Take a walk with me down Fascination Street as I get to know Lauren Lucas. Lauren is a singer songwriter originally from South Carolina, and currently living in Nashville, Tn. In this episode, we chat about her growing up in South Carolina and making the move to Nashville. We also discuss the craziness of her being signed to a publishing deal as a teenager; having never written a song! She shares some of her inspirations, and some of the amazing artists that she has opened for on regional and national tours. I ask her why she decided to attend Belmont University, and how she ended up teaching songwriting at that same school. We briefly talk about some of the bands and acts that she has been part of, or associated with. Naturally we do a deep dive into songwriting and the importance of learning to co-write. Lauren graciously lets me play one of my favorite older songs of hers, and then later on I get to play her newest release! Finally, we get into how she came to be part of the writing team that composes all of the music and interstitials for the Netflix sitcom Leanne. (The voice you hear sing the theme is Lauren’s). If you have a chance, check out Lauren’s podcast ‘The Happiest Hour Podcast’, available wherever you get your podcasts.
Liz Longley Take a walk with me down Fascination Street as I get to know Nashville based artist Liz Longley. In this episode, Liz and I chat about her being born & raised in Pennsylvania, not far from where Taylor grew up, and how there MUST be something in the water in that area! Then we get into some of the reasons behind her attending; as well as some of the thigs that she learned at The Berkley School of Music. We touch very briefly on her similarly brief NYC residence, before she packed her guitar and her song book, and headed for the much more apt Nashville. Of course, I get her to explain a musical concept that I only recently learned about, and it turns out that it is her favorite musicology term! Then we talk about her music. Liz has released SEVEN albums! I pepper her with questions about some of my favorites of her work, and the meaning behind them. Naturally, I ask her about her two Kickstarter campaigns. In 2012, Liz launched a Kickstarter campaign designed to help her finance a studio album. By the end of the campaign, she has raised 157% of her goal. The resulting record that she made, landed her a record deal with Sugar Hill Records! We discuss a bit of her time at that record company, and how her exit from it transpired. Sadly, when she left the record company, they had received & shelved her latest album. So, she turned once again, to her backers at Kickstarter. Her 2020 Kickstarter campaign had a goal to raise enough funds to PURCHASE the finished album from the record company. The campaign met the stated goal in the first 24 hours and went on to raise 333% of the financial goal; making that one of the biggest musician campaigns ever funded on the platform. She used the extra funds to create TWO more records! Liz was a blast to chat with, and she even let me play two of her songs that I absolutely love. PLUS, we get together to come up with an amazing offer for the listeners of this episode. Liz will send every listener a FREE CD EP (just pay shipping)! Click the link below to get that FREE CD! Make sure you follow her on all of the social medias, and check her website for tour dates near you. At the time of this recording, Liz was about 8.75 months pregnant with her second child. That baby was born less than 2 weeks ago! Congratulations Liz and welcome Connor to the world!
