Art + Friends Spotlight: Liza Anne

As we previously announced, famed local alt rockers Paramore are currently winding down the record cycle (or “era,” as they like to dub it) for last year’s phenomenal fifth album, After Laughter, which, over the past year, has included surprise stops at Exit/In and The End, a headlining outing at The Ryman, and the group’s debut at Bonnaroo, all amidst international tour dates and critical acclaim for their boldest, most personal, and most adventurous LP ever. Before taking a breather and plotting what’s next, however, the band will come home to host Art + Friends, an extra special event Sept. 7 at Municipal Auditorium, meant to highlight Nashville’s wonderful alternative scene, with local art, local venders, and a stacked local musical lineup of COIN, Bully, Canon Blue, Liza Anne, and Nightingail– an excellent sample of some of the amazing music coming out of Nashville right now.

Tickets are still available here, and as we count down the weeks until Art + Friends’ arrival, we wanted to help you prepare by providing a spotlight on each individual performer (who, remember, are all local, and can regularly be seen at more intimate spaces as well). Last week, we introduced you to bluesy indie folk singer Nightingail, and next up, we’re making sure you’re hip to another longtime favorite, breakout indie rocker Liza Anne!

LIZA ANNE

LEARN

Since first captivating us with her 2014 debut full-length, The Colder Months, standout local singer-songwriter Liza Anne Odachowski has continuously impressed us with incredible growth as an artist. While, in her early days, her sound was more sparse and a bit folk informed, from the start the young singer has possessed a deeply personal, earnest, and powerfully emotional knack for songwriting that has carried across three albums. With 2015’s Two, one of our favorite followups in recent memory, Liza pushed into more layered, flushed out musical territory, honing her knack for harnessing vulnerable, relatable navigations of her own emotional state. And with this year’s Fine But Dying, not just one of the best local releases, but one of the best records of the year in general, and a glorious portrait of growth, bravery, honesty, and self-awareness, Liza feels more fully-realized as an artist than ever, equally vulnerable and anxious in her perceptive as she is focused and confident in her musicality. Finding a shimmering, gritty, anthemic pop accessibility and rock bite like never before, this masterful portrait of a “loose, mindful loss of mind” exposes a fascinating duality of an artist tapped into her own struggles and strife, baked into catchy beautiful music, not unlike Paramore’s happy/sad masterpiece After Laughter. Liza is such an obvious fit for this show, and given her increasingly high-profile touring, festival stops, late night TV debut, and blog and playlist love, among other attention, she’s seemingly on the verge of long-overdue widespread acclaim. If you’ve somehow missed out on her thus far, it’s time to play catchup.

LISTEN | “Lost”