Liz Clark

Artist Information

Biography

LIZ CLARK, already a veteran at age of 23, has played countless venues ranging from intimate affairs at coffee shops to sold-out concert halls across the country since her thirteenth birthday. Growing up in the Rocky Mountains, she couldn’t help but absorb the bohemian folk rock aesthetic of her “flower power” era parents and to their mild obsession with artists like Joni Mitchell and the Beatles. After moving to New York, Liz showered off the patchouli oil, stored away the vintage LPs and spent a great deal of time soul-searching and discovering her own unique sound leaving her with a wealth of new material and opening her music up to a more diverse audience.
Since relocating to New York City Liz has become a fixture on the residency scene. Alongside several close friends, Liz is an active contributor to Lounge’s songwriter's night party known as Whiskeybreath, which was recently touted in the Village Broadsheet as “the only cool party in Williamsburg.” The collective of friends have found this night to be the perfect outlet for their creative expression and and even turned the weekly night into a traveling road show dates in Virginia, the midwest, Colorado and Ireland.
With several independent releases under her belt including her debut “Love and War” which sold nearly 3000 copies, Liz was recently signed to upstart label, Pommier Music, and is currently touring to support her latest release, "Hand On the Stove", which has already recieved excellent reviews.

Instrumentation

Liz Clark: Vocals, Acoustic/Electric guitar, Keyboard

Discography

Love and War (2000)
Who's Your Angel (winter 2003)
Hand On the Stove (October 2005)

Audio

Lyrics

• Who's Your Angel

Video

Photo Gallery

Press

• NYC Singers Deliver Great Show [+ Show ]
  

  Liz Clark (www.lizclarkmusic.com) took the mic for her song “Junkyard Dog,” an easy feel tune where ...Liz Clark (www.lizclarkmusic.com) took the mic for her song “Junkyard Dog,” an easy feel tune where the gang kicked in on the chorus. Liz is “America’s Next Top Model”: gorgeous, radiating genuine happiness that translated into sincere delivery of her lyrics. Her strong, sharp voice is hardly the thing of folk, but more a Shirley Manson meets Linda Perry kind of rock-soul sound that’s garnered her opening act gigs for Counting Crows and Dan Fogelberg. But all of the WBs are accomplished.

• Artist of the Month- Meet Liz Clark [+ Show ]
  

  by Tim Van Schmidt Growth should be inevitable in anyone's career, but it's especially important fo...by Tim Van Schmidt
  Growth should be inevitable in anyone's career, but it's especially important for a musician who starts at an early age.  Though still a teenager, Denver singer-songwriter Liz Clark has already put in five years of regional performances in coffee shops, bookstores and small clubs.  The growth has come on all fronts- songwriting, recording and performing, her acoustic based folk rock sound expanding from just a solo voice with a guitar or piano to a full band.
  Clark's music has become strong enough to attract the support of some powerful friends.  That includes the legendary Denver concert promoter Barry Fey, who endorses Clark with high praise indeed: "Liz is really something special- she's got the makings of a superstar." Sharon Rawles, general manager of Herman's Hideaway and Entertainment Director for the Capitol Hill People's fair agrees: "She's beautiful, plays piano and guitar.  She's a great songwriter, and a captivating singer.  Liz ... has the total package to make it to the top!"
  Add in the fact that Clark has played gigs at some of the Denver region's hottest spots- including the Soiled Dove, the Bluebird, and the LoDo Music Hall- and you're getting the picture that this is both a talented and an ambitious young artist.  Clark performs as a solo act, but also commands a "broken-down coffeehouse unit," as well as a full folk-rock band.
  
