“Little Lovin'”
from the EP Why You Runnin’
2009
iTunes
Credit coffee, cigarettes and a Midwestern upbringing for the old-soul music built around gritty vocals in Lissie Maurus’s latest release, Why You Runnin’.
Lissie left her surname and Illinois home town behind when she chased her musical dream to California. Yet her tempos, themes and lyrics arguably reveal that the values many stress in the heartland still dwell in her.
The first track “Little Lovin'” presents a tender portrait of dreamers with soft acoustic guitar and vocals that rise to a thunder when Lissie pleadingly demands, “Why you runnin’.”
Another standout track is “Wedding Bells,” an acoustic-guitar-driven song that puts Lissie’s aching vocals in the forefront as the story of heartbreak unfolds.
That’s not to say all the songs are down-home Americana. There is plenty of electric guitar as well as dips into folk and New Age. Consider the song “Here Before,” which weaves Lissie’s haunting vocals through harmonies and instrumentation that includes electronica, resulting in a dreamlike sound.