BIO - LIBBY EASON
www.libbyeason.com
P. O. Box 465386, Lawrenceville, GA 30042-5386
Phone: 770-978-8339
When she writes, singer/songwriter Libby Eason starts with music and mood. "I hang out somewhere between tough and extremely vulnerable, and that's where my writing is," she says. Her music reflects a variety of influences and includes elements of folk, country, and blues, but Eason is hesitant to categorize her work. "My songs are definitely from a woman writer's point of view," she observes. "People have told me my songs capture ambiguity. I like that. To me, life's not all black and white."
Eason was born in Wilmington, North Carolina in 1953. The second of six children, she grew up Columbia, South Carolina, where she spent the next 20-something years. "I started playing guitar when I was a teenager, and all my siblings are musicians. As kids, we were always listening to records and the radio - Ray Charles, Floyd Cramer, Chet Atkins - lots of country music, until we became teenagers and decided it wasn't cool - and gospel, and the Allman Brothers. Musically, Southern R&B is where I come from - what some people call 'Americana.'"
She began writing as a child, mostly poetry. "There was a mystical feeling about it, like a window opening into the universe that became a direct line through which the words and phrases appeared, fully formed." In the 1970s, she played locally in South Carolina, Colorado, and Atlanta, performing covers of other people's songs. "Mostly it was a hobby," she admits. "I didn't begin to take it seriously until I turned 40." That was when she turned her affinity for words to the musical realm. "I decided by age 40 that a woman should have something to say for herself, so I began writing my own songs."
Eason's first album, She Dreams Alone, was released in 1998. A collection of 11 original compositions, it's strong on vocal texture and solid production values, recorded over a period of several months at Sound and Fury Studios in Atlanta. The album's title cut was selected for inclusion in the collection Oasis Acoustic, Volume 15, released in 1999.
She has performed regularly in and around Atlanta for the last several years and has written prolifically, bringing her life experiences to her songs and her performances. "People say that my music - and my vocals - are dark. This definitely is one dimension of my work, one with which I am at home. While I appreciate happy endings, I don't particularly see them as accurate reflections of real life." She currently is in the beginning stages of producing a second album, slated for release in the spring of 2002.
"I try to capture the feelings I experience in ways that others can relate to and will be touched and moved by. Humor is important, too." Her next performance is at Eddie's Attic in Decatur, Dec. 4, 2001, at 8 p.m.
Eason lives with her husband in suburban Atlanta.
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