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Lissie & Caitlin
March 2010ZANI – Two Beautiful Singer Songwriters
I have decided to focus each week on differing themes musically for ZANI. There is such a hotbed of talent out there, that I feel all is not lost to Mr Cowell and Co. Scratch beneath the surface of every provincial town or city, and there is a whole host of underground music waiting to spring free. These are the artists you won't find in a queue for five minutes of fame, artists who have honed their craft the old fashioned way. The way music should evolve from playing live to one man and his dog. Bands and artists who play for the love of music who play because they have songs bursting from within they need to share. Sometimes, just sometimes these artists develop and we follow the journey hoping that they mature but stay true to where they are from as artists and people. As someone who knows a lot more about the industry than me said " It's not where you came from It's where you are now that counts". The last couple of years my musical journey has evolved so much, I am finding myself more and more drawn to the angst of singer/songwriters. For me there is something more real and raw about music stripped back to almost bare essentials where the lyrics come to the fore. With all that in mind these emerging talents happen to be some of the best I have listened too over the last few weeks.
They all have made me return time and time again to wonder at either the lyrical content or the sheer quality of them as an artist. You could say this is an article written from the heart as these artists have all touched me in a special way. Much as I remember the first time as a teenager I heard bands like The Clash and The Jam for the first time, this is what is relevant now to me. Too many people live life in the past and whilst I love nothing more than meeting up with old friends to reminisce and watch bands from my youth that should be taken at face value. What really excites me is to enter those tiny venues and see artists like the ones below. For me it gives me a greater buzz than to stand in a crowd of 80,000 and pay homage to geriatric Rolling Stones. That was then this is now
Lissie
Already touted in industry circles as midway between Neko Case and Stevie Nicks, this multi faceted mindblowingly talented young lady from Rock Island, IIlinois, will touch your very soul. She is without doubt the biggest talent I have heard for a long, long while. Lissie has just announced details of a new E.P In Sleep, her first for Columbia dropping on April 15th. Following up on the fantastic stateside release Why You Running E.P. produced by Bill Reynolds (Band of Horses).
The title track of the forthcoming release, shows the Stevie Nicks overtones to Lissie. Her voice though moves effortlessly between Americana and the Gospel-drenched 60s sound of “Everywhere I Go”. Lissie heads over to the UK in April for a string of dates with Joshua Radin. I say it time and time again but now really is the time to catch an artist such as Lissie before you know it she will be all over your TV and playing large impersonal venues. Lissie is my arist of the year so far in 2010.
Caitlin Rose
Signed to Names Records here in the UK, she released her debut EP 'Dead Flowers' at the end of February.
A precursor to a full length album due later in 2010, ‘Dead Flowers’ is a distilled taste of Caitlin Rose. As she explains simply; “I wanted to sing my guts out.” With the help of Andy Wilkins on pedal steel guitar, Zach Serchfield on guitar, Bob Grant on mandolin, and Travis Collingsworth on bass, Rose does exactly that.
Her two cover versions are the title track, The Rolling Stones ‘Dead Flowers’ turned into a forlorn, pedal-steel infused ballad and an elegant, torch song take on Patsy Cline’s ‘Three Cigarettes in an Ashtray’. Elsewhere we find bare knuckled honky-tonk on the teenage pregnancy tale ‘Shotgun Wedding’, tambourine-led acapella on the ever-so-sassy ‘Gorilla Man’, while on the lovelorn lament ‘T-Shirt’, Caitlin shows a songwriting ability well beyond her years.
To my mind she is an outstanding talent who can cross not only genre divides but generations. I love the retro feel of 50's American front porch in Caitlins voice, however the lyrics are relevant and now Caitlin returns to the UK for two dates in May.
I like to keep these articles pretty snappy and there are so many artists out there I am going to run this over a couple of posts. So digest Lissie and Caitlin then come back next week for more.
© Words – Mark Thorpe/ZANI Ltd
Lissie MySpace Page
Caitlin Rose MySpace Page
