Vocalist Liz Lottmann will be the featured guest at the Artist Retreat Center's Third Thursday House Concert at 7 p.m. on April 16. Joining Liz will be John Hines on stand-up and electric bass and Max Taylor on guitar. The trio will be performing Latin-style jazz, blues and ballads.
Lottmann said she is thrilled to be performing with the versatile Hines who is an in-demand player -- "he can play with any band" and Taylor, who has the "Albert King chops."
The song list for the ARC performance will be "relatable jazz -- not Coltrane, more Latin jazz" and "irreverent blues" -- not "Mustang Sally" or "Chain of Fools" --the blues songs that are overplayed by every blues group.
Lottmann said she wanted to perform songs that have inspired and impressed her during her career.
"I had the urge to do something simple, go back to the old songs -- condense things down, really interpret a song and get it back to the basics of what the songwriter intended."
The trio will perform Delbert McClinton's "New York City," BB King's "Never Make Your Move Too Soon," and songs by Etta James, John Mayer, Taj Mahal and NRBQ among others. There will also be some ballads, but they will lean more toward torch songs.
Lottmann, a Bella Vista resident, has received many honors and accolades for her music including the Northwest Arkansas Music Award's Lifetime Achievement Award. She is well-known throughout NWA as the band leader for former popular NWA group's blues band "Lectric Liz & Livewire," R&B soul band "LaFuSo" and blues rock band "Jigsaw Mud." She is currently a member of the 10-piece all-female blues group "Divas on Fire," which will be performing at the upcoming Blues in the Natural State Festival.
Although she's best known as a blues singer, throughout her career she has performed all genres of music both as a solo performer and in musical groups. She got her start as a solo singer-songwriter in Memphis during the late 1960s heydays of Sam Phillips and Sun Studios. Lottmann lays claim to the fact that she was the first woman who was signed by Phillips.
During that time she had the opportunity to perform with members of groups like The BarKays, Amazing Rhythm Aces, Roomful of Blues, Spyro Gyro and even members of Muddy Waters' band and Billy Joel's band.
"Those were the days when there were no 'women musicians,' we were all 'chick singers.' But someone told me I wasn't a 'chick singer,' I was a musician. That was the biggest compliment I've ever been paid."
The Artist Retreat Center is located at 13467 Lookout Drive in Old Bella Vista, across from Lake Bella Vista.
Community on 04/01/2015