Singer-songwriter Lisa/Liza will perform original songs at the Oasis of Music beginning at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 18, at Trinity Church in Lewiston. Submitted photo
Singer-songwriter Lisa/Liza will perform original songs at the Oasis of Music beginning at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 18, at Trinity Church in Lewiston.
Lisa/Liza is the songwriting project of Portland singer and guitarist Liza Victoria. Throughout her catalogue of songs, she affirms the value of music and songwriting in her life, providing her comfort through illness and isolation, and helping her to hold onto cherished memories through the poetry she sings. Her album, “Shelter of a Song,” captures the immediacy and quiet power of Liza’s hushed vocals and fingerstyle acoustic guitar. Her songs are gentle meditations on joy, pain, human relationships and the natural world that stretch out slowly like long shadows.
“These songs were written while dealing with chronic illness,” she says. “When I was actively writing in these last two years, it was often in my strongest moments of healing, which has made this album a different process for me than others before it. The times when I felt well enough to sit with music allowed me a new kind of joy, because of these struggles with health. My vision and hope for this collection of songs is that they would allow room for the listener to find their own interpretations, similar to how someone might make a quilt where each piece holds personal connection but in its use it takes on additional shape.”
Her lyrics conjure vivid images of everyday beauty: a dog rolling in the grass on a nice day; walking down a darkened street to meet the sunrise; robins filling up a field. The natural world holds a strong place in these songs, providing much of the album’s optimism as bright and dreamlike descriptions of flora, fauna and celestial bodies are plainsung over muted strums and arpeggiated guitar patterns.
The Oasis of Music is a weekly music series of performances of roughly thirty minutes, running from September to May. Admission is free, with donations accepted. The musical genres vary greatly, in largely, but not exclusively, acoustic formats. COVID restrictions of optional mask-wearing and social distancing are observed. Trinity Church is located at 247 Bates St., Lewiston. For more information, call 207-344-3106.
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