‘A Fine Voice from a Fine City!’ Interview/Feature in January Issue of Norfolk Suffolk Life Magazine

Happy New Year! Wishing you all a very happy, healthy and productive 2024.

“A fine voice from a fine city!” Such an exciting start to the year – I have a lovely in-depth interview/feature in the new January issue of Suffolk Norfolk Life magazine. Available in WH Smith, local shops, from their website or call 01728 622030 to buy a copy for £3.50 (plus postage).

It was really nice to speak to John Kerrison about my music career, songwriting, private teaching, music courses & well-being sessions for Adult Learning, as well as my work as a supporting artist in some Norfolk and Suffolk films and TV shows.

screenshot-teaching-poster

Do you know anyone who would like to learn to play guitar or ukulele in 2024? Or have you always wanted to learn how to sing? I am running one-to-one and small group lessons in Norwich NR2 at the beautiful Christ Church. Fun sessions tailored just for you with flexible times. A safe and welcoming space, no previous experience needed! Please contact me at parrotrecords@gmail.com

Summer of Events, FutureFest, More Music Courses and TV Shows

It’s been a fun summer attending a few wonderful cultural events and festivals including Wimbledon and a 1940s weekend for the Seagull Theatre in Lowestoft where I got to dress up in vintage attire. I had a fab (see what I did there!) time seeing the new Paul McCartney exhibition “Eyes of the Storm” at the National Portrait Gallery. It was so cool viewing his intimate, never-before-seen images which offer a personal perspective on what it was like to be a Beatle at the start of ‘Beatlemania. More recently, it was great to be back at Latitude Festival after a few years – so many music highlights: Impressive new talent at the Inbetweeners Stage from Access Creative and amazing sets by Metronomy and Pulp. Last weekend I went to Primadonna Festival for the first time in the beautiful surroundings of the Food Museum, Stowmarket. So much creativity there with fascinating workshops, panels and talks on writing and music. It was lovely to meet JB Gill from JLS, now a children’s author and farmer, after a talk and signing of his children’s book and a real highlight was meeting the brilliant Miki Berenyi from Lush who was there to discuss her highly acclaimed memoir ‘Fingers Crossed’

first-light
Lisa Redford at First Light Festival

In June I had a busy “two gigs in one day tour.” It was lovely to perform at First Light Festival in Lowestoft for the first time – such a warm welcome and great atmosphere. It was also wonderful to share the night again with the fantastic The Weeping Willows as part of their UK tour. Thanks to Grapevine for Music for hosting such a special night, Jason French for joining me on sublime banjo and fiddle, Chad Mason for gorgeous sound, and Katie Harris for this live photograph below.

weepingw-steve
Lisa Redford and Jason French live at Grapevine for Music, Norwich with The Weeping Willows. Picture by Katie Harris.
futurefest-lisa
Lisa Redford at FutureFest 1.30pm

For my next gig I will be supporting my friends at Future Radio, performing at the inaugural FutureFest – a vibrant celebration of community, music and fun – to raise money for local charity Future Projects. Future Radio will be taking over The Brickmakers Pub on Sunday 6th August, featuring live bands on three stages, food trucks, kids activities, and DJs from midday until 11pm. Full-access tickets are just £10 (plus booking fee) and under 13s go free! Get your tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/…/futurefest-tickets…
For more information, visit futureradio.co.uk/fest/ I will be playing a solo set at 1.30 as part of this amazing and eclectic lineup. All funds raised at FutureFest will go toward local charity, Future Projects.

ukulele-taster-lisa-redford-16-may-2023
Ukulele Taster Session with Lisa Redford at Norfolk and Norwich Millennium Library for Creativity and Wellbeing Week

I May I ran a lovely ukulele taster session for #CreativityAndWellbeingWeekAdult Learning. It was so great to see some new and also familiar faces joining me for a fun strum downstairs at Norfolk and Norwich Millennium Library. Thanks to Norfolk Library and Information Service for having me.

Join me in September for some more fun group music courses. I will be teaching ukulele for beginners and improvers again as well as guitar for beginners and there will also be more singing for well-being sessions. For further information and to enrol, please visit the Adult Learning website: https://www.norfolk.gov.uk/education-and-learning/adult-learning

ukulele-sep-23
Ukulele courses for Adult Learning, Wensum Lodge, Norwich
guitar-beginners
Guitar for Beginners Course with Lisa Redford at Wensum Lodge, Norwich
ukulele-taster-cdxcn6022p
Ukulele Taster Session with Lisa Redford

Always exciting seeing filming projects I’ve worked on finally make it to the TV. Back on Netflix recently was Catching Killers – try and spot me playing a TV reporter in season 3. All episodes of brand new series Mother Undercover are now available on HULU in the US, and on Disney+ in the UK. In this inspiring series I was excited to play a photographer.

Newspaper Feature Interview Now Online

edp-cup-1
Lisa Redford. Photo by Denise Bradley

Really nice to see my recent interview with the Eastern Daily Press newspaper is now online.
The link is here

As the interview mentions, I’ve been really invested in my teaching and sharing my passion for music, with beginner guitar and ukulele courses and community singing, I’ve recently finished teaching my first Singing for Wellbeing courses and look forward to running more inspiring singing sessions and music courses next year. Wishing you all a Wonderful Christmas and happy and fulfilling 2023!

denise-bradley-arms
Lisa Redford. Photo by Denise Bradley

New Shows and Festivals Announced, More Community Singing and Acting

lisa-last-session-hands
Lisa Redford – Community Singing Sessions at the Millennium Library, Norwich

When I started the fun and free #community #singing sessions in Norwich libraries earlier this year, I didn’t think it would continue to grow. I’m excited to be starting a new #online singing group from June 6 – July 11 for Viewpoint – a mental health service user charity based in Hertfordshire.

I’ve also been really enjoying running my beginner ukulele and guitar courses at Wensum Lodge this summer term. It’s been so rewarding and fun to teach in-person again after so long and share my passion for both instruments. I’m also resuming my one to one music lessons in-person and have a new teaching venue: the beautiful Christ Church, just off Mile End Road at NR2 2AQ. If you would like to find out more, please get in contact.

viewpoint
Viewpoint Singing Group

I’m also continuing to enjoy a mixture of acting roles. I had a great time recently filming in a beautiful North Norfolk beachside location, part of a fascinating true story and playing a glamorous party girl. It’s exciting to finally see projects coming on to the screen and I’m really looking forward to seeing ‘This England’ on Sky TV later this year in which I play a journalist in one scene. Kenneth Branagh looking and sounding remarkably like Boris Johnson!

lisa-april-2022-70s-party
Playing a party girl in upcoming crime documentary
281166347_5640312275999206_774316685946661747_n-1

Upcoming Gigs!

Really excited that I will be performing on Thursday 30th June at The Reindeer Norwich with wonderful award-winning Americana duo, The Weeping Willows from Melbourne, Australia. The free gig will be part of their upcoming UK tour which also includes a performance at this year’s Maverick Festival.

I’m also looking forward to returning to the lovely Reepham Festival; performing at Whitwell Station on Sunday, August 6th. More details on their official website and the shows page.

reepham-2022-1

Neal Casal

Beautiful tributes coming in for Neal Casal. Been feeling heartbroken at the loss of someone who was a huge musical inspiration to me. World class musician, singer/songwriter, photographer and such a warm, kind soul.
He provided huge encouragement when I was starting my career. I loved his music so much I would perform and cover his beautiful songs. He said it meant a lot to him that I covered his amazing track ‘Fell on Hard Times’ and put it on one of my albums.
A true artist – I can’t believe he’s gone. 
https://jambands.com/…/jay-blakesberg-shares-memories-of-…/…

nc-words-1024x281-3777188
A message I’ll treasure from Neal who wrote these lovely words to me about my album ‘Clouds with Silver.’ It meant the world to me.
img_5579-4854680
Sweet memories of seeing Neal and his amazing band  performing in Europe. Good times.
img_5578-7433427
Such an honour to be photographed by Neal in London.
img_5582-e1567584672443-768x1024-9746109
Just some of Neal’s amazing releases.
img_5584-e1567594812341-768x1024-8352835
Cool feature in French magazine Crossroads
Live one-off performance I did of his wonderful and emotional song “Fell on Hard Times” at Norwich Arts Centre – such great and powerful lyrics – during a UK headline tour.

