YOUR CHANNEL IS LOADING

LATEST EPISODES MORE EPISODES

  • 1

    Mercies - Live in Studio B - Sleep

  • 2

    Mercies - Live in Studio B - Clouds

  • 3

    Mercies - Live in Studio B - Part 3 - Animals

  • 4

    Mercies - Live in Studio B

  • 5

    Spike James & The Names - Live In Stodio B - I Wanna...

MEVIO Underground Liz Ryder - Cannonfire Live in Studio

MEVIOtoday

Jul 20, 2010 Liz Ryder - Cannonfire Live in Studio

Part 3 of Liz Ryder's performance on Mevio Underground

To watch the entire performance go HERE

0_0_0_0_430_430_csupload_21509382.jpg
 
 
Biography
by Patrick Grizzell
 
Songwriter Liz Ryder has a bit of the minstrel in her blood. After years of study and practice, performance and teaching, and an international life that finds her now in her new home town of San Francisco, she is about to complete her fifth record, which will contain new material rooted in an old
source. 
 
Not long afer she was born in Los Angeles, California to parents who are actors and artists, her family soon packed up for her father’s native England, where she grew up in an environment
rich with creativity, and in a landscape rife with folk legacy. They lived in and around the countryside of Shropshire and Worcestershire mostly, and in small, rural market towns like Leominster, Ludlow, and Worcester City, places where the folk music tradition still thrives. 
 
Her father regularly performed medieval folk music descended literally from centuries of story-telling in song. It was a big influence on her. In fact, the song '3 Ravens' on her new CD, is one of the songs her father used to sing, which is reflective of how that unbroken line of music continues. 
 
She also was exposed to her parents collection of music which such diverse artists as Cat Stevens, The Incredible String Band, and Beethoven, The Beach Boys, Stevie Wonder, and Bill Haley and the Comets. As she matured and her own tastes developed, folk music and traditional song remained a constant
> in her life, as did classical and choral music, but she soon found herself drawn to artists like Tori Amos, Ani Difranco, Joan Baez and Kate Rusby. She has garnered vocal and stylistic comparison to DiFranco and Baez.
 
All of this exposed her to a language she intrinsically understood, even before her abilities allowed her to express it clearly. All along, she was developing her composition skills and finding it to be a natural path to follow, even as finding her own voice presented new challenges. Of songwriting and composing she says, “It’s the only thing that's rested in me, and that is completely confusing at the same time!”
 
Along the way, she has received inspiring accolades including recognition as a semi finalist at the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk
> Awards (2002), winning a composition competition at 16 for an a’capella choral setting, and receiving the undergrad prize for composition at University of Wales, Bangor (2004). 
 
She’s since earned an M.A. in Music, but began studying music formally early on, finding in her teachers her first mentors. She began at age four with piano, then on to recorder and flute, and at 17 began to study harp and guitar, which are now
her two main instruments for playing and composing, and which she plays in a manner which is at the same time original and somewhat traditional, but in a style all her own. The instruments anchored her and led to a turning point, as she describes: “I always sang in choir, but didn't really find my solo voice until I started playing guitar and harp and writing solid songs.”
 
In describing her approach to songwriting, she says “Anything goes! Sometimes lyrics first, sometimes music... forwards, backwards. The ones that work out the best are those when music and lyrics and melody come together simultaneously-- a rare but precious treat!”
 
She performs regularly throughout Northern California and occassionally in Europe, relishing each gig, saying that “the most important situations are the ones you learn the most from. Building relationships and communicating with your audience is what makes performing special.”
 
She recently opened for Richard Thompson, played the main stage at Sidmouth Folk Festival, but says nostalgically, “nothing really beats a cozy gig on a winter evening in a Sheffield pub!” 
 
Liz’s new album will be completed soon, and available later this Summer!
Her previous recordings include Sacramento Orange, 2001; On the Neon Highway; 2003, Skyline (EP), 2005; and Chrysalis (EP), 2007.