Mad Mad Love by Lisa Richards

A melting pot mixture of jazz, folk,blues,pop, rock and country - honest, original, accessible music - her own brand of adventurous folk art.

She was raised on the tropical idyllic north eastern Australian coast, surrounded by beaches, waterfalls and rain-forests. As the youngest of seven children, she absorbed the sounds of her mother's talent as a gifted, classically trained pianist. The house was filled house with music. However, when Lisa was seven, her life changed dramatically when a car accident left her mother severely brain damaged. The piano was sold, the music stopped and the house became quiet.

Out of this silence came an unrelenting urge for Lisa to create her own music. She began performing on the streets of Australia's King Cross, near the noisy and chaotic red light district of Sydney, singing acapella. Her rendition of Nina Simone’s classic "Plain Gold Ring’" eventually brought her critical acclaim and led to a performance at the Caves Concert singing alongside veteran actor Jack Thompson. This lead to touring throughout Australia with the Cavers band.

Lisa moved to New York City from Australia in the early 90’s. Within a short time she was performing at some of the most coveted club gigs in the city - at The Bitter End, Cafe Sine, The Mercury Lounge, CBGB’s and Tramps. Her self-released debut CD "Not Quite So Low’" received kudos in publications such as Billboard, Relix and Rootstown magazines, as well as in local and regional publications throughout the USA, Europe and Australia, resulting in an abundant 70,000 plays on the now defunct MP3.com site.

Encouraged by her success to breakout, Lisa was chosen to perform at SXSW in Austin, Texas. However, fate also brought her to meet another

musician that first night in Austin, Jeff May, and they married six months later.

Since moving to Austin she has released 2 more CD’s of her work and has performed in Texas, Louisiana, Colorado and Australia. Her song-writing

talent has been acknowledged throughout the industry. She has been chosen as a finalist in The Billboard Song Contest, the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, the Rocky Mountain Folks festival, The Chris Austin Song-writing competition at Merlefest. Two of Lisa's original compositions are also included in the film "Out of these Rooms’" which won the Presidents Vision Award at the 2002 Great lakes Film festival.

This year Lisa has been chosen as a Kerrville New Folk Finalist and a Telluride Troubadour Finalist.

With her new CD, titled "Mad Mad Love" and recorded in NYC and Austin Texas, with production by Tim Bright, Billy Masters and Craig Ross, Lisa is poised to establish a new benchmark in her career.

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