in Nashville.

Pam’s career started at the age of eleven, when she played Aunt Polly in Tom Sawyer, a civic theater production in her home town in Indiana. Solos in school and church followed and she was thrilled to win contests, act in summer stock and sing for parties.

At the age of nineteen, Pam followed her dream and took a bus east to NYC where she lived in Greenwich Village, singing anything that would pay the rent and allow time to perform original music in clubs. A year-long stint singing for celebrities such as President Jimmy Carter at the world-famous Mamma Leone’s restaurant in the theater district was followed by castings in musicals off-Broadway and in regional theater. Seen in a tiny club on Bleeker Street, Pam was tapped to sing in a touring show band, High Society.

After her jaunt singing on the road, Pam found herself back in Indiana where she was in demand for recording sessions, jingles, demos and backups - including gigs on tour, as opening act for bands, The Doobie Brothers, Hall & Oates and Thin Lizzie.

Concurrently Pam landed a federal arts grant as a songwriter and filmmaker. She wrote and performed, singing and playing her VOX Super Continental organ, with Video Kids, her new wave band, and developed a following in the Midwest.

But the lure of New York proved strong, so she moved back to Manhattan. Pam rocked around town, first with The Joneses and then with her 11-piece soul band, Pam Tate & her Men in Blues, playing at Tramps, Sweetwaters, The Lone Star, The Cat Club, and The Ballroom. Then she was signed by indie label, Left Field Records, to record the first of her four CDs.

The result is her debut album DIE HAPPY, all original songs as tough as they are tender, some with changes, melodies and hooks memorable enough to make them instant classics.

Richard Lehnert of Stereophile Magazine said about Pam, "First time I heard Die Happy, I also heard Laura Nyro, Streisand at her best, and of course, Janis. But it comes out all Tate, in a big, full voice capable of anything from heartfelt intimacy to soaring off heroically into final-chorus fades."

Pam followed up with DANCING ON THE PYRAMIDS, a departure from the blues and jazz one her first CD. The pop/rock "Pyramids" reinforced her power as a songwriter and her agility as a singer.

"I see that Tate's wide-ranging influences include Motown, blues, musical theater, reggae and rock, along with literary influences from Anais Nin and the Paris expatriates of the Twenties to the Beats of the Fifties. I know what you're thinking: Pretentious. Wrong. The songs are often about relationships and are quite accessible." - Audiophile Voice Magazine.

Both of Pam’s CDs were introduced at MIDEM in Cannes, France, the international convention for global music. They were licensed by several countries, including Japan, where the title track from her CD Die Happy, was sandwiched between Billie Holiday’s “God Bless The Child” and Tony Bennett’s “I Left My Heart In San Francisco” on a best of jazz compilation album.

Then Pam Tate was produced by renowned Godfather of NYC Cabaret, Erv Raible in her cabaret debut, "Love Lost and Found”, a show of all original songs, for which she was nominated for her first MAC (Manhattan Association of Clubs and Cabarets) Award. Her next show, "Something Wonderful," resulted in her CD by the same name, a sophisticated mix of standards, theater tunes, and contemporary songs. Pam sings her blues/jazz take on standards like "God Bless The Child," "Our Love Is Here To Stay" and Sting's "If I Ever Lose My Faith."

In 2009 Pam became Associate Director of the International Cabaret Conference at Yale, nine-days of intensive classes attended by elite performers from around the world and taught by a faculty made up of Broadway stars such as Faith Prince and Tovah Feldshuh and world renowned concert artists such as Amanda McBroom (songwriter of “The Rose”) and Carol Hall (composer of “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas”). Pam was administrator, instructor, and producer of five nights of public concerts.

During a vacation in Nashville, Pam fell in love with its talent, energy and natural beauty. Since 2015, Pam has made Nashville her home base. She's sung her songs in songwriter rounds and collaborated with some of Nashville’s best songwriters and musician.

Her latest band, Pam Tate & Her Men In Blues, plays soulful and sultry blues, rock and R&B. With Bob Hatter on guitar, Pete Young on drums, Dow Tomlin on bass and William Lenk on keys, Pam has released her first CD with the band, GONNA GET IT RIGHT. Continuing in her tradition of innovative stylistic interpretations, the band's live shows include Pam’s take on songs from Bessie Smith to Al Green, from Eric Clapton to Lady Gaga, as well as originals that sound like classic hits.

Always growing and evolving as an artist Pam Tate is a charismatic presence, and whether she's singing fast or slow, high and sweet or down and dirty, the result is the same – her soul reaches out and wraps around her audience.