LAPPER WILL ROCK WITH DETROIT'S FIRST LADY
The Flint Journal - First Edition
February 2nd, 2007THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Lapeer will rock with Detroit's first lady
Friday, February 02, 2007
By Doug Pullen
JOURNAL COLUMNIST
Tonight's second installment of the new Lapeer Music Concert Series at the Pix Theatre features the first lady of Detroit rock 'n' roll.
Liz Larin - singer, guitarist, songwriter and 15-time Detroit Music Awards winner - rolls into the cozy, 300-seat Pix Theatre in downtown Lapeer, for a 7:30 p.m. show. Opening is Don "Boz" Bostwick, who sings and plays blues on guitars made out of a cigar boxes.
Larin's a rocker with a tender side. She's been favorably compared to everyone from Alanis Morissette to Bonnie Raitt, playing a blues-rooted rock sprinkled with elements of folk, country, pop and R&B.
It's a mix that's served her well, fueled the passionate performances for which she's known, not only in Detroit, where she performs regularly, but around the country and Europe, where her dalliance with major labels in the late 1980s (as frontwoman of the band Rebel Heels) and early '90s (as a solo artist) first introduced her to a wider audience.
She now runs her own label, Bona Dea, on which she's released three albums, including 2005's "Wake Up, Start Dreaming." It's proven to be a prophetic title.
"I'm working on five different projects right now, all under different names," Larin says from her Oakland County studio. "Some are collaborations with other people, some are my own projects. I finally realized I can, indeed, morph to get out all the different types of music I do."
Larin, who listens to "everything from techno to classical," said one project, dubbed Stellar, is "techno played with Americana instruments." Another, called Seven Sisters, is more in the "new age, spiritual" arena, based in part on her research into music's healing powers.
She's working on an album of acoustic material, another rock album and has plans to produce two artists, one a rapper, the other a classical violinist.
The plan is to get them all out in the next year. That's pretty ambitious, but Larin says she's reached a point where she's comfortable working outside the strictures of rock 'n' roll. It's an outgrowth, really, of how her music's been evolving in recent years.
"It's very sort of freeing to know you don't have to be trapped by your own persona," she says. "There's so many other types of music gurgling up, my head just burst open. I realized (I) can do all these things, come out under different names, and work with other people."
Of course, she adds, "there's a time management crunch every day."
Her flirtation with Atlantic Records, for which she released two albums, was mostly a downer. Larin left Detroit for New York, then Los Angeles, but ultimately returned home unhappy and a little disillusioned. For her, there was too much emphasis on sex appeal, not music. "It was not allowing for growth," she notes.
Larin's flourished as a DIY artist, who uses her Web site (www.lizlarin.com) to make a more direct connection with fans. She writes to anyone who buys one of her CDs from the site. Several of her live performances have been captured on video and are posted on YouTube (go to www.youtube.com and do a search for her name).
And Larin, the rocker-turned-eclectic genre-crosser, is creating a new backdrop for her shows using movies made by fans.
Tonight's show, though, will be more like an introduction, since she doesn't play this way much. Larin will be backed by a three-piece band that includes Detroit Symphony guitarist Robert Tye, drummer Rick Beamon and bassist Chuck Bartels, a Lapeer native. She looks forward to showing a new audience what she can do.
"It's kind of like meeting brand new people. I love doing that, seeing if people are moved by the music or not," she says. It's a great way to road-test new material.."
Says Larin: "I definitely like to try new stuff out on unsuspecting audiences. "
Consider yourself warned!
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