Liz Mandeville

Liz Mandeville entered the world in Wisconsin amid a household rich with musical and artistic influences. Her father performed folk songs on guitar and studied at the Art Institute of Chicago through the GI Bill; he instructed his daughter in both painting and vocal technique while bringing her along to museums, gardens, and galleries tied to his professional activities. Her mother, an actress, ensured the girl received formal training in theater arts, preparation that later proved useful once Mandeville chose to perform as a blues singer.

Artists and musicians regularly visited the family home, where young Liz received encouragement to compose songs, poetry, and short stories. Journeys through the South introduced her to blues, bluegrass, traditional country, folk music, New Orleans jazz, and funk.

Her earliest paid appearances took place in Wisconsin coffee houses, where she delivered numbers her father had taught her and drew early inspiration from James Brown, Muddy Waters, and Lightnin' Hopkins.

Formerly credited as Liz Mandeville-Greeson, she appeared regularly in Chicago clubs throughout the 1990s and 2000s, with additional engagements that carried her to New York City, California, and numerous intermediate locales. In the late 1980s she logged extensive road miles across the United States and Canada in a van alongside her band the Supernaturals. During the 2000s she collaborated with the Blue Points.

In 1994 she encountered Chicago bassist Aron Burton and joined him onstage at that year’s Chicago Blues Festival. Two tracks she recorded with Burton appeared on his 1996 album Aron Burton Live, prompting her signing to Michael Frank’s Earwig Music Company.

From 1994 through 1999 Mandeville maintained a steady presence at the Blue Chicago nightclubs, sharing bills with Willie Kent, Maurice John Vaughn, and Michael Coleman. Her first two albums drew on players from that circle, among them Burton on bass, Allan Batts on keyboards, and Dave Jefferson on drums.

Her honors include a 2008 nomination for Blues Songwriter of the Year from the American Roots Music Association, semifinalist placement in the 2006 International Songwriting Competition for the composition “Life Sentence of the Blues,” and the 2005 Best Songwriter prize in the USA Songwriting Competition for the humorous number “He Left It in His Other Pants.”

All of her albums for the Chicago-based Earwig Music label—Red Top (2008), Back in Love Again (2002), Ready to Cheat (1999), and Look at Me (1996)—feature her witty original material. She has also contributed to releases by other Chicago blues artists, including Johnny Drummer’s 2000 album Unleaded Blues, Aron Burton’s Live from Buddy Guy’s Legends, and the Blue Chicago label compilation Red Hot Mamas spotlighting local women blues singers.