Lisa Richards is a songwriter who shares her truth soulfully and simply. With an instantly identifiable vocal timbre and an elastic sense of phrasing, Lisa has been called a singer’s singer and her songs are a melting pot mixture of jazz, folk,blues,pop, rock and country – her own brand of adventurous folk art.
She was raised on the tropical north eastern Australian coast, surrounded by beaches, waterfalls and rain-forests. As the youngest of seven children, she absorbed the sounds of her mother’s talent as a classically trained pianist. The house was filled house with music. However, when Lisa was seven, her life changed dramatically when a car accident left her mother severely brain damaged. The piano was sold, the music stopped and the house became quiet.
Out of this silence came an unrelenting urge for Lisa to create her own music. She began performing on the streets of Sydney’s King Cross, near the noisy and chaotic red light district, singing acapella. Her rendition of Nina Simone’s classic “Plain Gold Ring’” brought her critical acclaim and led to a performance at the Abercrombie Caves Concert singing alongside veteran actor Jack Thompson. This lead to touring throughout Australia with the Cavers band.
Lisa moved to New York City in the early 90’s. She has performed at some of the most coveted club gigs in the city – The Bitter End, Cafe Sine, The Mercury Lounge, CBGB’s and Tramps. Her self-released debut CD “Not Quite So Low” received critical acclaim in publications such as Billboard, Relix and Rootstown magazines, as well as in local and regional publications throughout the USA, Europe and Australia. She travelled to Austin, Texas to perform at SXSW. Fate brought her to meet another musician that first night in Austin, Jeff May, and they married six months later.
Since moving to Austin she has released 3 CD’s of her work and has performed in Texas, Louisiana, Colorado, The UK, Netherlands, Belgium and Australia. Her song-writing talent has been acknowledged throughout the industry. She has been a finalist in a number of prestigious songwriting competitions and has performed on stage at The Telluride Bluegrass Festival, the Rocky Mountain Folks festival, Merlefest, Kerrville Folk Festival, and The Kerrville Wine and Music Festival.
Her most recent CD “Mad Mad Love” was downloaded 70,000 times on Frostclick.com and 2 songs from this CD have been released in Eastern Europe on a compilation CD distributed by Warner Brothers. Lisa’s songs appear along side Amy Winehouse, Christina Aguilira, Adele, Nina Simone, Corinne Bailey Rae, Yael Naim and Duffy.
Lisa is based equally in the USA and Australia, touring, recording and teaching. Her 5th CD “Taste of Happiness” will be coming out early 2012.
Watch Live Videos of Lisa Performing on YouTube