In Your Ear Presents the ICA Sessions: Elizabeth Wise

In partnership with Carlos Chafin of In Your Ear Studios, the ICA Sessions is an occasional evening of free live music in the ICA’s auditorium. Arrive early for an hour of creative conversation, complimentary snacks, and discounted beverages before indulging in a roughly one-hour set featuring a variety of unexpected and talented musicians in the ICA’s acoustically superior auditorium.

December 19: Elizabeth Wise has travelled the world and truly lived in it, from the foothills of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains to the “Richmondtown” she reflects wistfully on in one of her many original compositions; from the juke joints of Memphis and folk clubs in Manhattan to the wilds of New Zealand, where she spent a year communing with her restless muse and spreading her respect for the blues. As the Memphis Blues Society noted, Wise is “authentic yet refreshingly original,” and “a blueswoman at the dawn of a superb career.”

That career now spans more than a decade of performing professionally in bars, clubs, and living rooms, and on festival stages up and down the East Coast. Over that time, Wise has continued to evolve as a singer, a guitarist, a songwriter, and a canny interpreter of traditional folk forms. Her songbook has grown to include her tenacious yet nuanced takes on timeless blues tunes popularized by artists like Elmore James, Memphis Minnie, and Sippie Wallace, swing-era classics by the great Duke Ellington, and songbook standards by Irving Berlin. And she has continued to channel her experiences into original material.

In the words of New York musician Kenny White, “Elizabeth Wise is a vital link who connects us to this fast fading golden era, and breathes new life into it.”