Tracy Lyons

Tracy Lyons says that when we harm the environment, we are harming more than our surroundings. We are harming ourselves. Lyons, a singer-songwriter whose lyrics focus on the environment, is headlining Saturday's Rock the Earth: University of Idaho's Earth Day Celebration.

Lyons, who also is an environmental activist and National Resources Defense Council advocate, is performing as part of her 2007-08 Mercury Rising Tour. Her vision for the tour is to draw attention to the issues of global warming, alternative/clean energy solutions and the negative effects of pollution on our health.

Lyons said she has firsthand experience with the way toxins in the environment can affect health.

"I was sick for a long time," said the Ireland native. "It wasn't until I came to the states in 2000 I found a doctor who determined what was wrong with me. I had a lot of exposure to things like mercury and lead. As a result, I became very allergic to many things. I was mimicking symptoms of MS (multiple sclerosis)."

Lyons, a Los Angeles resident said it was hard to get the mercury and lead out of her system, but once she did, she started to feel better.

"I've always had an awareness of environmental issues but it hit me in the face when they said I had all these heavy metals," she said. "Music was a way to express my frustrations; no one would really listen to what was wrong with me. This was my out, and when it was discovered I wondered how many other people were walking around this way.

"We're not just destroying the planet, we're destroying ourselves and we don't even know it."

Lyons' single, "Save Me," which was first featured on her 2006 album "I Will," urges people to heal themselves and the Earth through sustainable thought, practices and action.

She was exposed to music at an early age, when she started playing piano. I didn't clue into writing songs until a little bit later," she said. "I always did poetry but I didn't put the two together until I was in my late teens. As I began to do that I started to pull it together."

Lyons said she encourages people to get blood tests to determine whether they have high levels of toxins in their systems.

"It can present disease in the future; diseases of older people are now happening to younger people," she said.

She said many people know someone with cancer in their family.

"How many years is that a buildup of toxins in the body? A reduction of toxins in the body can help all diseases," she said.

Lyons began participating in various music tours promoting sustainability after she discovered her health problems were
environment-related. She is working on her third CD.

"There will probably be more emphasis on the environment (in the music)," she said. "Not all the songs are related to that, but there are several that are."

She said people seem to receive her message positively.

"It's a good thing to do at the university level," she said. "Why not get this out and be proactive?"

WHAT: Rock the Earth: University of Idaho Earth Day Celebration: Tracy
Lyons, Dolphin Revolution and Sole Rerene

WHEN: 3-10 p.m., Saturday

WHERE: UI Tower Lawn

Written by: Omie Drawhorn odrawhorn@dnews.com. - Moscow-Pullman Daily News

Ecorazzi.com Feature
Friday, 19 October 2007

Singer-songwriter Tracy Lyons is setting off on her Mercury Rising tour next week and bringing the green with her. A longtime activist and supporter of the National Resource Defense Council, Lyons plans on using her tour to draw attention to global warming, alternative/clean energy solutions and the negative effects that pollution has on health. From the article,

“The Eco-Stage for Tracy Lyons’ Mercury Rising Tour will be powered off the grid by environmentally-friendly bio-diesel and will feature a state-of-the-art hydrogen fuel cell. As well, information will be provided on the latest clean energy technologies and education about critical initiatives driving environmental action. The tour’s carbon footprint will be offset by the purchase of carbon credits for anything that can’t be accomplished directly using clean energy technologies.”

Composting? Waste diversion through recycling? We’re not sure if Lyons has hooked up with a group like Reverb to outsource the “greening” but we’re hopeful the clean energy ain’t the only thing being addressed.

And congrats to Lyons — she managed to come up with the first environmental song that doesn’t cause me to cringe. Entitled, “Save Me”, it’s already received over 250,000 views online. Check it out below. Her official site is available here.
- Ecorazzi.com

On her fine second album, I Will, Tracy Lyons possesses such a honeyed, delicate voice that it's often difficult to reconcile that light touch with the often tough words she's singing. Lyons never skimps on raw emotion, and she's not afraid to cut deep, yet that softie voice of hers often sounds like it's trilling a lullaby even as she lays out the circumstances behind the betrayal of a lover: "I'm on a crazy ride/Feelin' so compromised/Knowin' you turned on me," she sings in "Not You," one of the album's early highlights. The guitars are slashing away in a Hendrix-ian wah-wah rage, and the drums and bass are blazing and bashing. But Lyons keeps her cool, maintaining her even-keeled temperament even as the swaggering band shifts into power pop/power-chord overdrive for the chorus. That band rocks mighty hard when it needs to and soothes appropriately when Lyons — who wrote all of the songs — turns down the heat. The album's most memorable moments occur when she finds the ideal balance somewhere in between. During the slow and steady build of "Yes," for example, a survivor moves cautiously forward ("It's a miracle to me that I'm here to say what I feel") — the chiming guitars loop mantra-like as Lyons unravels her story — until she can't hold back anymore. The chorus is an explosion of sorts, but more a firecracker than an atom bomb. That's the rub: Lyons' major drawback (if indeed it is one) may in fact be the flipside of her greatest strength. Even as she musters the power to belt one out, she can't help but sound vulnerable and sweet. Lyons' tenderness — present in its various guises in the aching environmentalist plea of "Save Me," the second-chance love of "Fallen," the confessional opening track "Don't You Know" — isn't a liability so much as an artistic trademark. It's a confusing one at first, but in the end it serves her well.
- Jeff Tamarkin - AllMusic Guide

