Portland, Oregon native, and current Brooklyn resident, Liz Vice releases her sophomore album Save Me. The album retains Vice’s signature soulful sound that is deeply rooted in spirituality.
Save Me is the follow up to her debut album There’s a Light that received overwhelming praise from the likes of NPR Music, Baeble Music, WUNC, AXS, World Cafe Next, The Bluegrass Situation, NBC and garnered over One Million plays on Spotify . The overwhelming response to the album led to tours with artists such as The Temptations, The Wood Brothers, Joss Stone, the Blind Boys of Alabama and performances on prestigious shows such as Mountain Stage, WoodSongs Radio and eTown.
All the praise came as a surprise to Vice who never intentionally set out pursue music. Vice was diagnosed with a debilitating illness as a teen that put her on hemodialysis for three years. A kidney transplant saved her life and led to a period of deep healing and perspective. Vice felt like this was her second chance at life and headed to film school to pursue a career in production. While at school she found and started attending a church whose community was made up of young people and began to sing background vocals with the worship team . It was here that she started to feel that nudge, the call to singing that would not leave her alone. Despite having intense stage fright she was persuaded to sing a solo during a Sunday evening service. That one performance pushed Vice to answer the call to use her voice, and catapulted her into a life of an artist and performer
The material for Save Me is taken from different periods of Vice’s life and her struggle to continuously answer that call to music. The gorgeous gospel inspired lead off track “Drift Away,” is a thank you letter to the church she attended as a young teen. It was her sanctuary from the hardships of growing up in a single parent home of five, and where she first learned about about harmonies, how to sing and most importantly, how to be brave. “To Dance with Death” sees Vice facing her own mortality. “This is my ‘Moses Song’’ says Vice. “It will be used to ‘resurrect the walking dead (spiritually, emotionally), with songs of miracles.’ I should be dead but I am not and there are times when I wonder why I am still here. But, since I am still here, how can I bring hope and life into things that seem dead.“ The powerful title track “Save Me,” that features Vice’s voice on top of spares piano compositions is the first song she ever wrote. She penned this song while contemplating her current chosen path of music and performing. She came to realize that her voice was a gift, and one that brings people together who would normally never occupy or share the same space, so she should just sit back and let the journey unfold.
Liz Vice will be bringing these songs on the road this month supporting Lake Street Dive in May, in addition to a number of festival dates and an album release show at S.O.B’s in New York.
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