* Liz Longley (at Bull Run Restaurant)

Liz Longley
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Liz Longley with Special Guest Brian Dunne.

For painters, the joy and challenge of creation begins with a blank canvas. For Liz Longley, it started in an empty room. 

"I was living in Boston and my roommate had just moved out, so I paced the hardwood floors of her room with my guitar," Longley recalls. "I walked back and forth until the songs were done. It was as though they were stuck in the apartment walls." 

Longley has a gift for culling musical treasures as though straight from thin air. And now, the Berklee College of Music graduate and award-winning songwriter is set to share them with listeners on her self-titled album, her first after signing with Sugar Hill Records in December 2014. 

The collection of 11 songs was recorded in Nashville with an all-pro band, and in a pulse-quickening fashion so rare in today's world of overproduced, airbrushed records. "I love being in the studio and feeding off the energy of other musicians. It's not something I get to do often on the road because I've mostly toured solo." 

While Longley's songs and vocals invite complimentary comparisons to Shawn Colvin, Paula Cole and Nanci Griffith, all artists she's supported live-her latest effort spotlights a style and confidence that's all her own. You can hear it in the subtle-yet-soaring vocals on "Memphis," the dagger directness of "Skin and Bones," the bittersweet farewell that drives "This Is Not the End" (featured in the 2012 season finale of Lifetime's Army Wives). They're all cuts that dare you to hold back the goosebumps.
VIDEO: BAD HABIT   -    VIDEO: PEACE OF MIND

Special Guest: Brian Dunne - With his sharp lyrical prowess and country-influenced vocals, Brian's music has won the attention and praise artists such as John Mayer and many others. His newest release, "The Brooklyn Bridge EP," has charted on the US iTunes singer/songwriter charts, as Brian tours in the U.S. folk scene far and wide.