With the impressive debut Surrender, singer/tune-smith Tracy Lyons proves that she has a knack for wrapping strong words in a velvet glove.

On the surface, much of her material has a delicate, sugar-sweet-material has a delicate, sugar-sweetened pop sound. Deeper investigation reveals the work of a songwriter of formidable depth and power.

Lyons comes from a family of distinguished artists that includes famed actress Leah Charles and Charles Vance, the longest-running theater producer in London. As an adolescent, she studied classical piano, voice, and dance. Lyons fondly recalls singing at parties with her brother in their hometown, a small Irish community just outside of Toronto. Alternately, her family spent much of their time in Ulster establishing her deep Irish roots.

“Life is very different there,” she says, “People live day to day. When you hear bombs going off in the distance, you learn to value what’s important.”

As a result, Lyons came of age “Living two lives.” She turned to writing and poetry to explore the world as it unfolded before her. Then something happened when she took her poetry to the piano. She recalls “I started to live the songs.”

The music on Surrender is melodic and honest with a core of Celtic soul and a welcome addition for listeners everywhere searching for fresh, genuine spirit in music. The set’s 11 tracks came to life over the past two years, the title track being the earliest piece. “ ‘Surrender,’” Lyons says, “is from a healing period. It comes from learning to value your purpose in life, from being committed to the journey.” Another melodic, soul-searching track, “Come to Me,” deals with the separation and anxiety of loving someone so much “you feel like half of you is gone until they return.”

Although Surrender, produced by Greg Kavanagh, explores some of the heart’s darker moments, it is showered throughout with a sense of hope. In these troubled times, it’s exactly what we can all use a little extra dose of. - Billboard Magazine - Larry Flick

LOS ANGELES, CA. (Top40 Charts/ Mythic Records) - Singer-songwriter, environmental activist and National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) advocate Tracy Lyons will perform at the 9th annual Taos Solar Music Festival later this month. Tracy's sets - featuring her full band - are Friday, June 29 at 5:30PM on the Solar Stage (just prior to Paula Cole) and Saturday, June 30 at 1PM on the Main Stage. The Festival runs through July 1 and also features diverse artists including Los Lobos, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Ottmar Liebert and Big Head Todd and the Monsters. It marks Lyons' second appearance at the event; she first performed there in 2005. For information and tickets, log on to http://www.solarmusicfest.com.

Taos, New Mexico has a rich legacy of environmental consciousness and support for renewable energy and sustainable lifestyles, and is known by official proclamation as the "Solar Capital of the World." The acclaimed Taos Solar Music Festival, which takes place at Kit Carson Park in the downtown area, is one of the first, and now longest running, "green" events anywhere. The 3-day annual sun celebration happens in conjunction with the New Mexico Solar Energy Association (NMSEA), probably the oldest continuously operating solar organization in the U.S., and KTAO, the world's most powerful solar-powered radio station. Once again, NMSEA will present the Solar Village on the Festival grounds, with exhibits, events and activities that are free and open to the public.

Southern California-based music artist Tracy Lyons has her own longstanding commitment to environmental activism. She was inspired to write her powerful single, "Save Me," because of health issues she faces related to mercury and lead toxicity. "Save Me" is available for audio download on iTunes.com, with all proceeds benefiting the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the nation's most effective environmental action organization. At the Taos Solar Music Festival, NRDC will be on site to promote their new youth-skewed initiative and call to action, http://www.itsyournature.org.

The gripping videoclip for "Save Me" - which has been viewed over 33,000 times - can be accessed online at NRDC.org, as well as on the Apple's QuickTime Music Guide and Earthday Network's online portal http://www.earthday.net. The song was first featured on Lyons' latest album I Will, and is a heartfelt anthem and wake-up call for people to heal themselves and the earth through a new consciousness of sustainable thought, practices and action.

I Will was released in 2006 on Mythic Records with distribution through Alternative Distribution Alliance (ADA). Other highlights include "Don't You Know," "Not You" and "Yes." It follows up her acclaimed 2001 debut album Surrender, about which Billboard magazine wrote, "singer/tunesmith Tracy Lyons proves that she has a knack for wrapping strong words in a velvet glove."

- Top40-Charts.com