Oztix | News | Lisa Richards Pens Track-By-Track About Her New Album, 'A Light From The Other Side'

After 22 years living in the US, folk singer Lisa Richards has returned with her new album, A Light From The Other Side. Her powerfully saccharine voice coupled with her jazzy cadence provides the perfect vehicle to showcase her many stories and emotions.

Richards has an intriguing past, growing up forbidden to play instruments though her mother was a concert pianist. She says she became a "delinquent" by 14 and had a long battle with drugs afterwards, finally finding her way into music.

Richards wrote a track-by-track for us about the album — take a listen while reading the back story of A Light From The Other Side.

Frank Sinatra

The only older song on the CD. I wrote this song before my last CD, Beating of the Sun, but it didn’t make it on to the last one. People seem to like it a lot so I put it on this one.

Water (Needs To Fall)

I also wrote this one in New York City. My Austin life was hit by a tsunami of change over which I had absolutely no control. I had to go underground, to keep safe, I was ‘between lives’ as it were, being carried by the love and kindness of my friends who fed me and sheltered me and kept me safe. This song arose out of that space. A song about soldiers, war, regrets, being lost and human kindness and the need we have for each other.

Milk and Honey

The song I wrote about meeting my husband Greg in Australia at a café in Canberra called Milk And Honey that is sadly no longer around.

Mr Happiness

Came out of a post I put on Facebook in January. I was in the middle of a bad virus cold thing and pretty miserable and I got a bad case of the “Can I just skip January altogether?” So I posted that I was in the Mire of January and I wanted to sleep for a thousand years. My singer friend Christine Collister said, “There’s a song in that and you need to write it” and so I did.

You Got The Power

Over Christmas I did a song-a-day challenge and I asked my people community on Facebook to suggest topics for me to write about. My sister-in-law Liz suggested bullying and that’s where the song Power came from.

Summer Afternoon

I am now a step-mum to two lovely teenagers (seriously they are lovely!) and I was thinking about how fast kids grow up.

Walking Woman

Also pretty self-explanatory. The story of leaving a marriage.

Weather

I wrote in New York City in the kitchen of my friend Irene’s 5th floor walk up apartment on East 4th and Avenue B (believe it or not), but I was thinking about the most recent Brisbane floods. I was thinking about how as humans we struggle so hard try to control our environment. The weather is a big powerful force that we do NOT control.

Where My Heart Used To Be

I wrote this one in Australia. It’s funny how heartache can co-exist with great happiness and for me this is a familiar state. Life is complicated. People are complicated and ultimately life and love are temporary and transient.

What Lying Does

Pretty explanatory really… people lie for all kinds of reasons. The most common one I’ve heard for it is “I didn’t want to hurt you by telling you the truth”, which is the most messed up reasoning I have EVER heard.