Lisa Gamache
Update: Lisa Gamache performs songs from her recent EP release, Dragon Fly, on Rush Evan’s show, “The Singer and the Song,” on KOOP FM on Saturday, December 9, 2023, from 3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Lisa Gamache, singer and songwriter raised in Houston, has been a professional musician since 1976. She teamed up with guitarist Earl Hunt in Austin to perform 70's folk rock covers in exchange for food and tips. The pair performed at Byron Scott's open mic that year, and Gamache fell in love with Austin's songwriter scene, and her affection remains.
Lisa recently released her self-produced second solo CD, Dragon Fly. The album began as a violent knee-jerk reaction to the COVID lockdown, and the frustration of the pandemic prompted her to start recording Dragon Fly. She enlisted the help of her long-time musician friends to capture some unreleased material and more recent compositions. The CD uniquely blends Americana and rock; influences come from southern rock, blues, R&B, punk, grunge, country, western, and folk.
"The songs express emotional experiences - many painful, some joyful - so they are a means of processing emotions and telling stories. That's true of most songs I've written, back to the early 80s. I hope people listening to this album can relate, feel moved, and be uplifted." Lisa will celebrate the album release at All The Sudden, a DIY project space and studio in East Austin that welcomes the creative community with her band Lisa Gamache & Those Guys (Will Sexton, Amy Lavere, Thierry LeCoz, Nick Ferrari, Claude McCan, and Billy Mansell). "Dragon Fly" is the title track “inspired by a strong memory of watching dragonflies skimming on the bayou water under the bridge by my house. Other vivid memories are there, so it's a very nostalgic song emblematic of my youth. The broad scope of memories and beauty of the dragonfly image seemed right for the CD title and cover art (Valerie Fowler).
Dragon Fly was recorded at The Zone in Dripping Springs, TX, and influenced by the inimitable stylings and contributions from Austin/Memphis luminaries, Will Sexton (guitars, bass) and Amy Lavere (standup bass), as well as Lloyd Maines (pedal steel, dobro), Nick Ferrari (guitar), Claude McCan (keyboards, melodica, harmonica), Thierry Le Coz (guitars), Billy Mansell (drums), and (engineer and mixer, drums on "Blue Skies" and "Dragon Fly"). "Out of necessity, I produced the album myself. I liked the sessions with Will and Amy the best. Watching Will work and hanging out with Amy was incredibly fun and awe-inspiring. Pat Manske engineered and mixed the album. Working with him was a joy. He is fast, funny, and also serious, and focused. We recorded all the songs in just two sessions, then replaced vocals and added harmonies in a third at The Zone."
Lisa grew up in Houston, and much of her writing stems from the attitudes and experiences she had growing up there. "We had tremendous freedom and lots of room to get into trouble - good fodder for songwriting, or on the dark side, doing some jail time. My family was musical, and they influenced me tremendously and taught me about harmony, which has always been a great gift and source of income. Harmony is so ingrained in me that I don't see how it's not that way for everyone. Before I could walk, I crawled under my mother's grand piano. I listened to her practicing Chopin for hours, now conjuring memories of engulfing sound, the geometry of the piano's underbelly, and the cold terrazzo floor. I remember the sheer joy - talking about it now, I feel it in my body. It would be impossible to grow up in our house and not be deeply influenced musically, thank God.
Music became my life raft in difficult times." Lisa's music history is varied and fascinating. Songwriter-turned-political-guru Mark McKinnon recruited Lisa to join his combo, Lazlo Frink and the Odd Sofa Review, playing packed houses at the Cactus Cafe and Hole in the Wall and fueling her love affair with performing. She was drawn to The Huns in their raging punk-rock glory and immediately succumbed to the siren call of Austin's punk scene. Fascinated by the raucous, angry style of Phil Tolstead, she thought, "I could do that." She collaborated with guitarist/songwriter Mike Alvarez and helped found Austin's Max and the Makeups in 1981. After the Makeups, Lisa joined Skank, featuring Eddie Pantell, Bruce Hughes, Glover Gill, Lynnie Harris, and a series of drummers: Billy Mansell, Hector Munoz, and Ian Bailey. With songs penned by Pantell, Hughes, and Lisa, Skank's only LP, I Never Said That (1984), was a critical success and heightened interest in the band, yielding opening gigs for national acts like The Red-Hot Chili Peppers and The Neville Brothers. Press included a favorable column-inch blurb in Rolling Stone Magazine and a mention in Playboy Magazine's "After Hours," describing Lisa as "a singer with a big girl voice reminiscent of Annie Lennox." Lisa joined the Jam & Jelly Girls in Dino Lee's White Trash Review in a time that overlapped with Skank (1983-84). Skank's popularity grew, and she was replaced with another Jam & Jelly Girl. As the band's notoriety and following grew, so did internal tensions, and Skank disbanded in early 1987, leading Lisa to team up with Claude McCan's in his uplifting R&B dance music combo, How to Kiss. In 1988 Lisa moved to Los Angeles and spent 27 years there writing, recording, and shopping a demo of original songs, one produced by then-rising star Chris Stokes, with a female R&B group, Franky. They were signed to Morgan Creek Records in 1993 and recorded the first three songs of an LP. After those sessions, the label folded due to mysterious rumors of fiscal mismanagement.
The demise of Morgan Creek Records in 1993 was a turning point for Lisa, who stepped back from the music business to start a family. Her daughter Isabella was born in June 1994. By 1996, songs once more began rattling around in her head. She bought a guitar, started studying, and co-authored several songs with her friend Frank Hernandez. During this time, Lisa found her way to the Highland Grounds open mic scene and became a regular over the next seven years. She was recruited through the Highland Grounds network for dozens of background vocal sessions with various Los Angeles artists. At one of those gigs, she met drummer Dan Marfisi who later recorded and produced her first solo album, Mad Wives' Tales, released in 2003.
The album contains songs by Lisa and some co-written with Hernandez and Marfisi. In the years between the release of Mad Wives' Tales and Lisa's return to Austin in 2015, she juggled parenting and full-time teaching with occasional performances. Also in the mix was a marriage that dissolved in 2014 and spurred her return to Austin. Back in the swing of all things Austin, Lisa has sung live and recorded supporting vocals with Larry Seaman, Dennis Jay, and Dave Fore. “Being from Texas, I have absorbed much of the environment here. I’ve reacted to Texas politics and bubba culture in a rebellious way, mostly in my punk rock years (1979 - 1984). I’ve been steeped in all genres of music and experienced amazing, natural phenomena here. While driving through the desert to El Paso, Hector Munoz and I witnessed a blazing meteor with a trail of fire and blue smoke about a hundred feet or so above the car. Dumbfounded, we watched it streak past us into the desert to our right. How many people have seen such a thing? Texas and its wild extremes have played a big part in my music.” Aside from music, Lisa is involved in her community and tutors students through the City of Austin's volunteer program. She aligns with charities that serve children in need (like HOLA, where she worked for 15 years in Los Angeles) and those that serve the elderly, like Meals on Wheels.
Website:https://lisagamache.bandzoogle.com/dragon-fly
All The Sudden venue:https://www.allthesudden.com/
