Sonia Lee
Nashville, Tennessee, United States
Music
Press
Sonia Lee, a first-generation Ukrainian American whose dream it has always been to record a CD of songs for the Ukrainian community, has just released a new album, "From the Heart". Produced by Kim Mclean and John D. Willis, the CD comprises 11 songs that everbody can enjoy, whether one is of Ukrainian lineage or just appreciates the beauty of haunting melodies.
She will be performing at the Ukrainian Heritage Festival in Yonkers, NY. - The Ukrainian Weekly, June 2004
My wife and I made reservations at the Blue Bird not knowing who the singer was going to be. We drove to Nashville from Roanoke, Virginia on vacation. The only real plans we had was to visit the cafe. To our amazement, Sonia was the best part of our four day trip to the music city. Her stage presence, professional stature, and top quality voice along with other fine musicians made our visit to the Blue Bird an evening to always remember.
We listened to her CD twice while on the way back to Virginia. It sounds even better at home. Thanks so much and nothing but the best to Sonia Lee.
New fans,
Jeff and Maureen Stump
Roanoke, Virginia
- Roanoke, VA
To view One Sheet, please visit the media kit in my website, www.sonialee.net
Thank you,
Sonia - One Sheet
What Sonia has done is to instill new life into traditional Ukrainian folk songs...the new CD features 11 popular Ukrainian folk songs sung with a passion that reaches into one's soul. - Ukrainian Federal Credit Union Magazine, January 2005
What Sonia has done is to instill new life into traditional Ukrainian folk songs...the new CD features 11 popular Ukrainian folk songs sung with a passion that reaches into one's soul. - Ukrainian Federal Credit Union Magazine, January 2005
From the first lilting notes of Because You Love Me, I was enchanted. It's such a lovely song, I wanted to run out and get engaged so I could ask Sonia Lee to sing it at my wedding. But her next song, Good Intenetions, reminded me why I'm still single. I'm pretty sure I've dated this guy: "He had good intentions/He didn't mean for anyone to get hurt/Maybe somebody oughta mention/Love should speak loude than words."
Just when I ws getting a little depressed, she gave me hope with Love Will Never Let Us Down. It segued nicely into True, the title track. I love the way sonia sings, but if she'd like to have a Big Country Star sing her songs, someone should get this one to Lee Ann Womack. I can already see the video, lots of butterflies and Lee Ann spinning in circles in the middle of a field of wildflowers under a sunny sky...
So where was I? Oh yeah, dancing in a sunlit meadow and grooving with Help Me Heal, Go Easy On Me, Gone, and Missing You. Then I heard Shoebox Man - - what a sweet story. She tops off the whole thing with an REO Speedwagon cover, Time For Me to Fly. I always thought it would be a good country tune, and turns out I was right.
This is a wonderful CD with great production, provocative lyrics and catchy melodies. I've tried to think of a way to keep it, but I'm pretty sure I have to turn it back in. Lucky for me, according to Sonia's website she plays Nashville, frequently. I can attend her show and buy my own copy. I give her 4 1/2 guitars out of 5.
-Lori Shropshire
- Music Nashville, April 2006
*** For Immediate Release ***
May 1, 2006
Sonia Lee Chosen as One of Kerrville Songwriter’s Festival’s New Folk Finalists KERRVILLE, TX
For 18 years, a small town in the hills of Texas has hosted the world renowned Kerrville Folk Festival, hailed as THE festival for up and coming songwriters. According to their website, tremendous writers and performers such as Lyle Lovett,
Willie Nelson, Michelle Shocked, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Robert Earl Keen, Lucinda Williams, and Nancy Griffith played Kerrville early in their careers. Peter Paul & Mary, Judy Collins, Janis Ian,and singer/songwriter/actor Ronny Cox still grace the Kerrville Stages.
It is this history, as well as the consistently high standard for performers, that gives the well earned prestige of being chosen as one of 32 finalists out of the more than 800 applicants. Nashville artist Sonia Lee, who will be performing last on Sunday, May 28,
2006, is honored to be a part of it.
Sonia Lee is not new to folk music as she is from a Ukrainian-American family where folk music was an integral part of the culture. She learned to sing and play guitar at an early age as she was immersed in her heritage at Ukrainian summer camps. Songwriting came later, and the most natural format for her was folk. Her first CD, From
the Heart, was a tribute to her heritage with 10 traditional Ukrainian folk songs, sung entirely in Ukrainian! Her most recent project, True, shows off her gift for pairing beautiful lyrics and melodies sung with a heartfelt, honest voice in a collection of her original songs. Six winners will be chosen from those 32 finalists to perform 20 minutes of their original music in a special concert the following weekend, June 4th, 2006 and will receive $450 plus national recognition. Money for the winners is from the Texas Folk Music
Foundation, Vic and Reba Heyman, and the Jim Ross Memorial Fund. The winners also receive a one year subscription to Performing Songwriter Magazine. Hippie Chick Twang, home of great female songwriters, is proud to have Sonia Lee as our representative to the Kerrville Folk Festival. Sonia Lee is represented by Hippie Chick Twang 615.244.4422 For more information
go to www.sonialee.net or www.kerrvillefolkfestival.com - Nashville, TN
*** For Immediate Release ***
May 1, 2006
Sonia Lee Chosen as One of Kerrville Songwriter’s Festival’s New Folk Finalists KERRVILLE, TX
For 18 years, a small town in the hills of Texas has hosted the world renowned Kerrville Folk Festival, hailed as THE festival for up and coming songwriters. According to their website, tremendous writers and performers such as Lyle Lovett,
Willie Nelson, Michelle Shocked, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Robert Earl Keen, Lucinda Williams, and Nancy Griffith played Kerrville early in their careers. Peter Paul & Mary, Judy Collins, Janis Ian,and singer/songwriter/actor Ronny Cox still grace the Kerrville Stages.
