Liz Longley: Weightless Tour w/ Anthony D'Amato
| Date/Time: | Thursday, 13 Oct 2016 at 8:00 pm |
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| Location: | M-Shop |
| Cost: | $8 Students / $12 Public |
| URL: | http://www.sub.iastate.edu/calendar/liz-longley/ |
| Contact: | Student Union Board |
| Phone: | 515-294-8349 |
| Channel: | Student Union Board |
| Categories: | Arts, performances Student activities |
| Actions: | Download iCal/vCal | Email Reminder |
"I was living in Boston and my roommate had just moved out, so I paced the hardwood floors of her room with my guitar," Longley recalls. "I walked back and forth until the songs were done. It was as though they were stuck in the apartment walls."
Longley has a gift for culling musical treasures as though straight from thin air. And now, the Berklee College of Music graduate and award-winning songwriter is set to share them with listeners on her self-titled album-her first after signing with Sugar Hill Records in December 2014.
The collection of 11 songs was recorded in Nashville with an all-pro band-and in a pulse-quickening fashion so rare in today's world of overproduced, airbrushed records. "I love being in the studio and feeding off the energy of other musicians. It's not something I get to do often on the road because I've mostly toured solo."
While Longley's songs and vocals invite complimentary comparisons to Shawn Colvin, Paula Cole and Nanci Griffith-all artists she's supported live-her latest effort spotlights a style and confidence that's all her own. You can hear it in the subtle-yet-soaring vocals on "Memphis," the dagger directness of "Skin and Bones," the bittersweet farewell that drives "This Is Not the End" (featured in the 2012 season finale of Lifetime's Army Wives). They're all cuts that dare you to hold back the goosebumps.
Why write and sing songs so transparent and confessional? For Longley, it boils down to the simple truth of authenticity. "I just try to be myself," she says. "If I feel like a song is not genuine to me, I absolutely do not present it because people see right through it. It's all about the honesty, and I try not to overthink it-then it would lose some of the magic."
Longley first felt the magic while growing up outside of Philadelphia. A song she wrote in ninth grade-her first ever-earned a standing ovation when she performed it for the student body: "I was unprepared for that sort of reaction and it was life-changing moment," she says. "That's when I knew it was what I wanted to do with my life."
The track record she's assembled since shows just how much Longley grew into her dream. She's taken home top prizes at some of the most prestigious songwriting competitions in the country, including the BMI John Lennon Songwriting Scholarship Competition, the International Acoustic Music Awards and the Rocky Mountain Folk Fest Songwriting Competition.
But it all traces straight back to Longley's first song. She says she'll continue to open her soul in the service of her art because that's what matters most to her. "Every time I get into these songs they resonate with me, lock with me, because they're based on something I went through," she says of the new collection. "I hope they connect with people and that they'll help with whatever they've gone through. That's what music does for me, and I hope I can do that for someone else."
After all, what better way to fill an empty room than with fully realized music?