Bio
“Every moment is a fresh beginning.”
-T.S. ELIOT
Formed in Seattle in 2007, Paula Boggs Band has spent nearly two decades walking the long American road — not chasing trends, but gathering stories. What began in the Pacific Northwest has grown into a national touring presence built on return invitations, resonant listening rooms, and songs that ask audiences to lean in a little closer.
Over the years, the band has carried its Northwest-born songwriting to stages across the US and beyond, earning repeat performances at respected venues including World Cafe Live!, Stubb’s Bar-B-Q, Rockwood Music Hall, Blueberry Hill, Genghis Cohen, The Triple Door and The Mint, along with venues throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, like Sweetwater Music Hall, and beyond. With 30–50 shows annually, they move fluidly between intimate 50-seat listening rooms and 300-capacity halls known for their acoustics — spaces where nuance matters and lyrics carry weight.
Critics have long recognized the band’s singular blend of tradition and reach. Current San Antonio observed, “This veteran Americana act boasts a range of influences from classic — James McMurtry and Bruce Springsteen— to more contemporary — Drive-By-Truckers. The group describes itself as ‘soulgrass.’ An unfamiliar tag, sure, but not to be dismissed lightly in this age of microgenres.” Phil King of AudioFuzz.com has written, “Boggs is like the Bob Dylan, the Peter, Paul and Mary, the Joan Baez of this era.” And Dave Good of the San Diego Reader noted that Boggs “makes…urban, jazzy music…within the structures of…folk, bluegrass, and…blues…she calls ‘soulgrass,’ and reminds me a little of Gil Scott-Heron, if only for the razor-intensity of her words…in a croony-rich street voice…evocative and easy to like.”
That word — “soulgrass” — hints at what sets Paula Boggs Band apart. Their music draws from the storytelling spine of Americana, the communal lift of bluegrass, the ache of the blues, and the rhythmic undercurrent of soul. It is at once rooted and urban, reflective and unflinching. The result feels less like a fusion and more like a conversation across traditions.
Their fifth studio album, “Sumatra,” widens that conversation. The record traces the intimate and the expansive: love songs shaped by hard-earned tenderness, social commentary delivered with clarity rather than cynicism, and reflections on ancestry that honor both inheritance and evolution. Sumatra carries the imprint of a band shaped by geography — Northwest skies, Southern stages, Midwestern grit, Eastern brick — and by the communities that have welcomed them back.
Onstage, Paula Boggs Band is built for rooms where listening is an act of participation. There is space in the arrangements, intention in the interplay, and the quiet authority that comes from years spent refining craft night after night. Nearly two decades in, they remain committed to the long arc — trusting that songs, honestly written and carefully carried, will continue to find their people.
“Sumatra” is not a reinvention. It is a deepening — the sound of a veteran band still curious, still courageous, and still listening for what the road has to teach next.
2025 marked a banner year of recognition: chief songwriter Paula Boggs was named one of eight NewSong Music Songwriting and Performance finalists, the band was selected as a Folk Alliance Region Midwest (FARM) official showcase artist, and songs Sumatra and Traces of You earned Intercontinental Music Awards. Traces of You is also a 2025 Song of the Year® Instrumental finalist.
Paula Boggs Band is proudly sponsored by Ear Trumpet Labs, Deering Banjos, Breedlove Guitars, and Radial Engineering.
PRAISE FOR SUMATRA
Americana HIghways
[“Sumatra” has] 10 charming melodies from a band that originated in 2007 & shine on their 5th album, Sumatra (Drops March 27/Independent/40:46). It’s a set that even has a song I could hear The Band play. Yes, Paula Boggs with the late Richard Manuel would shine on “Still Grateful.” Paula would’ve qualified as a member of that unit even as a songwriter. The Seattle-based band performs skillfully through jazz, bluegrass, soul, folk & Americana with a rootsy soul.
“Sumatra covers the range of Americana delights, from folksier Americana style songs to the more powerful push of alt-country roots rock, like the Drive-By Truckers – and the musical tone is always a blend of thoughtful joy at its foundation.”
“Some of the most exciting figures in modern music are those that head off into the wild to conceive a new style…there isn’t another [album] that gets close to [Paula Boggs Band’s] creations, and isn’t likely to be.”
Paula Boggs:
vocals,guitar,ukulele
Jarrett Mason:
bass, vocals
Tor Dietrichson:
percussion,vocals
Paul Matthew Moore:
keys,accordion,vocals
Jacob Evans: drums
Darren Loucas:
banjo, guitar, harmonica, lap steel, vocals
Rainbow Rodeo:
“Paula Boggs and her band are an organic continuation of the music of people like Odetta and Mavis Staples. Two women who mixed spirituals, folk, and jazz to sing songs of social justice and hope. Sumatra is a great album that can't help but remind you of what we're fighting to preserve and also give you the strength to continue the battle. We need more people to be making this kind of music.”
Best of WNY.com
“The latest from the Paula Boggs Band, Sumatra, is a commentary on our times with deeply personal lyrics that we all can understand and relate to ourselves.”
“This collaboration [on “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round”] is a perfect balm for these times when great positive change and shifts are needed worldwide. I am thrilled to work with Paula Boggs and the Blind Boys of Alabama on this motivational song of inspiration.” Valerie June, Fantasy Records Recording Artist
“Sumatra’ covers the range of Americana delights, from folksier Americana style songs to the more powerful push of alt-country roots rock, like the Drive-By Truckers – and the musical tone is always a blend of thoughtful joy at its foundation.” — Americana Highways
“Paula Boggs Band returns with its fifth studio album, ”Sumatra," out March 27 - a revelatory collection infused with infectious soul and a bold urge to question the status quo." -Glide Magazine
Tinnitist.com
“Paula Boggs Band serve up a rich and flavourful brew of sounds and styles on their warm and welcoming new album Sumatra.” It is a record that reminds us that we are fortunate to be living today, and as the notes of Falzone read, “Like much of Paula’s musical output, the power is in subtle but sage wisdom seeping through the songwriting…”
Fervor Coulee
“Sumatra is a flavourful and daring album ideal for 2026: the Paula Boggs Band is the soulful, enlivened musical barista we didn’t know existed. Well done, all.”
OTHER SELECTED REVIEWS
"This Seattle combo dubs its sound “soulgrass,” since it combines bluegrass and Americana idioms. This track is a story song telling of Paula’s enslaved ancestor in Alabama and his journey through the postbellum Jim Crow South. Flemons, a veteran of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, shares lead vocals. " - MusicRow magazine
"The harrowing, chanted chorus [of Ponies] is immediately followed by verse after verse from Boggs, as she weaves soul, bluegrass, country, and even a little bit of jazz into a beautiful yarn about finding the romantic side of life in any given circumstance." - Billboard
“Paula Boggs Band joins with Dom Flemons to share “King Brewster,” a song from Janus written about Boggs’ enslaved-then-emancipated ancestor." - Americana Music Association
"The record [album Janus] includes deeply personal themes of ancestry, memory, and love. The storytelling on this record will pull you in, but it’s the musicianship that ultimately takes center stage, thanks to an elegant, groove-laden soundscape crafted by an all-star backing band." - No Depression
"Boggs captures a raw nostalgia ...that might catch you by surprise. She has created a gentle groove for your heartache." - Americana Highways
“Paula Boggs Band sets themselves apart distinctly by Boggs’ stunning vocals…this Seattle band sounds the part of a bygone era and part refreshingly modern, an exciting contributor to the Pacific Northwest’s diverse music scene.” Glide Magazine
"Rewriting the bluegrass story from a black perspective." - AmericanaUK
