One Woman Show
LA VIEW
April 4th, 2006LA VIEW
ONE-WOMAN SHOW
Songwriter Larin makes a Lapeer encore
By Mike Arnholt – LA View Editor 3-30-06
Singer-songwriter Liz Larin takes the stage this Friday and Saturday night at 9 p.m. at Abruzzo’s Piano Grille in downtown Lapeer.
This will be Larin’s second visit this year, following up on a one-night visit in January.
She says she’s back in Lapeer because she liked what she saw, “I always look for good rooms to play,” she says, noting the intimacy of friend Tony Abruzzo’s downtown gem. Here bigger club gigs normally include three seasoned sidekicks on bass, rythmn guitar and drums, but at Abruzzo’s the singer-songwriter will do her solo, one-woman show.
A favorite of the Detroit music scene, she can regularly be found at Good Night Gracie and Memphis Smoke along with other clubs anywhere from Ann arbor to the Royal Oak-Birmingham-Ferndale triangle.
They say you can never go back “home,” but after a decade –long treck that took her to England, Los Angeles, Germany and Australia, Larin settled back in the Detroit area in 1998 to reconnect with family and friends.
Since then she’s picked up 15 Detroit Music Awards – including Outstanding Pop Artist and Outstanding Rock/Pop Vocalist in 2003 and 2004.—and produced three albums on her Bona Dea Music label to add to the two she recorded in her earlier globe-trotting days with Atlantic Records.
That major studio experience was a little restrictive, Larin notes. “I felt a little isolated. I couldn’t just play for people. I really enjoy the gigs and the joy of just playing.”
She’s very serious about her craft. “If you’re a true musician you can play anywhere. That’s when you know you’ve got your ego in check.”
On her last Lapeer visit, Larin filled the room. Heavily influenced by strong rock and jazz roots, her vocals offer a hint of Fleetwood Mac’s Christina McVeigh here or Annie Lennox there in her edgy, sultry voice. Her thoughtful original lyrics explore relationships – both won and lost. A rare treat is her reverent cover arrangement of Led Zepplin’s Going To California.
Larin says in the last year she did more than 250 live performances crammed in between producing her latest album Wake Up, Start Dreaming, and other writing and studio work. The self-taught musician also plays bass, lead guitar and keyboards in the studio and has lent her voice to a movie score and what she calls commercial ‘jingles.”
And that off-the-stage work is something she plans to do a little more of.
Despite her love for live club work, she plans t cut back a bit. She says she is facing reality. She admits, “I’m not having to rely on clubs as much to make a living,” but also notes the number of clubs our there with live music on declining. “They’re getting more and more sparse.”
She’s also fascinated with some of the creative freedom of computers. Her live solo performance is backed up by carefully crafted “drum loops,” she created in her studio. She says they’re a creative leap past the drum machines that have been a staple for many bar bands.
Larin says she’s proud of her musical quest, beginning with a strong jazz influence at home growing up in the Detroit area. She has backed that up with what be call’s ‘master classes,” with other musicians she looks up to. “I start by asking them questions. Over the course of a three-hour session we sit down and talk about music and life.”
And the life part if just as important as the music, she says. “When you’re learning all you can about jazz, it’s just as important to learn what is going on politically and historically to be able to understand what the music is about.”
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