Liz Mandeville is an American vocalist, songwriter, and Chicago blues musician known for her versatile voice, high-voltage performances, insightful songs, and traditional blues guitar playing. She has written and produced hundreds of original songs, including the songs on her albums. She has received critical acclaim and has toured internationally. She owns the record label Blue Kitty Music.

Life and career

Mandeville grew up in an arts-filled home in a musical family in

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. Her father sang folk songs and played the guitar, and her mother was a teacher and theater buff. Her father taught her to sing and paint, and she started playing the guitar at age 16. She first played professionally in coffee houses around Wisconsin. She moved to Chicago in 1979 to study theater and started going to Chicago clubs to observe and study singing, playing, and audience responses. During this time she met her future husband (and later ex-husband) Willie Greeson (known as Willie Phillips), who played in the Legendary Blues Band. He introduced her to the Chicago blues and R&B world. She learned from local artists

Otis "Big Smokey" Smothers Otis "Big Smokey" Smothers (March 21, 1929 – July 23, 1993) was a Chicago blues guitarist and singer. He was a member of Howlin' Wolf's backing band and worked with Muddy Waters, Jimmy Rogers, Bo Diddley, Ike Turner, J. T. Brown, Freddie ...

and Kansas City Red at the Chicago club B.L.U.E.S. on Halstead. After a bandleader in a Chicago jazz club tried to publicly humiliate her by accusing her of being a blues singer, she became determined to study music. She graduated with honors from Columbia College with a degree in music. She also studied voice for eight years with baritone Doug Susu-Mago, who taught her to use her voice as an instrument and to regard her presentation as an athletic performance. Mandeville toured professionally for ten years across the upper

Midwest The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

with the R&B band the Supernaturals. She met bassist Aron Burton in 1994 and started "a longstanding performance relationship" with him that included her "label recording debut." She began performing regularly at Chicago blues clubs and worked with blues artists such as

Willie Kent Willie Kent (February 24, 1936 – March 2, 2006) was an American Chicago blues singer, bassist and songwriter. Career Kent was born in Inverness, Sunflower County, Mississippi. Although he had played the bass guitar in Chicago's clubs since the ...

Maurice John Vaughn Maurice John Vaughn (born May 10, 1952) is an American blues musician from Chicago, Illinois, United States. He is a guitarist, saxophonist, keyboardist and singer. Biography Vaughn began playing professionally in 1968 as a saxophonist in Chicago ...

, and Michael Coleman. Her first European tour was in 1997, and she continues to tour internationally to critical acclaim, having performed for audiences in South Africa, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Latvia, and Canada. She has been an artist-in-residence at the Chicago blues clubs Kingston Mines, Blue Chicago on Clark, B.L.U.E., Blue Chicago, and Bill's Blues. She formed her own record label, Blue Kitty Music, in 2011. Blues reviewer Eric Schelkopf wrote that Mandeville is a "true renaissance woman and fervent promoter of the blues." She is a songwriter, singer, guitarist, journalist, and painter. She has "written and produced hundreds of original songs," including all of the songs on her CDs. She is a journalist for the ''Chicago Blues Guide.'' She considers visual arts as "food for the soul" and she paints, composes computer art, and makes jewelry. Mandeville formed her first band in 1983. She has led her own band longer than any other female Chicago musician. She now leads the band Blue Points. She is the only white vocalist who performs regularly at internationally known Chicago blues clubs. She is a regular performer at the Chicago Blues Festival and a member of Chicago Women in the Blues.

Music and performance style

Mandeville has said she was most influenced by

Muddy Waters McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913 April 30, 1983), known professionally as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer and musician who was an important figure in the post-war blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of modern Chicago b ...

and called Koko Taylor her idol, but it was when she heard Luther Allison singing live that she knew the blues was her genre. Writer Karen Hanson described Mandeville's voice as sultry and wrote that she is a contemporary performer steeped in tradition. A critic for ''Illinois Blues'' called Mandeville's songwriting "great" and original. ''American Blues News'' reviewer Monica Yasher wrote that Mandeville is "known for her remarkably versatile voice, insightful songs, humorous onstage patter and deeply traditional guitar work" and is also "an accomplished Louisanna washboard player." Earwig Music described Mandeville as "a high voltage performer and a red hot mama."

Awards and achievements

*2001: Nomination of her second album, ''Ready to Cheat'', for Best Blues CD of the Year 2000 by Chicago Music Awards *2003: Nomination of her third album, ''Back in Love Again'', for Best Blues CD of the Year 2002 by Chicago Music Awards *2005: Selection as Best Songwriter in the USA by the USA Songwriting Competition for her song "He Left It in His Other Pants" *2006: Semi-finalist in the International Songwriting Competition for her composition "Life Sentence of the Blues" *2008: NominatIon for Blues Songwriter of the Year by the American Roots Music Association *2008: Her fourth CD, ''Red Top'', stayed in the top twenty for twenty-two weeks on the Roots Time Radio charts *2010: Her song "Scratch the Kitty" remained number one on the '' Cashbox'' Top 20 charts for twenty-two weeks *2013: Induction into the Chicago Blues Hall of Fame

Discography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mandeville, Liz Living people 21st-century American singers American women singer-songwriters Chicago blues musicians Singers from Chicago Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women singers Earwig Music artists Singer-songwriters from Illinois