ABOUT MICHELLE WILLIS Michelle Willis is a Canadian singer, songwriter and keyboard player based in Brooklyn NY. She is also a member of David Crosby & Sky Trails, David Crosby & Lighthouse, and the Becca Stevens Band. As a kid growing up, singing and playing was a way of communication; a pathway to self expression. […]
ABOUT MICHELLE WILLIS
Michelle Willis is a Canadian singer, songwriter and keyboard player based in Brooklyn NY. She is also a member of David Crosby & Sky Trails, David Crosby & Lighthouse, and the Becca Stevens Band.
As a kid growing up, singing and playing was a way of communication; a pathway to self expression. “I grew up in the 90s, when the hits on the radio were women like Shawn Colvin, Lauryn Hill, Amanda Marshall, Jann Arden, Whitney Houston, Alanis Morissette, Janet Jackson and Sarah McLachlan. These women dominated my emobrain. They said how they felt; their songs felt deep, harmonically and lyrically. Their music was a place where all my teenage emotion could live and be perfectly expressed. Around the same time, I was singing Brahms, Mozart and Bach in the choir. I sang in with my family, so all that music was circling around in my brain.”
She later grew to learn the vocabulary of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s songwriters, a sound she has grown quite close to given her fixed position in two bands led by American songwriting folk legend David Crosby. After studying jazz in Toronto, the art of songwriting and delivery became the new foundation, taking cues from
heavyweights like Joni Mitchell, Stevie Wonder, Carole King, Donny Hathaway, CSNY, Ray Charles, Paul Simon, Jimmy Webb and The Beatles.
Since moving to New York, Willis has cemented her place as an indemand keyboard player and singer, touring and recording with a diverse array of artists such as the aforementioned Crosby, Becca Stevens, Zac Brown Band, Iggy Pop, Laura Mvula and Michael McDonald. Taking her unique style and adapting it to a band’s
sound has fed the melting pot of harmony and melody that defines her music.
Despite touring schedules that placed her on the road for 200+ days a year, Willis fought to finish her sophomore record which would follow her full length debut, See Us Through (2016). Her upcoming release, an ambitious studio record with a live and filmed concert, Just One Voice, will be released in April 2022 on
GroundUP Music (a label founded by long-time musical comrade and four-time Grammy winner, Michael League of Snarky Puppy).
The album showcases eleven new songs and features guest performances by Crosby, Michael McDonald, Grégoire Maret, Becca Stevens and Taylor Ashton.