Vanessa Lively- guitar and vocals
Jason Lively- charango and bass
Sick- fiddle and mandolin
Adam Freeborg- drums
Jeanette Ladores- world percussion
Recording Artists (A Chain Unbroken):
Stefan Pope, Dave Pope, Jason Lively, Phil Considine, Zac Sargent, Stuart Moritimore, Christian Dyson, Ben Knott, Sick
Recording Artists (Let Me Rise):
Stefan Pope, Dave Pope, Jason Lively, Bryan Schatz, Annabel Pinker, Micheline Ferreira, Alvaro Revelo, Dan Dixon
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A Chain Unbroken ~ $17 (USD) includes shipping
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Influences
Sounds Like
Vanessa's new album A Chain Unbroken is available in Austin, TX at Waterloo Records, Antone's Records, and End of an Ear. Don't live in Austin? You can buy it online at CD Baby!
From a very early age, it was clear that the Texas-born gypsy folk songwriter Vanessa Lively wasn’t going to be content staying stateside.
“I lived in Laredo when I was little and moved to San Antonio at a young age,” the 28-year old songwriter remembers, “but I spent all kinds of time in Brownsville and Laredo growing up. I was always going back and forth because we had family close to the border.”
It was there that Lively discovered her love for world music. Though she now finds herself most allegiant to reggae and African music, her time spent in Texas’ border towns was filled with Mexican culture, songs on the radio that helped shape the way Vanessa would one day make music.
Vanessa started to sing in junior high school, when her school would gather on Fridays for church. “I’d sing occasionally there, on Fridays, but I wasn’t a big choirgirl or anything. When I got to be a teenager, I started to get more involved in the choir. We were kind of like a cool, rock choir. And it was great, but I got out of it after a little while.”
The torch had been lit, and Lively was setting her roots in a world of music she’d soon call one of the driving forces in her life. At about the same time as her choir years were coming to a close, she joined her first band, as a backup singer and dancer. Like most high school bands, Bucketfunk never quite took off. Still, the experience was Vanessa’s first glimpse into what it was like to make her own music. She picked up her first guitar a year later.
After graduating from high school, Vanessa traveled around Europe, and when she came back got involved with E Serenes, a Greek band in San Antonio. “I had a friend who really wanted to start a Greek band, and a good friend of mine – who’s now my husband [Jason] – played guitar pretty well. So they got together and asked me to be their singer and percussion player. And then we added a fourth person to play bass. We’d play Greek restaurants and concerts around town. We were pretty popular among the Greek community in San Antonio.”
Jason and Vanessa got married in 2001, and, with their attention focused elsewhere, the band went on without them. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as it allowed for Lively to finally focus on her own songwriting.
Fulfilling a long tenured dream of theirs, the two moved to South America in 2005, spending time in Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador. It was in Ecuador that Vanessa and Jason met Dave and Stefan Pope, a British father and son who would prove instrumental in their lives. The Popes were also musicians, and they would stay up late with Vanessa and Jason almost nightly, swapping songs and opening each other’s minds to the music of the world.
After a year in Ecuador, Lively took to the studio to record 2007’s Let Me Rise, an album that serves as one of the principle artifacts of Vanessa’s time in Ecuador. Recorded in a studio that had never recorded folk music before, Vanessa harnessed the album’s feel by bringing in friends she had met around the country to record with her. Their company made the album all the more personal, all the more alive.
The two moved back to America after finishing the album, and in 2007 found themselves in Austin. It was a city they’d always planned on living in, though their initial stay didn’t last long. After setting herself up with a series of regular gigs, one of which was at Austin’s famed Momo’s Club, Jason and Vanessa took to travel once again, this time going to live with the Popes in England.
The product of their stay is 2008’s A Chain Unbroken, a delicately put together, personal album that haunts in certain places and delights in others. Lively considers that particular recording process to be one of the most satisfying and exhilarating periods of her life. “We recorded the album in a bedroom and would have all [the Pope’s] friends come in and play on songs,” she remembers. “We went all the way up to the wire, finishing the recording the day before we had to leave.”
The Livelys came back to Austin to mix the album and released it at Momo’s on February 17, 2008. Since, Vanessa has been focusing her efforts on establishing a rapport with Austin venues and the local community, but she is most certainly not ready to settle in Texas’ Capital quite yet.
“I’m really excited to see where music can take us,” she points out. “I’m just a creative person who’s always looking for new ways to express myself. Music’s beautiful in that it brings people together and can change lives. That, to me, is the most important thing.”
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Rock/Alternative Fri. July 10th @ The Parish 214 East 6th. St. Austin, Tx. W/ special Guest: Drought...Fan to Flame $7.00 advance tickets $10.00 @ the door ***(All Ages Welcome)*** $10.00 for minors www.myspace.com/spinningchain www.twitter.com,www.facebook.com www.ilast.com,www.highlight.com Spinning Chain @ Scout Bar Fri.July 17th W/ Cult to Follow San Antonio,Tx.
Hello, it's me, Ruby Jane.To those who don't know me, I am a 14 year old fiddler, songwriter. I have some songs posted that are fresh out of the studio. Let me know if you like the new songs..be one of the first to hear, even before they are released!Thanks! new videos too! Ruby Jane
You're invited to my Pot Patriot CD Release Party Thursday June 25 in Austin Texas at Ruta Maya. It's a benefit for NORML and Outgrow Big Bro. Burro Magic, Paul Bullock, One Step Program, and Jet Baker perform. Here's the video invitation:
I am sorry for spamming your page, but I really need your help. I am in Round Two of The TRCoA Unsigned Artist Competition. Help me get to Round Three by clicking my face and voting for me! Voting ends on May 6th, that’s only a few days away. It takes less than three seconds to vote, but it helps me out tremendously. Thanks for clicking on my face and voting HADJI!
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