Bethany Thomas is a Chicago performer known for her expressive, genre-defying singing style and audacious re-interpretations of classic tunes. A Jeff Award-winning actress, Bethany's credits include Chicago Shakespeare, Second City, Milwaukee Rep, Court Theater, Writers' Theater, and an appearance in the second season of Empire (FOX). As a singer/songwriter, Bethany has performed and/or recorded with Robbie Fulks, Barrellhouse Chuck, Syl Johnson, JC Brooks and Jess Godwin to name a few, and just recorded an album in Muscle Shoals with her frequent collaborator Jon Langford, and famed producer Norbert Putnam (to be released on Bloodshot Records fall of 2017) She has performed in numerous programs for WBEZ, WFMT, and the Chicago Humanities Festival, and was a featured local artist in Renee Fleming’s Chicago Voices Project at the Lyric Opera.

The hotly anticipated “First” EP is a collection of tunes written and arranged with multi-instrumentalist and producer John Szymanski. Though the musical style ranges from alt-country to soul to rock and back again, Bethany’s colorful, fiercely deployed vocals create a genre-less, unified sound with an undeniably palpable emotional edge.