Mark William Lewis

Mark William Lewis heads to Pappy & Harriet’s in Pioneertown, with claire rousay in the supporting slot. Lewis’s songs work from the materials of a songwriter’s set, often voice, guitar and harmonica, but pull those elements into layered, sometimes effects-treated arrangements. Expect writing built around sharply observed images and particular places: rooms, houses, beds, parties and London locations. His songs move between direct melody and slower, spacious passages, with the harmonica used less as a folk signifier than as a textured sound within the arrangement.

Lewis is a London artist, associated with South London and Deptford, whose work crosses songwriting, production, art and performance. His 2023 album Living preceded this second LP, recorded across different London spaces and conceived, in his words, as “very thickly layered, like an impasto painting or a collage.” Kinfolk hears “smudged guitar lines,” “sighing harmonicas,” and “a soft voice full of yearning.” The Independent SF calls his songcraft “meticulous” and its textures “endlessly revealing,” while describing his liquid guitar work and harmonica effects as part of the unusual space he has carved out. He has appeared on MIKE’s “Let’s Have A Ball” and collaborated with Bar Italia’s Nina Cristante on “Thinner.”