Molly Lewis (aka Sweetafton23) is an American musician who is known for her

ukulele The ukulele ( ; from haw, ukulele , approximately ), also called Uke, is a member of the lute family of instruments of Portuguese origin and popularized in Hawaii. It generally employs four nylon strings. The tone and volume of the instrumen ...

playing and who rose to prominence on the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

. She plays both covers and original songs. Her original music consists of comedic songs that deal with relevant pop culture topics. She is currently signed with DFTBA Records through which she released her first EP ''I Made You A CD... But I Eated It''.

History

Lewis attracted attention by recording ukulele covers of popular songs such as Britney Spears' "

Toxic Toxicity is the degree to which a chemical substance or a particular mixture of substances can damage an organism. Toxicity can refer to the effect on a whole organism, such as an animal, bacterium, or plant, as well as the effect on a subs ...

" and

Lady Gaga Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta ( ; born March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She is known for her image reinventions and musical versatility. Gaga began performing as a teenag ...

's " Poker Face", then posting videos of her performances on YouTube. She also recorded videos with other Internet-based musicians, such as 'WadeJohnston', 'thedoifter', and 'doctornoise'. For

Mother's Day Mother's Day is a celebration honoring the mother of the family or individual, as well as motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on different days in many parts of the world, most commonly in th ...

in 2009, Molly recorded a cover of " Two of Us" by

The Beatles The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developmen ...

as a duet with her mother. Her version of

Jonathan Coulton Jonathan William Coulton (born December 1, 1970), often called "JoCo" by fans, is an American folk/comedy singer-songwriter, known for his songs about geek culture and his use of the Internet to draw fans. Among his most popular songs are " Co ...

's "Tom Cruise Crazy" was featured on Episode 226 of the UkeCast. Her song "It All Makes Sense At The End" appeared on the creator album from the first

VidCon VidCon is an annual convention for fans, creators, executives, and online brands. The event primarily features prominent video stars from across the internet. In October 2020, VidCon Now relaunched as an ongoing, free digital offering. Vetera ...

conference in 2010. She uploads YouTube videos under the name of SweetAfton23, an allusion to a Scottish poet

Robert Burns Robert Burns (25 January 175921 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who hav ...

' lyrical poem '' Sweet Afton''. She was inspired by a rendition of Jonathan E. Spilman's 1837 musical accompaniment to the poem, as played by

Chris Thile Christopher Scott Thile (; born February 20, 1981) is an American mandolinist, singer, songwriter, composer, and radio personality, best known for his work in the progressive acoustic trio Nickel Creek and the acoustic folk and progressive blue ...

with

Nickel Creek Nickel Creek (formerly known as the Nickel Creek Band) is an American bluegrass band consisting of Chris Thile (mandolin), and siblings Sara Watkins (fiddle) and Sean Watkins (guitar). Formed in 1989 in Southern California, they released six al ...

. The 23 refers to her birthday, November 23.

Public appearances

She is a regular performer at

w00tstock w00tstock is a touring variety show billed as "3 Hours of Geeks & Music". It was created in 2009 by Wil Wheaton, Adam Savage and Paul and Storm. The first shows took place in 2009 in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and as of July 2015, a total of ...

alongside

Paul and Storm Paul and Storm are an American, Arlington, Virginia-based comedic musical duo, consisting of Paul Sabourin and Greg "Storm" DiCostanzo. They are best known for their humorous songs about geek culture and for amassing an internet fan base. They ...

Adam Savage Adam Whitney Savage (born July 15, 1967) is an American special effects designer and fabricator, actor, educator, and television personality and producer, best known as the former co-host (with Jamie Hyneman) of the Discovery Channel televisi ...

and

Wil Wheaton Richard William Wheaton III (born July 29, 1972) is an American actor. He portrayed Wesley Crusher on the television series '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'', Gordie Lachance in the film '' Stand by Me'', Joey Trotta in '' Toy Soldiers'', ...

