California musician Eliza Rickman plays tonight at Meadowlark Coffee and Espresso at 8 p.m. Watch her video for "Cinnamon Bone" below, and learn more about her on Hear Nebraska and at Steam Punk Chicago
"Eliza's beautifully unusual voice, accompanied only by the unique tones of a toy piano, is mesmerizing ... absolutely exquisite." - Renee Trinca, President, Schoenhut Piano Company
LIZA RICKMAN is a singer, songwriter and pianist living and performing in California. Her unique and haunting sound combines the lilting sweetness of popular vocalists like Feist or Annie Clark with the gritty sensibilities of PJ Harvey and the playfulness of Kurt Weill. While she performs with a small chamber of musicians at venues like Hotel Cafe (Hollywood) & Viracocha (San Francisco), the toy piano is the central instrument on her EP, Gild the Lily (2009). Full of lovesick lullabies, Gild the Lily marries pure and sultry melodies with melancholy lyrics.
The raven-haired, porcelain-skinned songstress serenades listeners into an unexpected vulnerability while leading them on a quest for love by a little girl lost. Two stunning music videos were made in 2010 with Mindfruit Films. The first video ("Cinnamon Bone") was completed in the spring, and is a reverse effect, slow motion short film about a young woman reliving her heartbreak through the seasons. All effects for the video were analog only, and this unique concept landed "Cinnamon Bone" a spot at 2011's SXSW Film Festival. A stop-motion video for "Black Rose" was released in the fall after months of painstaking work. The use of an adorable Blythe doll in "Black Rose" quickly won Eliza much admiration from the doll community. Eliza recorded her first full-length effort this winter with Chicago-based engineer Mark Greenberg (Andrew Bird, Wilco, Mavis Staples). The album is anticipated for release in the fall of 2011, and highlights Eliza's talent for writing string arrangements, and includes contributions from percussionist Kevin O'Donnell (Andrew Bird's 'Bowl of Fire') & bassist Tom V. Ray (Neko Case, Jakob Dylan).