  "The-solo gigs are particularly geared toward the emotion in the songs," Clark said recently in a phone interview.  "With the unplugged coffeehouse version, there's still a lot of the emotion, but I have to be careful that the fast songs stay peppy -and the slow ones are not so slow ... If I'm playing with a band, with a drum kit and guitar, I have to make sure that everything is as energetic as possible.  It's not so emotional as in a solo gig.  Or rather, the emotion is more in the energy behind the music."
  Clark credits an early interest in the Beatles for teaching her to love the art of songwriting.  But more than appreciating their work, Clark admits she liked the group for more than just the music.
  "I love the Beatles so much," Clark said.  "I read every book and they really influenced who I am now.  I took up guitar to be like the Beatles.  I have always been a performer and worked in musical theatre, but when I was 12 or 13, I just fell in love with the Beatles in every sense.  I didn't need a boyfriend because I had them."
  On her independent CD release, "Love & War," however, the influence that shows through much more than the Beatles, is tough, independent singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco.  Throughout the album, Clark adopts several songwriting devices that strongly recall DiFranco's work.  The first is  writing lyrics in a conversational tone, creating a kind of talk-singing that plays around inside the folk-like structure of the tunes.  The second device is crafting her lyrics with an emotional honesty that brings the listener into intimate moments in Clark's life.
  
      "Listening to Ani DiFranco is what taught me to take some risks in my songs," Clark said.  "Looking back on her story, what's also inspiring is her business woman attitude.  She had basically no life for ten years, just traveling and playing to get to where she is today.  She is a really strong woman."
      As with DiFranco's writing, the honesty in Clark's songs is not a one-way street.  She doesn't just offer confessionals, but is also looking for a response.  The final track on "Love & War" sums up Clark's attempt to connect when she offers what seems like a fair exchange as she sings, "I'll tell you what I'm thinking, if you'll tell me what you're thinking too."
  Clark may be young, but there's no denying the power of the age-old subject of thousands of other songs- relationships. "Love & War" is full of the questions that "boys" create.  But it's not the questions themselves that make Clark a talent to watch, it's how she deals with them.  Honesty and direct communication are the solid foundations that have already been laid by this native Colorado musician.
  "I write only about my personal experiences because that's the only thing I really know," she said.
  
  Clark makes it a point when talking about her career to underscore the fact that one of the most important reasons for her artistic growth is the “amazing support" she has gotten from her parents.  Thanks to their musical tastes and viewpoints of performing, Clark has become a professional with the desire to ge better and better.
  "My parents are the one and only people to honestly tell me how to improve myself." she said.  "I think they're great."
      What comes next is, well, more growth.  Clark looks forward to experimenting with more forms of music while developing her songwriting skills.
  "I'm hoping to cross over to different genres of music.  I'm becoming attracted to a little more of a melodic style," she said.  "Ultimately, an honest songwriter should be able to do any genre- whatever is needed.  M favorite, though, is just my voice with a guitar or piano."
  
  

• Liz Clark at Borders [+ Show ]
  

  Liz Clark at Borders              by Avaril Liz Clark just seems to pull people into her music.  I...Liz Clark at Borders 
              by Avaril
  Liz Clark just seems to pull people into her music.  It could be her voice or her, engaging persona.  And, even in a coffeehouse setting like Border's Books in Boulder, you can't help but be drawn to her and her music.
  My first experience with Liz and her music was at the Soiled Dove in Denver.  I was hanging out with some friends when this leggy girl stepped up to the mike.  Two phrases into one song, all my friends and I could say was, "Wow!" Then, "Where will she be playing next?"
  Liz appears equally comfortable with a large venue as well as a small one, but she is a connoisseur of the coffeehouse gig.  On this night she is opening for author Kathy King who will be doing a reading from her book Wannabe as part of the Moondance Film Festival.  Perfectly coiffed in artfully windblown hair and black clothes, Liz sits in her chair with an enviable loose poise.  Daddy Sam, her bass player of three years, is equally relaxed as he plays the bottom end for Liz's guitar or keyboard.
  