An Update on my Pledge Campaign

As you may have read, PledgeMusic has been dealing with financial issues that have resulted in late payment to artists whose fans have pledged money via the direct-to-fan and crowdfunding platform. I am very disappointed to report I have had no direct response regarding my project. It now means that the release of my upcoming EP “Edge of Love” is being disrupted and delayed. An initial statement from the company was issued last month as an increasing number of artists went public about the late payment issues and the impact they are having on them. Up until now my first experience using PledgeMusic has been very positive. Thanks to my fans, I have had huge amounts of interest in the EP and was thrilled to have exceeded my target. As part of the campaign I offered special rewards such as signed guitars, CDs, handwritten lyrics and gig posters, as well as unique experiences such as voice and guitar lessons and VIP tickets to the EP launch. Unfortunately I haven’t yet received any payment or concrete information from Pledge and I am not alone. Many artists and managers with current Pledge campaigns are eager for news as soon as possible, so that they can decide whether or not to call off those campaigns and find an alternative way to take pre-orders and allow fan-funding. As an independent artist I am relying on these payments so I can fulfil all fan purchases – this has been out of my hands. 

Here is the most recent statement from them: https://www.pledgemusic.com/blog/a-statement-from-pledgemusic?referrer=carousel_article_

There has been uproar from musicians who have been united in finding it unacceptable that PledgeMusic has failed to pass on the funds raised by fans to the artist. Lots of major artists have also been affected, including Jesus Jones and Fastball. The Cardigans, The Dandy Warhols, Sophie Ellis Bextor and Ladytron have also been running campaigns. The company is now looking for a strategic partner or buyer which could safeguard the future of the Pledge business, while also assuring that all artists currently owed money would get paid in full. I truly hope Pledge will meet its obligations. I will keep you updated as much as I can. Thank you so much for all your support and patience. It really does mean a lot.

February 6 – Following on from this, today I received a general message from Pledge reiterating what they have stated on their website:

Thank you getting in touch, and please accept my sincere apologies for the continued inconvenience.

As I’m sure you can appreciate we are experiencing a high volume of enquiries at the moment. We appreciate the frustration you must feel and sincerely apologise for any delay in responding to you.

Our team is working round the clock to get this situation resolved and we hope to have some positive news for you in the near future.

To update you on some of the progress being made:
● We are in discussions with several interested parties about a potential partnership with or acquisition of PledgeMusic. These conversations, if successful, would lead to a transaction which would allow us to meet all of our outstanding obligations.
● We are also in the process of appointing a third-party company to manage all artist payments going forward.

We do ask you for your continued patience even though we appreciate that this must be running extremely thin.

Once again, we do hope to have some positive news for you shortly and as soon as we do we will share it.

For the moment though, please accept our assurances that we are fully focused on resolving these issues and that your enquiry has been logged.

Another BBC Radio Interview, The Big Country Show. iSing Magazine Article. Christmas Show & EP

bbc-radio-n-big-country-300x300-9865876

Had a lovely time returning to BBC Radio Norfolk at The Forum to be the studio guest of Keith Greentree on The Big Country Show. We had a great chat talking all things country and favourite artists such as Emmylou Harris and Alison Krauss. Two of my tracks were also played.

