| ************************************************************* Please be aware Lise does not adminster the site. ************************************************************* To Purchase IN THE WAKE, pls go to http://cdbaby.com/cd/liddell3; LOVER'S MOON: http://cdbaby.com/cd/liddell2; WHITE HEART: http://cdbaby.com/cd/liddell ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Songwriter of the Year - Houston Press 2004 ************************************************************** When I met Lise Liddell, a hipper-than-thou local punk rocker had slagged her album terribly in the local rag a few days before. I wrote for the local rag too. Liddell has a boisterous, “one of the guys” laugh, and I first heard it when I mentioned the article. I’d never heard her music, but after this accidental meeting and a couple of beers she trekked out to her car and got one. I took it home. And I listened. And I listened some more. It wasn’t my usual twang-n-bang thing. Moody and dark, it certainly wasn’t one of those ear-candy albums you can sing the words to after half a listen. Lover’s Moon was one of those albums that sneaks up on you – and beats you over the head with a bear club when it finally locates your functioning brain cells. Hiding beneath the ambient soft rock façade were lyrics that weren’t so soft – or ambient. “You've seen what meets the eye, but there's a lot more lying there / and when you see me naked, you may not wish to stare.” Ouch! And what the hell? “Damage To My Soul” pulled no lyrical punches either. “If I got down on my knees / and gave you the very last part of me / you’d swear my heart was a royal liar / and throw me back into your funeral pyre.” In spite of what Mr. Holier Than Thou wrote, in 2004 Liddell was selected as “Best Songwriter” in the annual Houston Press reader’s poll and shortly after she was back in the studio, this time in Australia. The result was In the Wake. More accessible than Lover’s Moon, In the Wake met with a round of solid reviews. Houston Press music critic John Nova Lomax wrote, “Lise Liddell went all the way down under -- to Brisbane, to be exact -- to record this album, and it sounds like some of the songs were written "under" something else … a table, perhaps, or certainly a dark cloud. At any rate, Liddell's pop-rockin' Americana is best when her slightly surreal lyrics are booziest and blackest. There's "Break My Body," with lines like "If I could smoke you away / drink you away, sex you away / It'd be worth the price I'd pay." Or "You Get What You Ask For," where Liddell says, "I've been settlin'; I've been strugglin' / I've been settlin': I've been sufferin' for not much of your heart." FolkWax magazine did an extensive two-part interview with Liddell in which J. Terrill described In the Wake as “a perfect album for people who thrive on living complicated lifestyles, but are able to reflect upon the tragedies with which they surround themselves; and for those who like their country-folk music with a bit of a bite.” She has just finished an as yet untitled new album with producer Mark Hallman in Austin. ************************************************************** Lise practices Ashtanga yoga at Tejas Yoga in west Houston. www.houstonyoga.com // She is a former member of the board of directors of The Carl Jung Center in Houston, and is a currently a member of the Jung Center Art Committee. The Jung Center has featured courses and workshops in analytical psychology and the expressive arts since 1958. www.cgjunghouston.org // She serves on the Board of Directors of the Dominic Walsh Dance Theater in Houston. www.dwdt.org // She is also a former board member of the Art League of Houston. She holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Texas at Austin. *************************************************************** | |