       Her songs are deceptively simple.  Her plaintive voice adds a myriad of texture to songs that speak a lot about life for one so young.  No rhyming couplets for this woman.  Her songs are a conversation.  Some classify her singing style as a less caustic version of Alannis Morisette.  The names of Tori Amos and Joan Baez were tossed around in the audience at one point, but everyone agreed that while she may sound like all or none of these women, there is something magnetic about her voice.  Store patrons would drift over and take a seat, the tomes they were browsing through forgotten in their hands.  Employees leaned wistfully on their counters to listen or found themselves spending their breaks with Liz and her music.
       It isn't just her voice that draws them in.  Her easy manner, approachability and sometimes-quirky commentary make her a presence on whatever stage she should take.  Tonight, before she goes into a song called "You Were Taught", she rolls into an explanation of what she calls her "one and only political song."  She laughs as she says that it "validates my folk singer-ness.”  with lyrics like “Do you want to make it. all easy, by walking the steps of     conformity?"  you might be concerned that she will ride a soapbox for the rest of the night.    But, then comes the song "Hell, Yeah!", and even by the title you know the soapbox has vanished.
  
  She takes up the keyboard for "Gemini Girl" and you can hear where the Tori Amos comparisons come in.  Lyrical and somewhat off-center, the vocal dynamics of the song are immense and the lyrics are intriguing.  It is on the keyboard, however, that a bit of, Liz's relative inexperience comes into play.  Every musician makes mistakes on stage, and for the most part, the audience never knows.  While she never says anything aloud, Liz's body language announces that an error has been made -with a wince or a shrug of her shoulders.
  
              But, you would be hard pressed to find anything else amiss-with Liz's performance and much to praise.  In a world of artists who see the audience as a faceless mass, Liz knows who is in front of her.  She looks you in the eye and almost revels in interaction and getting to know her audience.  She holds nothing back.  'At one point, she says, "Sometimes I get a little lonely up here.  So let me know you are out there.  Everyone is so used to watching TV they are just like ... (she makes a space face).  Yeah, I am live up here."
  As Liz winds up her show and introduces the author of Wannabe, you can almost tangibly feel the spell she has cast dissipate.  Employees look around almost surprised to find themselves in the audience and the book browsers look a bit startled at the book they have in their hand.  I asked one woman what she thought of the show.  She gave me a heartfelt, "Fabulous!  I thought she was better than Jewel." She mentioned that she had thirteen years of guitar experience but could never bring herself to play live.  If this is true, what a testament to Liz Clark’s skill at impressing her audience.  I was enthralled twice.  I think I will plan to be again.
  

• Music with a message [+ Show ]
  

  Liz Clark will kick off the night with her dynamic acoustic style, reminiscent of Joni Mitchell, Jew...Liz Clark will kick off the night with her dynamic acoustic style, reminiscent of Joni Mitchell, Jewel and Tori Amos. The Colorado native is known for her rich and intriguing sound, poetic, song writing, and charismatic style. She has recently opened for such acts as Joe Walsh at the Paramount Theater in Denver and folk legend Richie Havens at the Rialto in Loveland. Though she often plays with a drummer and bass player as The Liz Clark Band, she has made her mark over five years as a young and restless solo artist playing venues from coffee houses to concert halls, and this Wednesday, at Lonigan's."
  
  Native Coloradoan and current Denverite Liz Clark will take the pole position at Wednesday's Diva Delight concert. Clark is making her mark upon the Front Range music scene with her acoustic guitar and unique piano style. Clark, who regularly plays with The Liz Clark Band, will also play a solo set that will reflect her clever and poetic songwriting and charismatic style.

• Profilin' [+ Show ]
  

  Profilin' Liz Clark by...
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Profilin'
  
  Liz Clark
  
  by Judy Brady
  
  All great female singer-songwriters have several things in common:
  a unique look, sound, style and instrumentation plus lyrics, lyrics,
  lyrics. The buzz surrounding Denver singer-songwriter Liz Clark is
  growing louder by the week. Clark has spent the past five years
  developing her guitar and piano skills, shaping her vocal style,
  playing in coffee shops and -- last but not least -- graduating high
  school. Clark is now working to introduce herself to other regional
  areas including Northern Colorado. At 19, she is poised for
  well-deserved attention and success. 
  
