Lissie, Why You Runnin’
Featured Album
A goosebump-raising new voice emerges from the banks of the Mississippi
Lissie Maurus is from Rock Island, Illinois, a mid-size city perched on the eastern banks of the Mississippi River, about halfway between the river's northern terminus, in Minnesota, and the thick, blues-birthing swamps of the Delta. Rich and unpredictable, the river offers an almost uncanny metaphor for Lissie's big, commanding voice, beautifully showcased on Why You Runnin', her debut EP for Fat Possum.
Produced by Band of Horses bassist Bill Reynolds, Why You Runnin' is a collection of pleasantly hazy folk songs that evoke the breathy heft of Tift Merritt and the quasi-goth atmospherics of Mazzy Star. Lyrically, Maurus mines broken hearts and broken spirits, singing blithely about getting married and getting into Heaven, but the tone and texture of her voice lends even the most rote declarations ("I knew some day you that you would wed another/Wedding bells will never ring for me") a sense of otherworldly import. Opener "Little Lovin'" is a jangly, country-tinged pop song that devolves into a stompy, bayou-baiting throwdown, while "Here Before," the EP's most haunting track ("I been here before, I seen it/And I can't take no more, I mean it") has only the barest accompaniment. And with that voice, it's all it really needs.
