The Cruel War - Liz Ryder

Songwriter Liz Ryder has a bit of the minstrel in her blood. After years of study and practice, performance and teaching, and an international life that finds her now in her new home town of San Francisco, she recently completed her fifth record, Ghost Letters From The Sea, as well as a soon-to-be-released, four-song EP.

Her previous recordings include Sacramento Orange, 2001; On the Neon Highway; 2003, Skyline (EP), 2005; and Chrysalis (EP), 2007.

She grew up in England in an environment rich with creativity, and in a landscape rife with folk legacy around the countryside of Shropshire and Worcestershire mostly, and in small, rural market towns like Leominster, Ludlow, and Worcester City, places where the folk music tradition still thrives.

She also was exposed to many diverse styles of music early on and she soon found herself drawn to artists like Tori Amos, Ani Difranco, Joan Baez and Kate Rusby. She has garnered vocal and stylistic comparison to DiFranco and Baez.

Along the way, she has received inspiring accolades including recognition for a BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award (2002), winning a composition competition at 16 for an a’capella choral setting, and receiving the undergrad prize for composition at university.

She holds an M.A. in Music, and, in addition to writing songs, recording and performing regularly, she teaches Music and English and Public Speaking.

She performs regularly throughout Northern California and occassionally in Europe. She recently opened for Richard Thompson, played the main stage at Sidmouth, but says nostalgically, “nothing really beats a cozy gig on a winter evening in a Sheffield pub!” Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.