  Until recently, Clark performed solo. She debuted two years ago at
  The Soiled Dove and caught many ears by surprise. She admitted
  that she was only 17, which (in lesser hands) could have been a
  death knell. She wisely performed a strong set that dealt with issues
  of politics, prejudice and the lovelorn. Her confidence was
  apparent, as were her skills as a performer. 
  
  Since that time, Clark's experience has led to even better shows and
  a loyal following through appearances at Herman's Hideaway, The
  Bluebird Theater, LoDo Music Hall and the Swallow Hill Folkathon.
  Most recently, she performed as one of many dedicated musicians
  at the Maestro Music Showcase, a benefit concert for music in
  public schools. Today, -- with her aptly named Liz Clark Band -- she
  moves her acoustic guitar and graceful piano style into the larger
  plugged-in arena. 
  
  Clark's debut CD, Love & War features her lean piano style as well
  as a healthy balance of acoustic guitar and additional band
  members. The title track sounds so "radio-friendly" that we could
  expect to hear it over the airwaves any day now. Thankfully,
  however, it's not just any trite pop song. Clark writes original music
  and lyrics that are strong, poetic, emotional and smartly
  sentimental.
  
  Clark's folk music roots lie close to her family, who encouraged her
  to explore the guitar at age 14. Her influences are clearly the great
  female names of the past decade (namely Alanis Morrisette and Ani
  DiFranco), but also include Jackson Browne, The Beatles and Joni
  Mitchell. Clark presents both herself and her music in a friendly but
  serious manner. If it's a story she's singing or a viewpoint she'd like
  to share, it's well worth a listen.

• Review [+ Show ]
  

  "...Storey is playing the special acoustic benefit show with fellow Coloradan Liz Clark, another y...
  "...Storey is playing the special acoustic benefit show with fellow Coloradan Liz Clark, another young, waif-like, unnaturally talented singer/songwriter not too far removed from childhood herself.
  
  With their young spirits and fresh approach, Storey and Clark could inspire young singers-to-be in their audience..."
  

• Liz Clark [+ Show ]
  

  Liz Clark is one of Denver's most exciting new singer-songwriters. Performing for over five years i...Liz Clark is one of Denver's most exciting new singer-songwriters.
  Performing for over five years in venues ranging from coffee shops to prominent concert halls throughout Colorado, this young and restless artist is slowly, but surely, making her mark. She is a dynamic solo entertainer, utilizing her acoustic guitar and brilliant piano style, who more regularly performs with a bass player and a drummer as The Liz Clark Band.
  Liz offers a distinctly rich and intriguing sound. Her clever and poetic songwriting is refreshing, her singing style charismatic. Reminiscent of thoughtful artists like early Joni Mitchell and Jackson Browne, or current notables like Jewel and Tori Amos, Liz' original music is dynamic, compelling and timely.

• Gothic Theatre Reviews- Johnny A [+ Show ]
  

  Liz Clark is a talented young singer/songwriter from Denver, with strong pipes.  She plays multiple ...Liz Clark is a talented young singer/songwriter from Denver, with strong pipes.  She plays multiple instruments and, at age 20, she alreadyknows how to handle a crowd.  During her set, she noted that there were a couple of hecklers in the crowd -- I was well aware of this, since they were sitting two chairs from me -- and they quieted down for a while.  There's nothing like directing all the attention in the place to the people who are trying to get attention at a performer's expense.  Liz played several songs, one of which was a cover of Concrete Blonde's "Tomorrow, Wendy."  All were strong songs, with well thought out lyrics.  Her voice sounded at times like a couple of other female pop/rock stars, but she does have a distinctive, plaintive wail she sometimes throws in that sets her apart.  I look forward to seeing Liz perform again at some of the many local venues where she appears.

Setlist

2:30 hours of Original Material
Cover Songs include "You Really Got a Hold On Me" and some Beatles songs. Mostly obscure.
material available for three :45 minute sets

Basic Requirements

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