KCRW has a long history with Lissie. We first met the singer in 2007, when she came in to sing backup for Jesca Hoop. Jump forward a bit and her solo EP became one of the station’s most played albums of the year in 2009 and we featured her in a rousing live session on Morning Becomes Eclectic. Now, we’re excited to offer a stream of her debut full length – “Catching a Tiger” – on Fat Possum records, two weeks before it’s in stores.
Lissie’s former tournmate, Ray LaMontagne, will be our next Album Preview on Monday, August 9. “God Willin’ and the Creek Don’t Rise” is already a huge album at the station so don’t miss that one either!
From DJ and Music Librarian Eric J Lawrence:
Lissie “Catching a Tiger” (Fat Possum)
With her debut album, “Catching a Tiger,” singer/songwriter Elisabeth Maurus, aka Lissie, has quickly made a name for herself as an artist to watch. Not that it happened overnight. Here at KCRW we were first acquainted with her music by some demos she sent us in 2007, which then-Music Director Nic Harcourt played on Morning Becomes Eclectic. A year later Chris Douridas introduced us to “The Longest Road,” her collaboration with DJ Morgan Page, which was even nominated for a Grammy for the Deadmau5 remix. Then in 2009 current Music Director Jason Bentley played her Fat Possum label debut EP, featuring the station favorite, “Little Lovin’.” It became one of the most played EPs of that year, and her music has since been heard in various film and television projects.
Jump to the present: Lissie is set to release “Catching a Tiger” in the US this August. Already it has been a Top 25 hit in the UK, with similar success throughout Europe, and it has led critics to rave. The BBC writes “she sounds like one of the greatest female vocalists of a generation, arguably without even really trying.” High praise indeed, but her versatility, her confidence and her utter comfortability with folk, country and rock idioms is readily evident. It seems impossible for a debut to sound so accomplished and mature, but Lissie seems to be that rare exception.
Track listing:
1. Record Collector
2. When I’m Alone
3. In Sleep
4. Bully
5. Little Lovin’
6. Stranger
7. Loosen The Knot
8. Cuckoo
9. Everywhere I Go
10. Worried About
11. Look Away
12. Oh Mississippi