Yrast-and above-yrast states in 149Tb were investigated in (c~, 6n) and (TLi, 2n) in-beam 7-ray experiments. The yrast 7-ray cascade strongly populates three-valenceparticle states involving the hx 1/2 proton and the f7/2, h9/z, or i13/2 neutron orbitals, as well as the high-spin levels formed by the couplings of the three 149Tb valence particles, to the low-lying 146Gd octupole phonon and to higher-lying proton particle-hole core excitations. The data give the (~ h 11/2 v i13/2)12 -attraction free of octupole contributions as -631 keV. The shell model with empirical two-particle-and particle-phonon residual interactions gives an excellent quantitative description of the 149Tb energy levels. It is noted that the observed highspin members of the 7chll/2vh9/zvfT/2 configuration closely resemble the lowest symmetric and mixed-symmetry representations of the $3 permutation group.