It is this history, as well as the consistently high standard for performers, that gives the well earned prestige of being chosen as one of 32 finalists out of the more than 800 applicants. Nashville artist Sonia Lee, who will be performing last on Sunday, May 28,
2006, is honored to be a part of it.
Sonia Lee is not new to folk music as she is from a Ukrainian-American family where folk music was an integral part of the culture. She learned to sing and play guitar at an early age as she was immersed in her heritage at Ukrainian summer camps. Songwriting came later, and the most natural format for her was folk. Her first CD, From
the Heart, was a tribute to her heritage with 10 traditional Ukrainian folk songs, sung entirely in Ukrainian! Her most recent project, True, shows off her gift for pairing beautiful lyrics and melodies sung with a heartfelt, honest voice in a collection of her original songs. Six winners will be chosen from those 32 finalists to perform 20 minutes of their original music in a special concert the following weekend, June 4th, 2006 and will receive $450 plus national recognition. Money for the winners is from the Texas Folk Music
Foundation, Vic and Reba Heyman, and the Jim Ross Memorial Fund. The winners also receive a one year subscription to Performing Songwriter Magazine. Hippie Chick Twang, home of great female songwriters, is proud to have Sonia Lee as our representative to the Kerrville Folk Festival. Sonia Lee is represented by Hippie Chick Twang 615.244.4422 For more information
go to www.sonialee.net or www.kerrvillefolkfestival.com - Nashville, TN
If anyone is going to find hope and inspiration from the darkest of days, it's Sonia Lee. Combining style and grace with a well-traveled edge, Lee delivers from the depths of her soul.
-Mark Wehner
Host of Americana Tonight
Sonia Lee's voice is so gentle and sweet . . . . The music on her new True CD ain't quite country, but the electric twang bristles and hints at a Lucinda Williams-type steeliness: reserve with resolve.
- Frank De Blasé
City Newspaper, Rochester, NY
This is a wonderful CD with great production, provocative lyrics and catchy melodies.
- Lori Shropshire
Music News Nashville
Sonia Lee music is 'soft-as-a-baby's-heart' honest folk
music...a "True" child of Woodstock by way of Nashville, her songs are sincere, with only the tiniest
whisper of twang.
- Devon O'Day
Author (My Angels Wear Fur) and Radio Personality
My wife and I made reservations at the Bluebird Café during our
vacation in Nashville,
Tennessee, not knowing who the singer was going to be. To our amazement, Sonia was the best part of our four-day trip to Music City. Her stage presence, professional stature, and top
quality voice along with other fine musicians made our visit to the Bluebird an evening to always
remember. We listened to her CD twice while on the way back to Virginia. It sounds even better
at home.
- Jeff and Maureen Stump
Roanoke, Virginia - endorsement quotes
If anyone is going to find hope and inspiration from the darkest of days, it's Sonia Lee. Combining style and grace with a well-traveled edge, Lee delivers from the depths of her soul.
-Mark Wehner
Host of Americana Tonight
Sonia Lee's voice is so gentle and sweet . . . . The music on her new True CD ain't quite country, but the electric twang bristles and hints at a Lucinda Williams-type steeliness: reserve with resolve.
- Frank De Blasé
City Newspaper, Rochester, NY
This is a wonderful CD with great production, provocative lyrics and catchy melodies.
- Lori Shropshire
Music News Nashville
Sonia Lee music is 'soft-as-a-baby's-heart' honest folk
music...a "True" child of Woodstock by way of Nashville, her songs are sincere, with only the tiniest
whisper of twang.
- Devon O'Day
Author (My Angels Wear Fur) and Radio Personality
My wife and I made reservations at the Bluebird Café during our
vacation in Nashville,
Tennessee, not knowing who the singer was going to be. To our amazement, Sonia was the best part of our four-day trip to Music City. Her stage presence, professional stature, and top
quality voice along with other fine musicians made our visit to the Bluebird an evening to always
remember. We listened to her CD twice while on the way back to Virginia. It sounds even better
at home.
