Mikaela Dewar is a New Zealand vocalist and songwriter with husky rich tones. Her genre-bending work swings between blues, gypsy, jazz, country and folk. She has drawn comparisons to Norah Jones, Billie Holiday and Eva Cassidy.

Born in Christchurch, New Zealand, Mikaela has been playing music practically her whole life. She started playing her dad's old guitar at 7 and by 9 was playing gigs alongside her teacher Julia Sugrue and Julia’s other students. Julia taught them old country songs by the likes of Hank Williams, George Jones, Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton. A few years later Mikaela started classical singing and guitar lessons and was a member of her high school rock band, Shrunk. But it was always country music that moved her. In 1997 Mikaela won New Zealand’s premier country music award, The Gold Guitar Award. In 1998 she was a Grand Finalist in Star Maker, Australia's most prestigious country music talent search.

After graduating college, she moved to Tamworth, the country music capital of Australia, to play in the band “Electric Barnyard”. Mikaela toured New South Wales extensively with the band, honing her skills along the way; joining another touring band “Heartland” after Electric Barnyard disbanded.

In 2000 she moved to Levelland, Texas, to study music at South Plains College. She was the South Plains College Female Songwriter of the Year twice. While immersing herself in the rich musical heritage of West Texas she opened for Terri Hendrix & Lloyd Maines, Ian Moore, Fred Eaglesmith and The Thrift Store Cowboys, and performed at the renowned Cactus Theater. It was in Texas that Mikaela discovered jazz through her peers, and this time would prove to be very influential on her writing and singing style.

After 3 years in London playing clubs and traveling Europe, Mikaela moved to Nashville, Tennessee. There she recorded “Hard as Nails”, a gypsy/country/folk offering with swung vocals, reminiscent of days gone by. Producer Don Kerce (Alex Chilton, Buddy Rich, Lisa Carver) timelessly captured the tunes and vocals with bare arrangements and quirky instrumentation. The album features legendary Nashville players Glen Duncan (Mark Knopfler, Bill Monroe, George Jones), Robin Ruddy (Rod Stewart, Lee Greenwood, Vince Gill) and Barry Walsh (Roy Orbison, Jimmy Webb, Gretchen Peters).

In between Nashville stints, Mikaela spent almost 2 years writing and playing shows in the live music capital of the world, Austin, Texas.

See her playing with the great guitar player Tommy Emmanuel at the Moody Theater in Austin

Mikaela is currently based in Christchurch. Her most recent album, "Big Ballad Snare", was also produced by Don Kerce at ANARCHY! in Nashville. Most of the songs on Big Ballad Snare were written when Mikaela was living in Austin and tweaked and arranged after moving back to Nashville. Primarily motivated by life experiences, you'll notice various lyrical themes including longing, lack of money, frustration and getting older. This album is the result of being influenced by the live music scene in Austin, the energy of Nashville, the music of Twin Peaks and some of her heroes: Nina Simone, Leonard Cohen, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, and her own musician friends. Mikaela was inspired by producer Don Kerce to experiment with unusual instruments, and the album features vibey toy pianos and toy drum samples alongside virtuoso musicians. Don Kerce has once again given it his trademark treatment; staying true to the song and keeping just the right amount of looseness so when you listen you feel like you're right there in the room.