SaraEllen

SaraEllen (don’t call her “Sara”) is a Tacoma, Washington-based vocalist, songwriter and producer. SaraEllen blends jazz, soul and pop in a package that’s the sonic version of a film noir heroine: at once fearless, fierce and fragile; spicy power one minute followed by moonlit cool. SaraEllen’s dynamic range and timbre draws comparisons to Portishead’s Beth Gibbons.

The only grandchild of the late Atlanta bandleader and television personality Ray McCay, SaraEllen has entertainment in her blood. She trained in classical ballet until age 16, then pivoted to musical theater, where the Great American Songbook was permanently etched in her ear.

SaraEllen’s career took an unusual turn when she magically manifested a job to be a dancer on a cruise ship only to find it not anywhere near as cool as “Anything Goes.” In response to that brief experience, SaraEllen embarked on a day job as a practicing lawyer, where she learned how to turn a phrase and stand up for herself. She met her husband and collaborator Ian through the law, and they formed the playfully adventurous jazz-indie pop duo Plaid Lion.

SaraEllen’s solo work is where she explores the moodier, more mystical and baroque aspects to her art, although this is also inescapable in some of her contributions to Plaid Lion such as “Flight of the Owl” and “Selkie Blues.” 

Themes of escape, injustice, and the universal difficulty women experiencing being heard and respected in dominant culture permeate SaraEllen’s songwriting, which ranges from melancholy to cheeky.

Her influences include Portishead, Cole Porter, The Beatles, David Lynch, folklore and mythology, the paranormal, science fiction film, Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, Loreena McKennitt, Ella Fitzgerald and Ann Wilson. Listeners will hear echoes of Portishead/Beth Gibbons, but might also locate SaraEllen in the same solar system with artists as diverse as Florence Welch, Laufey, Stevie Nicks, Lana del Rey, Fiona Apple, Stacey Kent and Tori Amos.