Sonia Tetlow
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
songwriter and musician. She fronts the band Herman Put Down The Gun and plays banjo in the alterna-grass group Roxie Watson. Formerly the singer/ guitarist for Atlanta punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
trio, STB (Sonia Tetlow Band), which released two critically acclaimed independent albums, "Spit" and "Swerve." Tetlow played bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
in the cowpunk
Cowpunk
Cowpunk or Country punk is a subgenre of punk rock and New Wave that began in the UK and California in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It combines punk rock or New Wave with country music, folk music, and blues in sound, subject matter, attitude, and style...
rock band Cowboy Mouth
Cowboy Mouth
Cowboy Mouth is a rock band based in New Orleans, Louisiana. Their name usually means "One with a loud and raucous voice". The nucleus of the band formed in the 1990s, and they have become a powerhouse live act whose performances have been likened to "a religious experience."Some of their most...
from 2004-2007.
Biography
Sonia grew up in New Orleans and graduated from St. Mary's Dominican High SchoolSt. Mary's Dominican High School
St. Mary's Dominican High School or simply "Dominican High School" is an all-girls private high school in New Orleans, Louisiana.Dominican is one of the only schools in Louisiana which doesn't have a mascot. The school colors are black and white. Dominican has a highly respected athletics program...
and Tulane University
Tulane University
Tulane University is a private, nonsectarian research university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States...
where her sister is currently an associate professor at the School of Law.
Since then, she's lived in Atlanta. A diverse and talented multi-instrumentalist, she has toured extensively both in support of her own music, solo and with a band, as well as playing bass for New Orleans rockers Cowboy Mouth
Cowboy Mouth
Cowboy Mouth is a rock band based in New Orleans, Louisiana. Their name usually means "One with a loud and raucous voice". The nucleus of the band formed in the 1990s, and they have become a powerhouse live act whose performances have been likened to "a religious experience."Some of their most...
(mid 2004 through May 12, 2007) and guitar and mandolin for New Orleans singer/songwriter Paul Sanchez
Paul Sanchez
Paul Sanchez is a New Orleans-born and based American guitarist and a singer-songwriter. Sanchez is best known as one of New Orleans' finest song writers and was also founding member of the New Orleans band Cowboy Mouth. Sanchez was a guitarist and one of the primary singers and songwriters for the...
. Tetlow has also had the pleasure of performing on The Ellen DeGeneres Show
The Ellen DeGeneres Show
The Ellen DeGeneres Show, often shortened to Ellen, is an American television talk show hosted by comedian/actress Ellen DeGeneres. Debuting on September 8, 2003, it is produced by Telepictures and airs in syndication, including stations owned by NBC Universal. For its first five seasons, the show...
, Atlanta and Company with Holly Firfir, the Louisiana Jukebox, as well as other news and radio broadcasts.
She has opened for Patti Smith
Patti Smith
Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses....
, Shawn Mullins
Shawn Mullins
Shawn Mullins is an American singer-songwriter who specializes in folk rock, instrumental rock, adult alternative, and Americana music. He is best known for the 1998 single, "Lullaby", which hit number one on the Adult Top 40 and was nominated for a Grammy Award.-Career:Mullins was born in...
, Speech and Headliner from Arrested Development
Arrested Development (hip hop group)
Arrested Development is an American alternative hip hop group, founded by Speech and Headliner as a positive, Afrocentric alternative to the gangsta rap popular in the early 1990s.-History:...
, Indigo Girls
Indigo Girls
The Indigo Girls are an American folk rock music duo, consisting of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers. They met in elementary school and began performing together as high school students in Decatur, Georgia, part of the Atlanta metropolitan area...
, Peter Holsapple
Peter Holsapple
Peter Holsapple formed, along with Chris Stamey, the singing, songwriting, and guitar-playing core of the dB's, a jangle-pop band from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He became the band's principal songwriter and singer after Stamey's departure. The dB's were at the forefront of the guitar bands...
and numerous others. She's toured the east coast, performing at such venues as the Atlanta Civic Center, the Roxy Theater, CBGB
CBGB
CBGB was a music club at 315 Bowery at Bleecker Street in the borough of Manhattan in New York City.Founded by Hilly Kristal in 1973, it was originally intended to feature its namesake musical styles, but became a forum for American punk and New Wave bands like Ramones, Misfits, Television, the...
's, Newby's
Newby's
Newby’s is a music venue, bar, pool hall, and restaurant in Memphis, Tennessee, located about a block from the University of Memphis.-History:...
, The Bitter End
The Bitter End
The Bitter End is a nightclub in New York City's Greenwich Village. It opened its doors in 1961 at 147 Bleecker Street under the auspices of owner Fred Weintraub. The club changed its name to The Other End during the 1970s...
and Cafe Passim to name a few. Sonia also has showcased at the Atlantis Music Conference
Atlantis Music Conference
The Atlantis Music Conference and Festival is an annual event in Atlanta, founded in 1998, that aims to educate new artists about the industry through information sessions, give them exposure through talent showcases and connect them with industry professionals through networking events...
in Atlanta, GA and Rockrgrl Music Conference in Seattle.
Besides being a prolific songwriter in her own right, Tetlow has collaborated on songs with Paul Sanchez
Paul Sanchez
Paul Sanchez is a New Orleans-born and based American guitarist and a singer-songwriter. Sanchez is best known as one of New Orleans' finest song writers and was also founding member of the New Orleans band Cowboy Mouth. Sanchez was a guitarist and one of the primary singers and songwriters for the...
(Cowboy Mouth, Paul Sanchez Rolling Road Show), John Thomas Griffith
John Thomas Griffith
John Thomas Griffith is an American singer-songwriter best known as a guitarist and vocalist for the band Cowboy Mouth. John Thomas Griffith first established himself on the American music scene in the early 1980s as lead singer and guitarist for the Red Rockers, co-writing their 1983 MTV hit...
(Red Rockers, Cowboy Mouth), Fred LeBlanc
Fred LeBlanc
Fred LeBlanc is currently the lead singer/drummer for the New Orleans based rock band Cowboy Mouth, as well as a freelance songwriter, record producer, short story author, and acoustic performer...
(Cowboy Mouth, Dash Rip Rock) and David Torkanowsky (Astral Project, Irma Thomas), and was awarded four writing credits on Cowboy Mouth’s 2006 release, “VooDoo Shoppe.” Her lyrics have been called, “uncompromising yet undeniably intimate,” (Michael Andrews, Athens Flagpole) and her music runs the gamut from, “rocking with a barely contained intensity,” (Hal Horowitz, Atlanta Press) to, “mellow but soulfully intoxicating,” (Jeff Clark, Stomp and Stammer).