Liz Brasher

Possessing a commanding vocal timbre and an approach that fuses soul, adult pop, rock, blues, and gospel, singer and guitarist Liz Brasher shaped her wide-ranging retro-soul aesthetic from early exposure to North Carolina church choirs together with vintage soul recordings she encountered during her residence in Chicago. Her first album, Painted Image, issued in 2019, was captured at storied Memphis studios after she settled in Tennessee.

Born into a Dominican-Italian family in rural North Carolina, Brasher performed in her church choir throughout childhood and later absorbed the Beatles, Delta blues, and Southern soul. While studying at a Chicago college she immersed herself in American music history, absorbing material by songwriters from Stephen Foster to Lead Belly and onward to Bob Dylan and the Staple Singers; she then acquired guitar skills independently and began composing original pieces.

Initial live appearances followed her relocation to Atlanta, though an affinity for that city’s celebrated soul tradition soon guided her to Memphis. There she found fresh songwriting direction that produced the debut EP Outcast. Backed by road work with the Zombies and Red Wanting Blue, the EP appeared on Fat Possum Records in April 2018; the same label issued her first full-length, Painted Image, in January 2019, tracking it at Electraphonic Recording, Ardent, and Royal Studios in Memphis.