Tennessee Kamanski, aka Bee Constant, was only 16 when she began creating demos in the home studio operated by her father Paul Kamanski, probably best known perhaps for writing hits for the Beat Farmers, a San Diego cow-punk band of national stature. Even then, he also had his own band, as well as playing in various groups with Joey Harris, including the Electric Sons and the Fingers with Billy Thompson.
“Seeing as the recording studio is right next to my dad’s bedroom,” she says, “I’d have to sneak in there and record. And then he’d hear me and say he had an idea, and then I’d have to figure out a way to politely tell him to back off, that it was my record. We got into tons of fights.”
Her six-song debut Slept in My Windbreaker was released online in 2013, featuring all originals and her own playing on all instruments,other than brief guest turns from Aaron Dennis and Larry Dent. Her father also (unknown to her at first) recorded some bass runs on one track, which she says she liked well enough to keep.
In 2021, her band with fellow native San Diegan Sarah De La Isla, Allen LeRoy Hug, released two new singles, “Steady” and “Saturnine Boy.”