West, Lizzie

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Lizzie West

Singer, songwriter

For singer-songwriter Lizzie West, recording music and performing for fans has been about more than "making it" in the business. Over and over, she has relied on the image of the road, viewing her musical birth at the age of 23 and her continued development as a musician as a journey, a "holy road." West's search for inner meaning hit a snag, however, when she signed to a corporate record label in 2003, an experience that left her feeling artistically hemmed in. Never one to give up or give in, West eventually severed the relationship, resurfacing in 2006 with a new album and her inner vision intact. "This is an artist that has so much to offer to those who come into this with an open mind and heart," wrote Bob Gottlieb at Fame. "Someone we will hear from in one way or another for a long time to come."

Lizzie West was born on July 21, 1973, in Brooklyn, New York. She grew up surrounded by music, including her mother's piano playing, theater songs, and her siblings' 1960s and 1970s record collection. Later, when asked by Michele Hatty in USA Weekend about her inspiration for her lyrics, West recalled her childhood. "My mom read me William Blake when I was little, which will put a big old stamp on anybody." Even at the age of 18, West was ready to follow her muse. First she traveled to England, studying playwriting, and then returned to New York in 1993, where she wrote a play for off-off Broadway.

It was in 1996 at the age of 23, however, that West found her vocation. She had traveled to Nashville, Tennessee, to work on one of her mother's theatrical presentations, and it was in the country music capital that she bought her first guitar. Recalling how she found her life's vocation in her early twenties, West told Entertainment Weekly, "It took a long time to give myself permission to be who I wanted to be. But I'm on my way."

West taught herself to play guitar and learned her trade performing her songs beneath Brooklyn on subway platforms. "[I] really started on the holy road in '97," West commented on the Appleseed Records website, "when I performed my music publicly for the first time on the Bedford Avenue subway stop." On her first day performing, someone placed a $10 dollar bill in her guitar case, and she took this as a sign that she could reach people through music. "What I learned there was that I needed to pursue my voice honestly," she told Hatty, "and that's all that mattered."

While West may have come by her wanderlust naturally, she fueled it with a steady diet of American poets and writers like Walt Whitman and Jack Kerouac. In 2001 West traveled the open road, bound on a spiritual quest to meet one of her heroes, singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen. "That trip closed a chapter in my life," West told CD Showdown. "After that, things began moving in another direction entirely. … it was time. I needed to stop looking for my place and start making my place." When she found Cohen, he was living in a Zen monastery on the West coast. "He was the kindest man I'd ever met," she recalled on the Appleseed Records website. "He took me to visit the monastery and then sent me on my holy road."

Reached a Broader Audience

West introduced herself to listeners by issuing a self-titled EP. The "four-song set captures West's wistful storybook lyrics, deeply rooted in life's travels and emotional filters," noted McKenzie Wilson at All Music Guide. Besides three of her own poetic lyrics, she interpreted Cohen's "I'm Your Man." After West signed to Warner Brothers, the EP was reissued in 2002, paving the way for her first full-length album the following year. "For certain, the music business is a fickle one," the Music Box wrote of her first EP, "but if West resists overexposure and continues to craft songs like these, she'll be around for many years to come."

Even before signing to Warner Brothers, however, West's music was reaching a broader audience. Film director Spike Lee had asked her to sing "Holy Road" for a commercial supporting a musician's organization called IAM.com. The commercial was broadcast during the Super Bowl and the Oscars, providing West with wide exposure.

Warner issued Holy Road: Freedom Songs in 2003, and the album received a warm reception from reviewers. "She works with music's most basic qualities and warms them," wrote Wilson, "and in today's market, such a task is hard to pull off without sounding too plastic." The majority opinion, however, was countered by a vocal minority who argued that Warner Brothers had overproduced West's album in an attempt to create a more mainstream commercial product. Echoing complaints that West herself would later make, the Music Box wrote, "Holy Road: Freedom Songs is slick as can be."

After a prolonged struggle, West left Warner Brothers and began searching for a new label whose goals were similar to her own. She finally released her new album through Appleseed, an independent record label that never interfered with artist creativity and frequently worked with progressive social causes. Her new relationship with Appleseed also allowed her to issue "19 Miles to Baghdad," a politically tinged song that had been a source of friction between herself and Warner Brothers. "Fueled by her self-determination," wrote the Music Box, "I Pledge Allegiance to Myself fulfills the promise that was buried deep beneath the glossy sheen of her less than stellar debut." Other reviewers agreed. "Albums that stand as such singular declarations of a cohesive, clear-eyed artistic vision are rare, and in that regard I Pledge Allegiance To Myself confirms West's status as a first-rate folk artist," wrote Jonathan Keefe in Slant.

In 2007 West and her musical companion the White Buffalo (a.k.a. Anthony Kieraldo) continued to travel widely, performing a number of live dates throughout the United States. They also developed a program titled Tumbleweed Cabaret, based on West's serial novel, with performances including poetry, songs, dialog, and an original story. Picturing Tumbleweed Cabaret as an "interactive conscience cabaret" for the entire audience, the production echoed West's mantra of life as a journey. On West's internet site she maintains a journal, allowing her a place to share her ongoing personal search for meaning with her fans. A recent entry read: "The road grows on as we follow the Dharma into The Night, sailing by way of the ocean of Now and beginning to see the butterfly being free."

For the Record …

Born on July 21, 1973, in Brooklyn, New York.

Bought first guitar in 1996 at the age of 23; served self-designed apprenticeship performing in Brooklyn subways for two years; issued self-titled EP, re-issued by Warner Brothers, 2002; released Holy Road: Freedom Songs, 2003; left Warner Brothers, issued I Pledge Allegiance to Myself on Appleseed, 2006; developed Tumbleweed Cabaret, a live show featuring poetry, songs, and an original story, 2007.