Sherree Chamberlain Gives Back

Photo: Samantha Lamb
Sherree Chamberlain isn’t just a musician; she’s someone who you want to be your friend. Vulnerable and compassionate, she’s also very independent, strong and inspiring. And somehow, she is able to capture every bit of that personality in the songs she writes.
The haunting melodies of Chamberlain that have been echoing through Oklahoma venues have finally been captured on record with The Wasp In the Room (iTunes), which was independently released in July 2009. The album includes a renowned list of collaborators, including Nate Walcott of Bright Eyes, James Mcalister and Casey Foubert of Sufjan Stevens, and Justin Meldal-Johnson of Beck, Air and Phoenix. It was mixed and mastered by three-time Grammy award winner Chris Testa.
It’s an impressive list of collaborators to say the least, especially for a first record, but longtime listeners of Chamberlain might be inclined to say it was only a matter of time before she landed so center stage. She is without a doubt a staple of the Oklahoma scene. In fact, she played the main stage at Norman Music Festival and also performed to packed house at DFest in Tulsa this year.
“I think Oklahoma is an awesome place,” Chamberlain said. “There’s this really nice balance of excitement, interest and support for people going out on a limb and trying to make a name for themselves. Things like that make me love Oklahoma and playing shows here. My album was just finished, but there are so many local people that have given me support through the whole thing, despite the fact that it’s been a really long process to finish the first album.”
Chamberlain is not only an advocate of the Oklahoma music scene, but also of the Oklahoma community in general, which she says is the reason why she made the recent decision to join the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma’s Celebrity Council. She has joined a group of community leaders standing up to fight hunger in the state, including singer/songwriters Graham Colton and K.C. Clifford; Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett; Project Runway fashion designer Kayne; and radio personality Jeff “Magic Man” Roberts.

See Chamberlain play live on Thursday at the Hunger Action Month TweetUp at the front lobby of Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma, 3355 S Purdue, in Oklahoma City. The show begins at 5pm and admission is FREE!

“I want to make people who know me and listen to my music more aware of hunger issues,” Chamberlain said. “People in Oklahoma have a big heart and a big appetite for helping others. Hopefully the younger generation of people here will start to see how they can get involved. It’s not even like it has to be a huge monetary donation, you can go volunteer - you can do something. You can always do something.”
Chamberlain will lend her voice to speak out against hunger at the Hunger Action Month TweetUp hosted and catered by Café Evoke at the Regional Food Bank on Thursday, September 24 at 5pm. She will perform an acoustic set, and also help with an indie rock giveaway drawing of albums donated by local artists, including: Colourmusic, Crocodile, The Non, Eutopian Accident, and autographed albums by both Chamberlain and the Flaming Lips.
“Hearing the statistics about Oklahoma hunger in some ways was really shocking to me, but it was something that I absolutely believed after I taught high school last year,” Chamberlain said. “I was so surprised at the amount of hunger that was going on in schools, even Edmond schools. I knew the need was there, but I didn’t realize it was as big as it was.”
The statistics are staggering: in Oklahoma, 500,000 Oklahomans are at risk of going hungry every day, including one in every five children in the state. The Regional Food Bank helps to feed over 63,000 people in need every week. Chamberlain hopes her involvement will bring some much needed attention to this very alarming issue.
After graduating from Oklahoma State University, Chamberlain had initially become a high school English teacher, which is where she became inspired to take her music career more seriously. She is now moving forward and shopping around for a label, distribution or publishing deal.
“I feel like I’m trying to write more, almost as a craft rather than something I occasionally do when I’m inspired,” Chamberlain said. “I’ve heard so many musicians that I respect say ‘You don’t wait for inspiration, that’s what amateurs do.’ Now I’m motivated by looking at music as a job. That’s something I used to be really against. To me that used to sound awful and that I was defiling this pure creative impulse. Now I’m realizing that songwriting and creativity is a muscle, and the more you work at it, the easier those things start to come.”
Chamberlain is hoping to follow up Wasp with an EP within the next year.
“I think a lot of the songs that people love are the older songs, which is hard for me,” she said. “I think that people connect to something when they can tell the songwriter was really feeling it at the time. With some of my newer songs, I’m just in a better and healthier place emotionally. They are not so dark, and I like to play them more. They make me feel better. On some of the stuff I’m working on right now - that’s not on the new album - I’m learning to take a step back and be more storyteller-esque instead of divulging my deepest darkest secrets and my heart. I hope that people can connect with those in the same way.”
Songs like “Dark and Cindered Grey,” “Beneath My Skin” and “Windmill Wings” on Wasp prove that Chamberlain has the ability to gracefully contrast her darker side on “Bird Song” or “Breathe My Air.”
“I’m so scared that I’ll never be able to write another ‘Bird Song’ again,” she confessed. “But my job now isn’t to look to the past and recreate what I did then; it’s my job to move forward, and with every new song I write, I’m progressing as an artist and a musician.”
It seems she doesn’t have anything to be scared of, but somehow this storyteller’s vulnerability keeps us hooked in and wondering where her music will take us next.

Natalie Wright is a contributor for OklahomaRock.com, creator of Sophie Zine and the Development & Marketing Coordinator at the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma.