Queen Esther

Described as “..a Black Lucinda Williams…” and “…a brutal, original, explosive singer…” (Vanity Fair), New York City based Lowcountry ex-pat Queen Esther embraces lost American history along with her wide-ranging and ever changing aural influences, as she leans heavily on the bluing of the note to create reclamation-driven Black Americana and jazz. She has written, produced and self-released seven critically acclaimed albums via her label EL Recordings. Performances include Lincoln Center (NYC), The Broad (Santa Monica, CA), Woody Guthrie Museum (Tulsa, OK), The Kennedy Center (DC) and The Obama Foundation, plus official showcases at NYC Winter Jazzfest, Americanafest and Folk Alliance Intl, amongst others. An inaugural member of Keychange (US), artist residencies include National Parks Arts Foundation, WP Theater PlayLAB and Joe’s Pub Working Group. Written, arranged and produced by Queen Esther, Blackbirding – funded by grants from YoungArts, The Color Me Country Artist Fund and the New York City Women's Fund – is a Black country soul album that churns lost history into music that’s a seamless irresistible blend of country, jazz, soul, R&B and pop, spirituals, and sacred traditions offering a sonic tapestry rooted in Black ancestral memory. Each song roams the Gettysburg battlefield to create a sonic template that dismantles myths and assumptions about what happened there -- and explore reasons why, like slavery and The Civil War, blackbirding has never really ended.