Eliza Gilkyson (born August 24, 1950,

Hollywood, California Hollywood is a neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. Its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the U.S. film industry and the people associated with it. Many notable film studios, such as Columbia Pictures, ...

) is a

Taos, New Mexico Taos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Initially founded in 1615, it was intermittently occupied until its formal establishment in 1795 by Nuevo México Governor Fernando Cha ...

-based folk musician.Gilkyson moved her base from Austin, Texas, to Taos in 2020. She is the daughter of songwriter and folk musician

Terry Gilkyson Terry Gilkyson (June 17, 1916 — October 15, 1999) was an American folk singer and songwriter. Biography Gilkyson was born in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, and graduated from St. George's School in Middletown, Rhode Island in 1935. By his early ...

and his wife, Jane. Her brother is guitarist

Tony Gilkyson Tony Gilkyson (born August 6, 1952) is a Los Angeles-based musician. He is the son of Jane Gilkyson and songwriter/folk musician Terry Gilkyson, as well as the brother of singer-songwriter Eliza Gilkyson. Career Gilkyson is a former member of ...

, who played with the

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

-based bands

Lone Justice Lone Justice is an American country rock band formed in 1982 by guitarist Ryan Hedgecock and singer Maria McKee. They have recently announced they are recording new material as per Marvin Etzioni July 2022. They are part of a new exhibit in Se ...

and X. She is married to scholar and author Robert Jensen. Gilkyson is a two-time

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

nominee, receiving a nomination for Best Contemporary Folk Album in 2004 and

Best Folk Album The Grammy Award for Best Folk Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for releasing albums in the folk genre. Honors in several ...

in 2014.

Career

Gilkyson released ''Eliza '69'', her first album, in 1969 while raising a family in

Santa Fe, New Mexico Santa Fe ( ; , Spanish for 'Holy Faith'; tew, Oghá P'o'oge, Tewa for 'white shell water place'; tiw, Hulp'ó'ona, label=Tiwa language, Northern Tiwa; nv, Yootó, Navajo for 'bead + water place') is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. ...

. She didn't come out with her second, ''Love from the Heart'', until ten years later. She moved to

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...

in 1981 and released the commercial album ''Pilgrims'' before moving to

in 1987. After a brief stint in Los Angeles, she returned to New Mexico in the early 1990s, releasing several albums of original material. In 1993 she collaborated with

New Age New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars conside ...

artist

Andreas Vollenweider Andreas Vollenweider (born 4 October 1953) is a Swiss harpist. He is generally categorised as a new-age musician and uses a modified electroacoustic harp of his own design. He has worked with Bobby McFerrin, Carly Simon, Luciano Pavarotti and ...

on his recording, ''Eolian Minstrel''.Eliza Gilkyson profile

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

, July 31, 2009; accessed September 24, 2014. She has been with

Red House Records Red House Records is an independent folk and Americana record label in St. Paul, Minnesota. The label was founded in 1983 by Bob Feldman after seeing a performance by Iowa folk singer Greg Brown. Origin The label is named for a farmhouse in I ...

since 2000, although she also worked on three albums independently, recording on her own label, Realiza Records. In 2003 she was inducted into the Texas Music Hall of Fame. Her third album with Red House Records, ''Land of Milk and Honey'' was released in 2004, and was nominated for a Grammy. In 2005, she released ''Paradise Hotel'' with the song "Requiem" about the

2004 Indian Ocean earthquake An earthquake and a tsunami, known as the Boxing Day Tsunami and, by the scientific community, the Sumatra–Andaman earthquake, occurred at 07:58:53 local time (UTC+7) on 26 December 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of northern Suma ...

and tsunami in December 2004. Coinciding with

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...

's devastation of the Gulf Coast region in August 2005, this song found its way to listeners as a song of prayer and comfort. The same year she was recognized with 3 Austin Music Awards and 4 Folk Alliance Music Awards, one of which was for her song "Man of God" about the Bush administration. In 2008, her album ''Beautiful World'' came out, again on Red House Records. The songs vary from pop to folk and points in-between, with songs ranging from intimate ballads to rallying cries against the imperialist machine. In 2010, she collaborated on a new album entitled ''

Red Horse Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineer (RED HORSE) squadrons are the United States Air Force's heavy-construction units. Their combat engineering capabilities are similar to those of the U.S. Navy Seabees and U.S ...

'' with two of her Red House Records label-mates

John Gorka John Gorka (born July 27, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter. In 1991, ''Rolling Stone'' magazine called him "the preeminent male singer-songwriter of what has been dubbed the New Folk Movement." Personal life Gorka was raised in the Colon ...

and

Lucy Kaplansky Lucy Kaplansky (born February 16, 1960) is an American Folk music, folk musician based in New York City. Kaplansky has a PhD in clinical psychology from Yeshiva University and plays guitar, mandolin, and piano. Life and career Kaplansky was or ...

. In 2011, she came out with ''Roses at the End of Time'', and in 2014 released ''The Nocturne Diaries'' which was Grammy nominated for best Folk Album. Both CDs were recorded at her home with the help of her son and co-producer Cisco Ryder. In 2020, she released ''2020'', described as "a collection of politically charged anthems." She continues to tour about 150 dates per year in the United States and overseas, as well as hosting annual songwriting workshops near

Discography

Albums

*1969 – ''Eliza '69'', Mont Clare Records (out of print) *1979 – ''Love from the Heart'', as Lisa Gilkyson, Helios Records (out of print) *1982 – ''No Commercial Potential'', as Lisa Gilkyson, Wind River Productions (cassette - out of print) *1984 – ''Eliza Gilkyson / Mark Hallman'', SouthCoast Records (EP - out of print) *1987 – ''Pilgrims'', Gold Castle Records *1988 – ''Legends of Rainmaker'', Gold Castle Records (out of print) *1992 – ''Through the Looking Glass'',

Private Music Private Music was an American independent record label founded in 1984 by musician Peter Baumann as a "home for instrumental music". Baumann signed Ravi Shankar, Yanni, Suzanne Ciani, Andy Summers, Patrick O'Hearn, Leo Kottke, and his former ...

(out of print but may be reissued in the future) *1993 – ''Eolian Minstrel'' by

, vocals, acoustic guitar, and lyrical co-author, although Gilkyson's credit only appears in the liner notes,

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note ...

*1994 – ''Undressed'', Realiza Records (out of print) *1997 – ''Redemption Road'', Silverwave Records *1999 – ''Misfits'', Realiza Records *2000 – ''Hard Times in Babylon'',

*2001 – ''More Than a Song'', with Ad Vanderveen and Iain Matthews, Perfect Pitch Productions *2002 – ''Lost and Found'', Red House Records *2004 – ''Land of Milk and Honey'', Red House Records *2005 – ''RetroSpecto'', Realiza Records *2005 – ''Paradise Hotel'', Red House Records *2007 – ''Your Town Tonight'', Red House Records *2008 – ''Beautiful World'', Red House Records *2010 – ''

'' with

and

, Red House Records *2011 – ''Roses At The End Of Time'', Red House Records *2014 – ''The Nocturne Diaries'', Red House Records *2018 – ''Secularia'', Red House Records *2020 – ''2020'', Red House Records *2022 – ''Songs from the River Wind'', Howling Dog Records

DVDs

*2008 - ''Live From Austin, Texas''

References

External links