Country Star Senior Set to Rock

The Arts First Performance Fair, to be held this year on May 6, is a fairly egalitarian undertaking. No event is lauded above the others, nor is it difficult to set up a performance. But despite this even-handed mentality, it is still highly likely that the performance by acclaimed country singer-songwriter Liz W. Carlisle ’06 will be one of the top attractions.

Carlisle and her five-piece band will take Harvard Yard Stage at 3:30 p.m. on May 6—and again on May 7—to perform a 20-minute set consisting both of acoustic numbers and all-out rockers.

“My absolute favorite [performance] has been Arts First,” says an enthusiastic Carlisle, whose self-released solo album “Five Star Day” came out last August and has since been nominated by the Independent Music Awards for Country Album of the Year.

“I love the chaos of having too many wonderful things around you, and not having a hierarchy of values,” she adds. Carlisle isn’t just talking about the performance fair, but about Harvard in general.

While technically a Quincy House resident, Carlisle’s nonstop touring keeps her from staying at Harvard for long. Most of the time she travels up and down the East Coast, but she also occasionally flies out to Texas or Montana.

“[Touring] is an incredible education in business, probably better than going to business school,” she says with a full laugh. “Also, there’s learning how to adjust a microphone stand, or booking a complicated itinerary between Kansas and Texas,” she adds.

Carlisle grew up in a musical Montanan household—“James Taylor was always playing,” she says. Her first major inspiration was her father, who taught her how to sing and play guitar while she was in her late teens. Her second influence, once she had learned to drive, came from the country stations whose signal filtered through her car.

After arriving at Harvard, Carlisle found another inspiration at Harvard Square’s Club Passim—her producer/co-writer/keyboardist Russell Wolff, a student at the Extension School who will also graduate this year. Wolff’s band will perform directly after Carlisle’s, on the same stage.

Ingrid Schorr, the Office for the Arts representative in charge of organizing the Performance Fair, says that the OFA provides “very little artistic oversight,” and that it attempts to extend Harvard’s resources to motivated students.

Carlisle cites the OFA’s importance in her own musical development: “I’ve had a really dynamic relationship with OFA…what they do is really unique in comparison to other universities and other kinds of communities,” she says. She applied for music lessons through the OFA’s subsidy program, and during one year helped to produce the Arts First Guide.

Carlisle is graduating with a degree from a joint special concentration in ethnomusicology in partnership with the Folklore and Mythology department; her thesis was appropriately written on a folk festival. She will also be the Undergraduate Speaker at the June 8 Commencement.

After graduation, Carlisle will stay connected to Harvard as a Masters’ Assistant in Quincy House. In addition, she hopes to work with the OFA in some sort of mentor program. Until then, this Saturday will bear the fruits of Carlisle’s latest—and perhaps most significant—partnership with the Harvard arts community.

—J. Samuel Abbott