Friday, September 12, 2008

Liz Stringer provides sweet respite from the daily grind, at Basement Discs

Liz Stringer - Basement Discs - 12 September 2008

Melbourne today is warm and sunny but also packing gale force winds which makes the day uncomfortable. Despite this I did venture down to the Basement Discs for today’s in store performance by
Liz Stringer.

I recently received in the mail a promotional brochure for a show called Broad – a collective effort by five local female singer songwriters. It included a mini CD with a sample song from each of the artists. I fell in love with Liz Stringer’s song Drawn To You on firstlisten. It is a gorgeous song, a beautifully written, melancholy lament of a failed love affair, which somehow or other has a Leonard Cohen sensibility.

Liz Stringer arrived out of nowhere a couple of years ago with the release of her debut album Soon in 2006. She did an in store at Basement Discs then which I attended. I came away from that performance favourably impressed.

Today’s performance showcased songs from her recently released second CD Pendulum, which includes the song Drawn to You. Liz sang it today, much to my satisfaction, despite the fact that she deleted the expletive. In my own personal opinion, I think the expletive (the "F" word) fits the song perfectly in the context. She was suffering from the flue bug that is running rampant through Melbourne at the moment, but she soldiered on admirably.

She is an accomplished and gifted artist, having a mastery over several instruments, though today she limited herself to guitar. Not only that, Liz has a very pleasant singing voice. It has an attractive melancholy quality which tugs at the heart strings. She also writes great songs with strong lyrics and attractive tunes.

Check out her
My Space page to listen to some of her songs. Alas Drawn To You is not on it, but Alone – another fantastic song - is.

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