Kamara Thomas

Kamara Thomas is a singer, songspeller, mythology fanatic and multidisciplinary storyteller based in Durham, NC. Her storytelling is collaborative and multi-faceted– weaving together musical and theater performance, community art-making, ritual, and visual elements including film, masks, archival material and photography.

Kamara is currently developing “Tularosa: An American Dreamtime'' in collaboration with the Denver-based theater company Band of Toughs. Based on her 2022 eponymous album and song-cycle, the staged storywork explores the mythology of the American West and will be the final installment in a series of experimental, multidisciplinary works including #9 - a pandemic performance for nine social-distancers (2020), the videos Good Luck America (2018) and Oh Gallows (2016), and Soapbox (2018), a community-based, multi-site public performance in downtown Durham, NC.

Kamara also spearheads Country Soul Songbook, an artist-driven and -focused media platform and production team rooted in the mission to amplify historically marginalized voices (BIPOC/LGBTQIA+) in Country, Americana and American roots music.

As a songwriter and musician, Kamara spent over a decade in New York fronting numerous bands – most notably hard rock trio Earl Greyhound and Kamara Thomas & The Ghost Gamblers. She also founded Honky Tonk Happy Hour, a seminal force of the early-aughts NYC alt-country scene.