ABOUT LYDIA

Lydia started out in Columbus playing at clubs like Staches, Apollos, Bernies and other campus bars then her music landed her in Atlanta where she really honed her skills as a singer/songwriter playing solo gigs at Eddies Attic (opened for Indigo Girls, Shawn Mullins, Peter Case and more!), Variety Playhouse (opening for many rising stars and legends such as Louden Wainwright III) and she played lots of gigs with her band, Long Flat Red at places like the Cotton Club, The Point, The Roxy, The Star Community Bar, The Highlander, and touring several times throughout the south and southeast playing in Nashville, Memphis, Birmingham, etc.

After her band broke up (during indie label courting and major label interest) Lydia moved to New York City played at clubs such as The Bitter End, Baggot Inn, Shade, and other Greenwich Village bars and coffee houses. After the events of 9/11 Lydia moved back to Ohio and gave up music to focus on web design and a more secure future. After getting married and having a child she realized the future is never secure and picked up the guitar again in 2007.

Lydia has put out a compilation of demos in the LP "A Horse Named Yankee, a low-fi compilation" in 2009, and an EP "Feels Like This, songs for kids and parents" in 2010. She is currently working as a part time web designer and is playing music in and around Columbus. She is planning to record a full length studio album - soon.

ABOUT THE MUSIC

It's not exactly pop. Maybe Alternative or Indie Folk Rock. It's a sort of bluesy, jazzy, pop, rock, folk style - with a desperate edge. I write about things that happen in my life. The things I fear, the ones I love, the places I've seen and the darkest roads I've been down. I also write kids songs - to mix it up.

In general, my songs all have a common thread. A mix of hope and despair is as close as I can get. It's easier to say what it is not than what it is. It's not happy, but hopeful, it's not sad, but introspective, it's not angry, just misunderstood. I find that my kids songs are a necessary balance in a tough world to bring me back to the core of sweet childhood.

I am influenced by everything; a lot of jazz - Latin and Afro- Cuban jazz. Afro-Cuban Allstars, Ruben Gonzalez and Stan Getz are among my favorites. And I LOVE the old Mississippi Blues like Muddy Waters. Also the '30's and '40's swing vocalists like Ella F., Louis A.,Cab C., and Edith Piaf are favorites of mine.

I grew up listening to Stan Getz, Miles Davis, Carly Simon, Buffy Saint Marie (anyone remember her?!), Ricky Lee Jones, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Queen, Fleetwood Mac, Rush to name a few. It was about the mid '80's when I began listening to my own choices. Among the first records I had and LOVED were, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Smiths, The Pogues, Joy Division, David Bowie, Talking Heads, New Order, Violent Femmes, Roxy Music, Devo, Elvis Costello, Adam and the Ants, The Clash, Kate Bush, Patty Smith, Tom Waits, Sex Pistols.... this list would go on and on, but mostly the music that I rocked out to and I mostly identified with was "punk".

I was really into music back then. I started writing songs in about 1987 and continue to date - with brief episodes of weary discontent with the whole business of writing songs. My early days were the biggest influences for me. Once in the Atlanta music scene and into the '90's I started to listen to some really AMAZING music by artists such as PJ Harvey, Nirvana, Martin Medeski and Wood, Radiohead, Morphine, Jeff Buckley, Beck, but mostly I was influenced by my music cohorts that I was sharing stages with, my band mates and other musicians I hung around with.

As we moved into the new millennium, my musical choices became more narrow and specific. I found myself getting into artists who have something deep and meaningful to say that reaches the center of my soul or voices that hit a certain string and give me a reason to live. Music legends like Leonard Cohen, Marianne Faithful, Patty Smith, Tom Waits, Billy Holiday and Nina Simone or newer musical artists like Vienna Tang, Feist, The Eels, The White Stripes, Beck and PJ Harvey all are on my iPod.

So what kind of music do I play? I still don't know. I hope it's the meaningful kind.

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