Fat Possum Records dropped Lissie Maurus‘ debut EP last fallto little initial fanfare, but the Rock Island, Illinois bred singer/songwriter’s Why You Runnin’ has been gaining well-deserved attention ever since, built solely, IMO, on live performances, YouTube clips, and streaming new songs on social networking sites. (Brilliant alt-country-tinged covers of Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters” and Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” didn’t hurt either.)
“Lissie’s not tearing down any walls right now, but it’s impossible not to like her,” Pitchfork’s Tom Breihan wrote of her SXSW showcase this spring, a sentiment I completely agreed with at the time. Now in the run-up to the release of her debut LP, Catching a Tiger, however, the hooks in her songs, that voice (reminiscent of Neko Case, Victoria Legrand, or Kathleen Edwards at times, but always distinctly Lissie), and her audience are all big enough to put a serious dent in said “walls,” I’d say.
To wit: check out her duet with British singer/songwriter Ellie Goulding, live from the Brighton Great Escape, here or below.