Lis Harvey

Indie folk-rocker Lis Harvey (pronounced "Liz") was born in Boston on September 9, 1977, and raised in New Hampshire. Her musical training came young: she studied classical piano at age five, then progressed to singing in theater at age 11 and writing at age 12. After leaving art school in North Carolina, she relocated to Venice, CA, to pursue her singer/songwriter ambitions, drawing influences from Juliana Hatfield's pop instincts, Violent Femmes' punchy simplicity, early Shawn Colvin folk, and the percussive urgency of '80s metal bands. She honed her chops in the acoustic folk-pop realm, putting together a now out of print disc called Periphery in 1998 and an EP titled Teen Angst on tiny Erlendahle Records in 1999. She then headed to Pittsburgh, PA, where she pursued a creative writing degree at Carnegie Mellon University. A CMU grant partially funded the recording of her next CD, Human After All, recorded at Duquesne Studios and also released on Erlendahle in 2000. In 2001 she toured extensively, winning a Just Plain Folks music award and getting a slot in Boston's NeMO conference showcase. To promote her next disc, 2002's live Topography, Harvey set out to gain a spot in The Guinness Book of World Records for the most rapid tour of all 50 states by a solo female musician. Driving herself across the nation, she played all 50 states in 60 days, setting the record in fall 2002. ~ Joseph McCombs