. She has performed with the Presidents of the United States of America. During live performances, she occasionally forgets to bring key instruments, like the

kazoo The kazoo is an American musical instrument that adds a "buzzing" timbral quality to a player's voice when the player vocalizes into it. It is a type of '' mirliton'' (which itself is a membranophone), one of a class of instruments which modifie ...

from "I Pity the Fool", and substitutes other things from her pocket, notably a rape whistle. In an animated music video of "I Pity the Fool", the kazoo solo is shown being played by a cartoon version of

Mr. T Mr. T (born Laurence Tureaud, May 21, 1952), is an American actor. He is known for his roles as B. A. Baracus in the 1980s television series ''The A-Team'' and as boxer Clubber Lang in the 1982 film ''Rocky III''. He is also known for his ...

. Lewis has appeared on NBC's Los Angeles' show ''Music LA''. She recorded the theme music for Episode 2 of Season 3 of ''

The Legend of Neil ''The Legend of Neil'' is a comedy web series distributed by Comedy Central's partner Atom.com and is a parody of the Nintendo game ''The Legend of Zelda''. Sandeep Parikh of '' The Guild'' fame directs the series. Tony Janning writes for the ...

''. She participated in

's January 2011 JoCo Cruise Crazy with

John Hodgman John Kellogg Hodgman (born June 3, 1971) is an American author, actor, and humorist. In addition to his published written works, such as '' The Areas of My Expertise'', ''More Information Than You Require'', and '' That Is All'', he is known for ...

, Paul and Storm, Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy from '' Mystery Science Theater 3000'' and

RiffTrax RiffTrax is an American company that produces scripted humorous commentary tracks which are synced to mostly public domain feature films, education shorts, and television episodes. With the talents of former ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (''M ...

, and Mike Phirman. On February 22, 2011, Lewis performed her song, "An Open Letter to Stephen Fry", to

Stephen Fry Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director and writer. He first came to prominence in the 1980s as one half of the comic double act Fry and Laurie, alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring ...

himself at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

, during an event marking the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard giving its Lifetime Achievement Award to Fry. In fall of 2012, Lewis toured as a solo act for the first time (outside of w00tstock shows) as part of the "Ladies of Ragnarok" tour with

the Doubleclicks The Doubleclicks are a nerd-folk musical duo based in Portland, Oregon, consisting of siblings Laser Malena-Webber (on guitar, ukulele, or cat keyboard) and Aubrey Turner. They first became known for performing nerd-friendly comedy music, inclu ...

, performing 19 concerts in the Northeast and Midwestern United States. In January 2013, Lewis toured the West Coast for the first time, also with the Doubleclicks, performing nine shows in California, Oregon and Washington. Both tours were sponsored by fans who could buy postcards or T-shirts to help the musicians cover costs. Since 2019, Lewis has hosted "The Panalysts", a YouTube web series produced by

LoadingReadyRun LoadingReadyRun, often abbreviated to LRR, is a Canadian entertainment group that produces video and audio comedy. It often covers video games, internet trends, and popular culture. Founded in October 2003 by Graham Stark and Paul Saunders a ...

Awards and achievements

Her cover of Coulton's "Tom Cruise Crazy" earned Ukulele Hunt's 2007 "Ukulele Video of the Year" for 2007. That video brought her to the attention of Coulton, who has since invited her to perform with him and with Paul and Storm. She won the third edition of

Quick Stop Entertainment Fred Entertainment (formerly Movie Poop Shoot and later Quick Stop Entertainment) is a pop-culture website. The site was founded as Movie Poop Shoot by director Kevin Smith to promote the 2001 movie ''Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back''. The site serv ...

's Masters of Song Fu competition, defeated 16 other artists, including

Hank Green William Henry Green II (born May 5, 1980) is an American vlogger, science communicator, entrepreneur, author, internet producer, and musician. He is known for producing the YouTube channel Vlogbrothers with his older brother, author John Green ...

and Paul and Storm.

Discography

* ''I Made You a CD, But I Eated It'' (2009) * ''The Same Old Songs, But Live!'' (2013) * ''Thanksgiving Versus Christmas'' (2015)

References

External links

Official WebsiteMolly's YouTube Channel

Molly on Show X

''Thanksgiving Versus Christmas''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Molly 1989 births 21st-century American singers 21st-century American women singers American women singer-songwriters American Internet celebrities American multi-instrumentalists American ukulele players American women bloggers American bloggers DFTBA Records creators Living people Musicians from Orange County, California Nerd-folk musicians Place of birth missing (living people) Singer-songwriters from California Video bloggers Women video bloggers