Liz Tormes

Chapter One - An Ominous Beginning Liz moved from Nashville to NYC with a camera, a dog named Loretta, a bunny named Ola Belle and a boy who shall remain nameless (forever, so don't ask). Jack-knifing her Jeep in the Black Mountains at midnight (carrying said dog and bunny and nearly killing them all) while hauling her belongs behind her did nothing to deter her from the move. Said boy had the foresight to fly to the city. True story.

Once in Gotham City, she was suckered by said boy into a weekly gig playing rhythm guitar in his unorthodox string band. To appreciate the absurdity of the situation, you should know that Liz was not a musician, but had been recruited into the band for her innate sense of musical timing ("These Yankees don't have any sense of rhythm!", screamed frustrated said boy) . Not knowing how to finger chords, she stuck a playing card between the neck and the strings of an old junk-store guitar, laying down a raw backbeat. The band began to get a bit of a buzz. They landed on the cover of the Arts section of The New York Times, but all was not well behind the scenes. Liz quickly left the frustrated boy and sadly, the band. She took with her the camera, the dog, (and this time, an archtop guitar!!) - moving from one overpriced apartment in SoHo to another overpriced apartment in the East Village. Bunny Ola Belle is buried illegally somewhere on Sullivan Street . True story - don't tell anyone.
Missing the weekly gig (and the free drink tickets) Liz began to teach herself guitar and started singing and writing songs about said boy (the first song, anyway). She was asked by pianist Bob Packwood to start a band and they recruited fiddler Diane Stockwell. They covered early roots songs, murder ballads, and other uplifting numbers. They called themselves 'The Misery Trio' - go figure. Alas, it was short lived, as Liz started writing lots of songs about her very own miseries and the trio thing (though amazing) became a little confining.

Chapter Two - A Scorcher and a Wilco-er
Over a period of time while out and about in the bars of the East Village, repeated runs ins with her friend from Nashville, Ken Coomer (drummer for Wilco at the time), kept happening. Though her knew her as a photographer, he would inquire what she had been up to during those odd run-ins. "I have actually started playing music", Liz sheepishly replied. This led to Ken eventually inviting her to his Nashville home to record. She recorded several songs in his attic and living room with him & Jeff Johnson (of Jason and the Scorchers). Liz signed a production deal with the two and thought she was on the fast-track to stardom. Aside from having one song placed in an indie film screened only in France and Germany (seriously, it did show there), this went nowhere.

Chapter Three - Still with us?
Bueno! After spending a couple uneventful years playing gigs around town, Liz realized she would have to make a record on her own. She recorded it in Brooklyn with some amazing players and released it on her own, silk-screening the cover in her over-priced East Village kitchen and burning the CD-R's in her bedroom in the wee hours with help of Loretta the Dog (yes, she was thanked on the liner notes). This record is called Limelight. You need it and will love it. True story.

"Liz Tormes bridges the world of roots with the haunting, reverberating chill of dream-pop. Tormes has a deft approach in her vocal that conveys innocence, with just a touch of lurking menace." -SKYSCRAPER MAGAZINE