Alisa (Ah-lees’-ah). The name rolls off the tongue like a mini melody, beginning and ending with the rise and fall of an aria. Her name, in essence, is a song that she’s dedicated to God. Her life is singing, as if she was birthed into the world within a cloud of musical notes, and really that is the gist of her journey. It is music and all the joys it brings.
She hails from a family of singers, growing up in the home of a guitarist, traveling around with trios and quartets, singing in churches with her big sister since she was two years old. Nothing has distracted Alisa Caldwell from her musical path. In grammar school she sang in churches around her home town of Lake Providence, Louisiana and surrounding areas. She played the piano for choirs before her little feet could reach the damper pedals. She continued to hone her craft in high school; and through college she was a classically trained vocalist, illuminating the stage with opera, jazz, and gospel. Kindergarten, Elementary, Middle, and High School choral groups and choirs grew under her tutelage. Churches can attest to her expertise as minister of music, director, song leader, and musician.
She continues to minister in music where she resides in Memphis, Tennessee.
It’s no wonder she’s arrived at this moment where she is able to transfer onto CD a voice much older than its years, one that is raspy and pure, one that digs into the soils of the South and produces lilts and changes that bring tears to the listener’s eyes, chills up and down the spine. Alisa’s unique voice conjures up the determined drive of Mahalia Jackson and the gentle wave of melody akin to Roberta Flack.
Her range is broad and she does not hold back, feeling every moment of ministry she offers you in her song.
Have Thine Own Way, Alisa’s debut album speaks to its title. It is evident that God had His own way as Alisa laid the tracks for the seven songs. Seven, a number of completion, and yet Alisa is not done yet. Her album is a compilation of Gospel-Jazz, “He’s Coming Back;” Traditional, “Walk With Me Lord;” Hymn, (Gospel Jazz) title track, “Have Thine Own Way;” and even a little Latin Praise in the form of “His Grace is Amazing/Su Gracia Es Increible .” She circles many musical genres and offers her listening audience, sundry forms of musical enjoyment. Alisa’s giftedness in ministry and in song is one that cannot be chained by the world system; rather, it is uninhibited and free, all to the glory of God. It is bound only by the wide expanse God has given her to continue in her purpose. She is “her own walking title track,” and you will experience this as you listen to God having His own way with the voice of Alisa Caldwell.
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