At the end of March, genre-defying singer-songwriter Lizzie No performed at Caffe Lena, a historic folk venue just off North Broadway. Lizzie performed with a guitarist and a keyboard player, and showcased her skills on the harp for a few songs. After a near-perfect performance, Lizzie and I sat down to chat.
It was immediately evident that she’s a born musician.
Lizzie performs her songs the way they were written to be expressed, like “Hard Won,” the title track of her 2017 album, which demonstrates her vocal range. The song was a beautiful mix of violin and guitar, the rhythm always on beat, easy vocals stretching from throaty and raspy to light and airy in a matter of seconds. The audience is but a lucky guest peeking in at Lizzie’s mind, privileged to be able to observe what’s happening on the stage.
When asked about her personal writing practice, she told me, “if you're not willing to, like, carve out…a little bit of your human body and hand it to a stranger, you can’t write the song.” Lizzie says that singing is the most personal part: “I find the most embarrassing thing singing, because a noise comes out of my body. And…I sing into amplification. I make everybody listen.” This vulnerability, while evident and appreciated by her audience, should not be mistaken for lack of confidence. Instead, it imbues Lizzie with a sense of humility and relatability in her performance — one which demands the audience look nowhere but the stage.
Lizzie stated that her creative process is sacred to her. When asked about it, she stated that she treats her writing process “like meditation or yoga ...the most important thing is getting myself into a place where my mind feels safe, and my body feels comfortable, and I can basically just, like, turn off.” This process is evident in her songs, which offer us a glimpse into Lizzie’s mind and relay some of her deepest wants and fears. “Halfsies,” for example, demonstrates a line walked by many musicians between “Half full, half empty,” and traces the line of the character in the song “from a place of both internal and external exile to liberation.”
Lizzie also interacts fiercely with her audience. Throughout the show, she shared personal anecdotes and asked questions. This dialogue put her activist instincts on full display during. Recently appointed President of the Abortion Care of Tennessee Board of Directors, Lizzie continually remarked on women’s reproductive justice, man-made climate change, and the state of Black life in the United States. While it can be vulnerable to incorporate personal and even political beliefs into a musical set, especially at a new venue with an unknown audience, this daunting task did not stop Lizzie No or her band. For the musician, this vulnerability is what the creative process, from songwriting to performing, is all about.