Tammy Ealom is the

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

vocalist Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

, and principal songwriter for the indie rock band

Dressy Bessy Dressy Bessy is an indie rock band from Denver, Colorado led by songwriter, guitarist, and vocalist, Tammy Ealom. The band is associated with the Elephant Six Recording Company and shares guitarist John Hill with The Apples in Stereo. Ealom for ...

. In 2017 she began performing solo acoustic shows under her online moniker Tammy Shine. She was formerly a member of

The Minders The Minders are an American band closely associated with The Elephant Six Collective. Started by Martyn Leaper in Denver, Colorado in 1996, the band's original members included Leaper on guitars and vocals, Rebecca Cole, on drums, Jeff Almond ...

and 40th Day. Although the band didn't display the logo, they were part of the collective The Elephant 6 Recording Company, which included The Apples in stereo, Neutral Milk Hotel, The Olivia Tremor Control, of Montreal, Beulah, The Minders, The Essex Green, and others.

Personal life

Tamaira Jane Atherton was born in

Rochester, Minnesota Rochester is a city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Olmsted County. Located on rolling bluffs on the Zumbro River's south fork in Southeast Minnesota, the city is the home and birthplace of the renowned Mayo Clinic. Acco ...

, December 3, 1968. Her parents, Terry Atherton and Mary Beth Lewis moved the family several times while her father served in the U.S. Army. The family lived in Rochester, Minnesota, Winona, Minnesota, Germany, and Hawaii, before settling in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Ealom currently lives in Denver, Colorado and is married to

John Hill John Hill may refer to: Business * John Henry Hill (1791–1882), American businessman, educator and missionary * John Hill (planter) (1824–1910), Scottish-born American industrialist and planter * John Hill (businessman) (1847–1926), Austral ...

. Her immediate family include, daughter, Tayla Ealom, mother, Beth Atherton, and brother, Tim Atherton. Her mother and brother own and operate a record store in Colorado Springs calle
Earth Pig Music
that was originally started by her father Terry.

Dressy Bessy

After leaving The Minders in 1996, Ealom formed

when she met drummer

Darren Albert Darren "DJ" Albert (born 28 February 1976) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s. A representative winger, he played his club football for the Newcastle Knights (with whom he won the 199 ...

in a record store in Colorado Springs, CO. They formed a three-piece group with Albert's childhood friend, bassist Rob Greene ( d. 2018). Rob Greene was originally a guitar player, but Ealom considered him too skilled for her indie project and insisted he start playing bass.

, who had been helping with the early recordings joined the band in 1997.

Art and photography

During her high school years she worked at a 24-hour film developing lab, where she honed her skills at photography. She later worked extensively as a fashion photographer for local talent agencies, before dedicating herself to music in 2000. In 1997 a good friend introduced her to

Adobe Photoshop Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe Inc. for Microsoft Windows, Windows and macOS. It was originally created in 1988 by Thomas Knoll, Thomas and John Knoll. Since then, the software has become the indu ...

and she quickly became known for her colorful, high contrast photos and graphics. She is highly skilled at photo retouching and is known as a portrait photographer. Tammy has also created most of the artwork and photography for her band

References

American rock guitarists American women singer-songwriters American rock songwriters American women rock singers Living people People from Rochester, Minnesota Year of birth missing (living people) Singer-songwriters from Minnesota Guitarists from Minnesota 21st-century American women singers 21st-century American singers {{US-rock-musician-stub