Mercifully Brief Bio
Based in Western Massachusetts, Austin and Elliott is comprised of singer/songwriters Chris Elliott (vocals and guitar) and Lisa Austin (vocals, bass, guitar, percussion, and 6-string banjo.) After years of performing on their own as solo artists, they began collaborating in 2003, with Lisa adding harmony vocals to Chris’s songs. Since then, they’ve steadily deepened their musical partnership, incorporating new instrumentation and honing their twin vocal attack together as a team.
Their second CD, the 5-cut "Truth That Hurts," is their first full-band effort, produced by Lorne Entress (Lori McKenna, Catie Curtis, Mark Erelli) and featuring guitarist Duke Levine (Mary Chapin Carpenter, Jonatha Brooke, Ellis Paul) and bassist Paul Kochanski (Resophonics). Dealing with themes of love gained and lost, the CD's original compositions are rich with memorable melodies, cutting lyrics, and striking harmonies.
Also available is their debut CD "13 Songs Plus", which is packed with 21 songs performed in stark, powerful fashion. Greg Grant of the Online Folk Festival has this to say: "Just two voices and an acoustic guitar, but the songs are impressive, particularly the mythic folk ballad "Blackwater Dam," which has a timeless quality difficult to achieve."
Influences? Think duos like Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Richard and Linda Thompson, Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer, Johnny Cash and June Carter, Richard and Mimi Farina, the Handsome Family and Timbuk 3. The more you listen, you'll hear: Natalie Merchant, Bob Dylan, REM, Robyn Hitchcock, Randy Newman, the Pogues, Pixies, James McMurtry, Todd Snider, Grace Slick, and more. Experienced live, each song has a distinctive feel: tender or cynical, soothing or raucous, doomy or bright.
Born and raised in Binghamton, NY, Chris Elliott, since moving to Boston in 1994 to escape food service jobs and go to grad school, has become a fixture of the underground acoustic scene in New England. He starting writing funny songs in his teens, and when he got a beat-up Ovation guitar while at Bard College, the satirical edge of his writing turned more poignant. Going on to an MFA from Emerson College, he has developed a vivid, literary writing style that ranges from darkly serious to deadly funny. He made an early splash in Boston in 1996 with the tune "Nothing Too Major," which appeared on the compilation "Show Up, Sign Up and Play" alongside tracks by Mary Gauthier and Jess Klein. That same year his unusual handmade acoustic guitar was won in the WUMB 91.9 FM/Borders Books and Music Songwriter Competition. The guitar was crafted by luthier Alan Carruth, and its deep, powerful tone accommodates Chris' distinctive style, which alternates soft fingerpicking with vigorous, sometimes dissonant, strumming. According to Club Passim's Matt Smith, "his songs run the gamut from bitingly ironic to honestly beautiful." Or in the words of Marilyn Ray Beyer of 91.9FM WUMB: "Laugh now, think later... A poet in a songwriter suit." He was a finalist in the 2009 Rose Garden Songwriting Competition.
A native of Western Massachusetts, Lisa Austin began playing live, in earnest, after moving to Boulder, Colorado in 1998. With a voice that recalls Natalie Merchant, she was a Lillith Fair semi-finalist for an opening spot at the 1999 Colorado Lillith Fair, and since then she has played and sung in many venues throughout Boulder and Massachusetts. While Chris takes a more cerebral approach to music making, Lisa is the more intuitive, creating original harmony lines by ear and unearthing the emotional core of songs. In addition to singing, she plays guitar, 6-string banjo, bass and percussion, adding energy to the live show. Her songwriting is dark and traditional-folk inspired, filled with rural imagery, reflecting her love of and reverence for the natural world. She often sings from unique points of view, such as a fisherman drowning at sea or a westward journeying pioneer who discovers his family dead on Christmas Day. In addition to music-making, Lisa is involved with animal rights and spay/neuter advocacy.
Lisa and Chris love to travel around New England performing. From coffeehouses to night clubs, venues played include: in the greater Boston area, First Night Boston, Club Passim, the Nameless Coffeehouse, the Burren, the Cantab, Java Joe's, TT the Bear's Place, Johnny D's, Perk's Coffeehouse, and more. Further west, the Center for Arts in Natick, Amazing Things Arts Center (Framingham), the Dove Cafe and Capo's (Lowell), the Pioneer Arts Center (Westford), the Java Hut (Worcester), the Stagecoach Inn (Groton), Studio Session Live for HCAM TV (Hopkinton), the Sit 'n' Bull (Maynard), Mocha Maya's (Shelburne Falls), Club Helsinki (Great Barrington), and more. Around the Northeast: Tupelo Music Hall (Londonderry, NH), Vanilla Bean Cafe (Pomfret, CT), Langdon St. Cafe (Montpelier, VT), Postcrypt Cafe (New York City), the New Jersey Folk Fetival, and more. We've opened for Rod McDonald and Cindy Bullens, and Chris (solo) for Grey Eye Glances, Ratsy, and Gideon Freudmann. Live on the radio: WUMB 91.9FM (UMASS Boston), WMUA 91.1FM (UMASS Amherst), WMFO 91.5FM (Tufts University), WUML 91.5FM (Lowell, MA), WMPG 90.9FM (Portland, ME), WSCA 106.1FM (Portsmouth, NH), among others.