Liz will appear in Nick Charles’ International Blues Day Jam on Saturday August 3rd at 4.15pm on the Marsh Mezzanine stage
A warm, exuberant performer associated with multiple successful collaborations (FrenchamSmith, Jigzag & Dev’lish Mary) and a captivating soloist. She easily traverses genres from folk and bluegrass through to jazz and blues with gentle expertise and plenty of good humoured banter to accompany the journey.
Somehow, (without genetic trickery!) she also maintains a career as a respected accompanist, producer and arranger both onstage and in the recording studio. She is consistently sought out by a diverse gang of artists both national and international including While & Matthews(UK), Gregory Page(US) , Wouter Kellerman(Africa), Kristina Olsen(USA), Mic Conway, Fred Smith and more.
Liz entered her professional music career as a self-taught double bass player and soon made a name for herself with her incredible ear and ability to quickly add vocal harmonies to any song. She eventually studied Jazz performance at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, graduating in 2000 & has been working full time as a musician ever since.
She first garnered attentional on the music festival circuit through her work with 2006 National Folk Awards “Best Live Act” winners- Jigzag. Five albums and a live DVD later she had branched out in many other directions, most notable, her ongoing collaboration with multi-award winning songwriter Fred Smith. Frencham Smith have released two albums in their 10 year association, ‘Into My Room'(2003) and ‘Love Thongs'(2007) and Liz plays an ongoing featured role in Fred’s critically acclaimed theatrical work “Dust of Uruzgan” and it’s accompanying album of 2011.
In 2005 she tooke centre stage for the first time, celebrating the launch of her debut solo album ‘Jericho’. It’s a rich & varied work, full of her perceptive songs & including contributions from Waifs drummer David Ross Macdonald, Sydney jazz pianist Michael Bartholomei & rising star Jodi Martin. It was a finalist for the ‘Presenter’s Choice’ award at the 2007 Australian Folk Alliance Convention.
Her move from NSW to Victoria in 2006 brought a host of new side projects which have been immortalised in various albums, festival performances and new compositions released between 2006 & 2011. They include all-girl festival favourite Dev’lish Mary, new-acoustic, buegrass infused trio Jimmy the Fish, and a writing collaboration with fellow Central Victorian jazz guitarist Myles White as Red Juliet.
In 2008 she launched a new concept project “You & Me, Vol.1” an album of live duets with many well known performers (including Doug DeVries, Mic Conway, Carl Pannuzzo & Shannon Barnett). It beautifully captures her love of spontaneous collaboration, explored so often on festival stages across the globe.
A break from touring and session work in 2012 led to possibly her most daring venture, a collection of cover-song recordings ranging from Radiohead to Joni Mitchell all arranged for solo double bass and voice. She has finally released the first digital EP from these sessions One- The Living Room Sessions in June of 2013.
She is currently recording the second volume in her live duet series “You & Me”. The album already features collaborations with the UK’s BBC Award winners Chris While and Julie Matthews, multi-award winning violin prodigy George Jackson (“Best Fiddler” Golden Fiddle Award 2012, Australian Youth Bluegrass Scholarship 2012, FAA Young Australian Folk Musician 2010), and APRA/ASA Australian Songwriter of the Year 2012 Andrew Winton.