Lizzie West
Encyclopedia
Lizzie West is a singer/songwriter
. Her music can be described as a blend of many genres including country
, folk
, blues
, pop
, and rock. Her band is called "Lizzie West and the White Buffalo," the "White Buffalo" referring to her co-producer and boyfriend, Anthony Kieraldo. Her debut album, Holy Road: Freedom Songs, was released in 2003 on Warner Bros. Records
. This album earned her the title of Breaker Artist of the Year by both AOL
and Entertainment Weekly
. It was recorded with her former band, the Gangs of Kosmos. Popular songs on the album include Dusty Turnaround, Sometime, and Holy Road. Her second album, I Pledge Allegiance To Myself, was released in April 2006 by Appleseed Records. A film entitled Holy Road: The Movie which describes Lizzie West, her touring, personal experiences, and musical career was in production around the time of her first album release. However, this project was likely abandoned since her departure from Warner Bros. Records.
West spent most of her early adult life traveling across the United States
while writing stories and plays. She moved to London
when she was 18. After returning to America four years later (1995), she purchased her first guitar
from a pawn shop in Nashville
. Upon returning to New York City
the following year, she began performing her songs on street corners, subways, and her sister's bar, the Stinger, in Williamsburg
, Brooklyn
. Her first tour of the United States came in the summer of 2000 in which she performed in bars and small clubs. West also appeared in a commercial directed by Spike Lee
for IAM.com in which she performed her song, Holy Road. After touring again in April 2001 with the Kenny Wayne Shepherd
Band and Double Trouble, she caught the attention of an A&R
representative for major label Warner Bros. Records. A multi-album recording deal with Warner Bros. Records was made in August 2001.
Some of her songs have been featured in television shows and films. The 2002 film Secretary
featured Chariots Rise on its soundtrack. The song was re-recorded for the film, with the lyrics "What a fool am I/To fall so in love" changed to "What grace have I/To fall so in love." The HBO feature Rock the Boat included the songs Dusty Turnaround and Sometime. Sometime was also used in commercials advertising the show Dawson's Creek
in 2003. NBC
's Third Watch
and ABC
's Alias
featured the song Prayer, while Doctor was used in the WB drama Everwood
.
West claims inspiration from the poetry and works of Walt Whitman
, Jack Kerouac
, William Blake
, Ralph Waldo Emerson
, and most notably Leonard Cohen
. (In fact she met Cohen while on tour in 2000). She refers to her fans as "Kickers," meaning catalysts for consciousness, individual and/or collective. West owns a dog named Figaro (aka the "dharma dog") whose pictures are featured on her album and official website. She is known for signing her correspondence x=h/m.
Lizzie West is also involved in a podcast
called The Holy Road Medicine Show.
Lizzie's current work is called Midwestern Tumbleweed, a cabaret style musical show that is evolving along with her artist's coop initiative based in two houses, one in Columbia, Missouri
and the other in New York
. More about the artist's coop concept on the holy road page at www.holyroadtours.com
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
. Her music can be described as a blend of many genres including country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
, folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
, blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
, pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
, and rock. Her band is called "Lizzie West and the White Buffalo," the "White Buffalo" referring to her co-producer and boyfriend, Anthony Kieraldo. Her debut album, Holy Road: Freedom Songs, was released in 2003 on Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
. This album earned her the title of Breaker Artist of the Year by both AOL
AOL
AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
and Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
. It was recorded with her former band, the Gangs of Kosmos. Popular songs on the album include Dusty Turnaround, Sometime, and Holy Road. Her second album, I Pledge Allegiance To Myself, was released in April 2006 by Appleseed Records. A film entitled Holy Road: The Movie which describes Lizzie West, her touring, personal experiences, and musical career was in production around the time of her first album release. However, this project was likely abandoned since her departure from Warner Bros. Records.
West spent most of her early adult life traveling across the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
while writing stories and plays. She moved to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
when she was 18. After returning to America four years later (1995), she purchased her first guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
from a pawn shop in Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
. Upon returning to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
the following year, she began performing her songs on street corners, subways, and her sister's bar, the Stinger, in Williamsburg
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Williamsburg is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, bordering Greenpoint to the north, Bedford-Stuyvesant to the south, Bushwick to the east and the East River to the west. The neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community Board 1. The neighborhood is served by the NYPD's 90th ...
, Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
. Her first tour of the United States came in the summer of 2000 in which she performed in bars and small clubs. West also appeared in a commercial directed by Spike Lee
Spike Lee
Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee is an American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His production company, 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, has produced over 35 films since 1983....
for IAM.com in which she performed her song, Holy Road. After touring again in April 2001 with the Kenny Wayne Shepherd
Kenny Wayne Shepherd
Kenny Wayne Shepherd is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He has released several studio albums and experienced a rare level of commercial success both as a blues artist and a young musician.-Biography:Shepherd graduated Caddo Magnet High School in Shreveport, Louisiana...
Band and Double Trouble, she caught the attention of an A&R
A&R
Artists and repertoire is the division of a record label that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists. It also acts as a liaison between artists and the record label.- Finding talent :...
representative for major label Warner Bros. Records. A multi-album recording deal with Warner Bros. Records was made in August 2001.
Some of her songs have been featured in television shows and films. The 2002 film Secretary
Secretary (film)
Secretary is a 2002 independent film directed by Steven Shainberg and starring Maggie Gyllenhaal as Lee Holloway and James Spader as E. Edward Grey...
featured Chariots Rise on its soundtrack. The song was re-recorded for the film, with the lyrics "What a fool am I/To fall so in love" changed to "What grace have I/To fall so in love." The HBO feature Rock the Boat included the songs Dusty Turnaround and Sometime. Sometime was also used in commercials advertising the show Dawson's Creek
Dawson's Creek
Dawson's Creek is an American teen drama television series which debuted on January 20, 1998, on The WB Television Network and was produced by Sony Pictures Television. The show is set in the fictional seaside town of Capeside, Massachusetts, and in Boston, Massachusetts, during the later seasons...
in 2003. NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's Third Watch
Third Watch
Third Watch is an American television drama series which first aired on NBC from 1999 to 2005 for a total of 132 episodes, broadcast in 6 seasons of 22 episodes each....
and ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's Alias
Alias (TV series)
Alias is an American action television series created by J. J. Abrams which was broadcast on ABC for five seasons, from September 30, 2001 to May 22, 2006...
featured the song Prayer, while Doctor was used in the WB drama Everwood
Everwood
Everwood is an American drama television series that initially aired in the United States on The WB. The series is set in the fictional small town of Everwood, Colorado, and was filmed in Ogden, South Salt Lake, and Draper, Utah, except the series pilot which was filmed in Canmore, Alberta,...
.
West claims inspiration from the poetry and works of Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman
Walter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse...
, Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis "Jack" Lebris de Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic...
, William Blake
William Blake
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
, Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...
, and most notably Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships...
. (In fact she met Cohen while on tour in 2000). She refers to her fans as "Kickers," meaning catalysts for consciousness, individual and/or collective. West owns a dog named Figaro (aka the "dharma dog") whose pictures are featured on her album and official website. She is known for signing her correspondence x=h/m.
Lizzie West is also involved in a podcast
Podcast
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
called The Holy Road Medicine Show.
Lizzie's current work is called Midwestern Tumbleweed, a cabaret style musical show that is evolving along with her artist's coop initiative based in two houses, one in Columbia, Missouri
Columbia, Missouri
Columbia is the fifth-largest city in Missouri, and the largest city in Mid-Missouri. With a population of 108,500 as of the 2010 Census, it is the principal municipality of the Columbia Metropolitan Area, a region of 164,283 residents. The city serves as the county seat of Boone County and as the...
and the other in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. More about the artist's coop concept on the holy road page at www.holyroadtours.com
Albums
- Holy Road - released 1999
- West (EP) - released 2002
- Holy Road: Freedom Songs - released 2003
- I Pledge Allegiance to Myself - (under the name Lizzie West & The White Buffalo) released 2006
- Chariots Rise - (under the name Lizzie West & Baba Buffalo) released 2009
External links
- Official Site
- Lizzie West: Singer of the Week http://www.askmen.com/celebs/women/singer_200/205_lizzie_west.html AskMen.com
- Wilson, Mackenzie. Lizzie West biography on Yahoo! Music http://launch.yahoo.com/ar-279073-bio--Lizzie-West