Elisa Nicolas

A smoky voice guides a gorgeous album of low-key -- but definitely not low-wattage -- jazz, blues and pop. - Columbus Dispatch

11 p.m. Elisa Nicolas (Columbus, Ohio)
Alternative Folk Pop
There’s a jazzy undercurrent to the breezy Folk Pop that Elisa Nicolas effortlessly presents on her latest album, Compass and a Pen. Nicolas swings with the the Jazz power of Rickie Lee Jones, sways with the Pop chops of Aimee Mann and spits with the authority of Chrissie Hynde, sometimes all within the same song. Unexpectedly captivating and simply elegant, Elisa Nicolas will own you by the end of her second song.
Dig It: Sam Phillips and Joni Mitchell try to impress each other by playing the other’s music through the thin walls of their apartment building. (BB) - MPMF.com

You may not have heard her aching blues-folk songs yet, but her name probably sounds familiar. That's because 10 years ago, Elisa Nicolas was poised to break through to national recognition and acclaim.

She was assembling an album in Columbus. She played a successful showcase at South by Southwest. Her name showed up on bills with artists like Jonatha Brooke.

Then her mother got sick, and it all stopped. It was a cancerous brain tumor. Nicolas moved home to be with her and bore witness to her 18-month deterioration before her mother passed away one day in 1999.

Nicolas' desire to play music seemed to die with her.

"I just stopped," she recalled. "It was the worst thing that ever happened. We were very close. She was the person I bounced everything off of, even stupid things like a haircut.

"She was also the musician in my family," Nicolas added. "Everyone in my family played classical stuff, and not badly either. I played clarinet through college. It's funny—she never really dug what I did."

Music remained too closely associated with her mom—too strong a reminder of her loss.

"For me, everything having to do with my mom had to do with music. I mean, it was all her records I listened to as a kid. It was her piano playing that made me want to play the piano."

So Nicolas extracted music from her life, keeping only some of her extensive guitar and recording equipment. Four years crept by.

In 2003, she slowly began to write again. She began to record others' music projects, and putting tentative feelers out into the music community.

"I just thought, 'It's time,'" Nicolas said. "I got a boyfriend around that time, who I eventually married, who is a drummer, who was saying, 'You can play!'

"I had dropped off the music map and was working in corporate hell when I found this guy Jason Quicksall on the web. We started recording. He dragged this girl over who lived down the street, Megan Palmer, and immediately we were like, 'I love you!'"

Nicolas went on to record the majority of Palmer's demos, and the newfound friends began to push one another to become more visible in the Columbus music scene.

That eventually led to a monthly gig at the St. James Tavern, one that still continues today.

"I've really hit my stride," Nicolas said. "I'm older now, and I feel like I'm at the top of my game."

Nicolas is back, but she's not the same artist who would stop at nothing to rise to the top of the music industry.

"I don't feel like I'm starting over," she shrugged. "I'd like to put out an album. For a long time in the '90s I was running around going, 'What kind of musician should I be?' I had a lot of pressure on me from others on what my music should sound like.

"All I want now, though, is to keep building a reputation for doing good, literate work that I can be proud of."

She smiled a breezy smile and sighed contentedly. "I've got a good perspective on life and who I am."

July 27, 2006

Copyright © 2006 Columbus Alive, Inc. All rights reserved. - Columbus Alive

Columbus singer-songwriter Elisa Nicolas will take her soothing pop-folk sensibilities to the Rumba Cafe on Friday (January 25). Catch her while you can: Come March, she'll head to the South by South-west music festival in Austin, Texas. - Columbus Dispatch

Charmingly understated blues-folk songstress Elisa Nicolas plays at Read Street Books and Coffee. - Baltimore City Paper

As a songwriter, Elisa Nicolas draws from Columbus peers like Megan Palmer and Happy Chichester, bringing forth rich melodies from quiet, contemplative spaces. As a producer, she expands the intimacy of a neighborhood coffeehouse gig into a rich, colorful tapestry with just the right fringes. The combination results in an album that, in the right hands, could land on the countertop at your local Starbucks, awaiting eager fans of Norah Jones, Aimee Mann and Bill Withers. "State of Everything," "Who'se Going to Love you" and pretty much everything here is perfect for a warm house on a cold day. -- John Ross
Download: "State of Everything" - Columbus Alive