- Jeff and Maureen Stump
Roanoke, Virginia - endorsement quotes
Sonia Lee's voice is so gentle and sweet. Her band's underlying Nashville twang helps rescue this former Rochestarian from being simply a pretty singer with a pretty guitar. Folks here may remember Lee as Sonia Tratch when she played in the acoustic trio Calico back in the early '90's. The music on her new "True" CD ain't quite coundtry, but the electric twang bristles and hints at a Lucinda Williams-type steeliness: reserve with resolve. Sonia Lee, Friday, November 25, Daily Perks Coffee House, 390 Gregory Street, 230-5274, 8pm $5, all ages. You can also catch her on Thanksgiving, November 24, singing backup for Dark Side of the Moon at Water Street Music Hall, 204 North Water Street, 352-5600, at 9 pm $13-$15. All ages.
- Frank De Blase - City News, Rochester, NY November 2005
Sonia Lee's voice is so gentle and sweet. Her band's underlying Nashville twang helps rescue this former Rochestarian from being simply a pretty singer with a pretty guitar. Folks here may remember Lee as Sonia Tratch when she played in the acoustic trio Calico back in the early '90's. The music on her new "True" CD ain't quite coundtry, but the electric twang bristles and hints at a Lucinda Williams-type steeliness: reserve with resolve. Sonia Lee, Friday, November 25, Daily Perks Coffee House, 390 Gregory Street, 230-5274, 8pm $5, all ages. You can also catch her on Thanksgiving, November 24, singing backup for Dark Side of the Moon at Water Street Music Hall, 204 North Water Street, 352-5600, at 9 pm $13-$15. All ages.
- Frank De Blase - City News, Rochester, NY November 2005
Discography
"Butterfly" is Sonia's newest release and once again delivers a strong message of help and hope to anyone overcoming challenges.
"Chance To Start Over" chronicles a journey of Sonia's recovery from personal demons - full of hope and inspiration.
"True", original songs by Sonia Lee of love, loss, and the journey.
"From The Heart" is a modern collection of traditional Ukrainian folk songs.
Photos
Bio
Rochester, New York native, Sonia Lee moved to Nashville with a dream to write songs. That dream began as a first generation Ukrainian American with parents that preserved their heritage of music in their daughters upbringing. She began to sing at the age of three and to play guitar at age 12. Sonia Lee learned to carry on the family tradition of decorating Easter eggs (pysanky), Ukrainian folk dancing, and embroidery of beautiful Ukrainian patterns. Her heritage was not her only influence. She loved music from the Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, James Taylor and the American folk music she grew up around in upstate New York.
In Nashville Sonia began to write by herself and with co-writers who held like beliefs in themes of love, forgiveness, and recovery. She began to sing in songwriter rounds at the Bluebird, where shed watched so many great songwriters perform in the past. Sonias producer and Dove award winning writer, Kim McLean, was one of the songwriters with whom she formed a friendship, and later a creative partnership in the studio with her first project, From the Heart, a fresh collection of traditional Ukrainian folk songs. Kim McLean produced this lovely Enya-esque collection featuring Sonia Lees pure beautiful voice singing the songs that were part of her own personal creative tapestry. With great critical acceptance, and a successful tour of Ukrainian audiences across America, and even a visit to Ukraine, Sonia Lees dream was not yet completely fulfilled. Sonia had an ever present need to express her own creative voice in music.
This led to the recording of her second CD, True, produced again by McLean, which includes an album of self penned and co-written anthems and touching ballads composed from her own life. With True, Sonia Lee has realized the full circle of a dream becoming realityto be a songwriter. From Shoebox Man a story song that sums up a little girls hope of the perfect mate, to the soaring theme of love in Because You Loved Me, to the moving Love Will Never Let Us Down, to the ode to her own recovery in Time For Me To Fly, a cover of REO Speedwagons classic, and the only cover on the CD, Sonia Lee finds her own voiceher True voice.
With her third release, "Chance To Start Over" Sonia chronicles a journey of recovery from personal demons. Anyone who has ever had a challenge to overcome will find hope and inspiration in these songs.
Sonia Lee makes no bones about the growing need for recovery. Everyone is recovering from something, she shares with audiences explaining her musical calling
to writing and performing recovery music. Whether its a substance, a condition, a lifechange, or a loss, we all need help sometimes. Lee's music encourages, inspires,
and shines the light on the darkness. "Butterfly", Sonia's newest release, is a 13-song collection of original songs that gently invite the listener to make a subtle movement toward positive change. Holding up the metaphoric mirror, this
musical collection reminds us that mistakes, change, and bootstrap pick-me-ups are inevitable. What we do in those moments are the choices chronicled song-by-song on
Sonia Lees fourth musical project. With this musically acoustic and rich album, she demands we tell the darkness no.
Singer-songwriter Sonia Lee, a two-time Kerrville Folk Festival finalist, delivers sweet vocals. The lush, softness of her music has staying power staying in your play list,
staying in your head, and staying in your heart.
For more information, check out www.sonialee.net
Band Members
Links
