Album Notes

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. Her songs are subtle, explosive and original. A melting pot mixture of jazz, folk,blues,pop, rock and country - honest, original, accessible music - her own brand of adventurous folk art.

She was raised on the tropical idyllic 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 gifted, 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 Australia\'s King Cross, near the noisy and chaotic red light district of Sydney, 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 from Australia in the early 90’s. Within a short time she was performing at some of the most coveted club gigs in the city - at The Bitter End, Cafe Sine, The Mercury Lounge, CBGB’s and Tramps. Her self-released debut CD \"Not Quite So Low’\" received kudos in publications such as Billboard, Relix and Rootstown magazines, as well as in local and regional publications throughout the USA, Europe and Australia, resulting in 70,000 plays on the now defunct MP3.com site. 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 more CD’s of her work and has performed in the US, the UK, Belgium, The Netherlands and Australia. Her song-writing talent has been acknowledged throughout the industry. She has been a finalist in The Billboard Song Contest, the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, the Rocky Mountain Folks festival, The Chris Austin Song-writing competition. Two of Lisa\'s original compositions are also included in the film \"Out of these Rooms’\" which won the Presidents Vision Award at the 2002 Great lakes Film festival.

Lisa is a 2006 Kerrville New Folk Finalist, 2006 Telluride Troubadour Finalist and a 2007 International Songwriting Competition Finalist.