The show is also broadcast on BBC Suffolk, BBC Essex, BBC Radio Northampton, BBC Radio Cambridgeshire and BBC Three Counties Radio and is available to Listen Again from 21 minutes in, after Garth Brooks:

Delighted to have written my first article for iSing Magazine. The ultimate resource for singers. I’ve written about country music, some of the great artists and its history and how to sing in a country style. Issue 21 out now and available here

country-way-pg-1-233x300-9869274
country-article-dolly-253x300-4299359
lisa-r-info-300x125-7666098

“just a beautiful number which touches on the emotional aspect of the festive season. Lisa has a brilliant ability to convey that emotion perfectly to give an enchanting performance” Huge thanks to excellent country music blog Belles and Gals, who have been such a great support, feature my Christmas EP and make “St Benedict’s Christmas Fair” as a Song of the Day here

blue-joanna-poster-1327299

Special fun Christmas show announced! Looking forward to singing my festive originals and also some covers at the cool Blue Joanna in the Golden Triangle.
Out now! my 5 track acoustic Christmas EP with 3 originals and 2 covers. Available on SoundCloud  

merch-300x300-2942118

Original festive singles “When Christmas Comes Around” and “St Benedict’s Christmas Fair” available on BandCamp Also my entire digital discography for sale at a special price on BandCamp
Have a lovely Christmas!

Deepdale Music Festival and Upcoming Gigs

Lovely time playing Deepdale Festival at the weekend. Such a friendly relaxed atmosphere and thanks to drummer Terry for joining my set impromptu!

p2534192225-2-1728264

Huge thanks also to Jon Clifton Photography for these great live shots:

p2534191403-2-4017914
p2534193059-2-5249315
p2534192296-2-8982058

Live video from the festival, performing a cover of the Cat Stevens classic ‘First Cut is the Deepest.’

My latest column for All Things Norfolk previews more of my upcoming gigs including Oxjam.

oxjam-lisa-poster-6780795
lisa-redford-franks-bar-5889983

Nashville In the Round Show, Buckle and Boots Festival

sd_jb_ml_tour_poster-212x300-2779675

Honoured to be asked to support three wonderful #Nashville based singer songwriters, Sarah DarlingJenn Bostic and Michael Logen at Norwich Arts Centre on Tuesday, 23rd May. Will be performing with the amazing dobro player Noel Dashwood who played on the latest EP.

I preview the concert and also the Norfolk and Norwich Festival in my latest music column for  All Things Norfolk 

The Show page has also been updated to include my upcoming festival appearances at Buckle and Boots Festival in Manchester and Reepham Festival. Sarah Darling and Jenn Bostic will also be performing at Buckle and Boots, a festival celebrating country music, as well as many other other renowned country artists.

bandb7-212x300-9846111
songwriting-spring-17-cover-220x300-8510962

My column on #Crowdfunding a creative project features in the new Spring issue of Songwriting Magazine. Cover star is Sheryl Crow. You can order the magazine here

Huge thanks to Basement Tapes for creating this beautiful pendant for me! Including my used Taylor guitar strings, it follows on from my personalised necklace. They’re both available to order via their website.

photo-6-240x300-4952534

BBC Look East, Art of the Song Interview, Song of the Day, Merry Christmas!

Some shots from a great time Breeze and I had filming for BBC Look East. Cool to see some close ups of my Baby Taylor! Thanks so much to the BBC for putting together such a lovely festive video for our performance.

The performance is now on iPlayer and YouTube:

Thanks so much to Art of the Song for making ‘When Christmas Comes Around’ ‘Song of the Day’. I was also just interviewed for their excellent podcast following on from One Republic’s Ryan Tedder.  Talking music, songwriting & more in detail here. Thanks for listening xx

My article on ways to do a cover song creatively is in the new winter edition of Songwriting Magazine. Tons of features and interviews including the excellent Billy Bragg and the art of the protest song. Plus The Lumineers, Katie Melua, Tom Chaplin, Wild Beasts, punk and more. Something to cool to read over the festive period, you can order it here

Thanks so much to all the radio shows for supporting the festive single and to everyone for getting it, really means such a lot xx

Merry Christmas to you all and a music filled 2017!!