Lisa Said

Lisa Said: First Time, Long Time (lisasaid.com) Egyptian-American from Tennessee kicks off her Americana EP with a Huey Smith figure and makes you wonder whether her melodic shading is cultural or individual. ("Been Around," "One Too Many") ** - Noisey (Vice)

No Turn Left Behind is the debut album from singer/songwriter Lisa Said. This singer/songwriter/guitarist was born in Cairo (!) and was transplanted first to Memphis (Tennessee, not Egypt!) and then to Chattanooga. Moving to New York to finish her studies and then to Asheville, North Carolina, her travels took her to D.C. to record the album at the legendary Inner Ear Studios and to have the album co-produced by equally-legendary Inner Ear owner Don Zientara. This maiden collection of eleven tracks are a wonderful mix of roots-rock, pop and some off-kilter time; her voice is soothing and warm and it’s a perfect balance.

Starting with the almost-Zydeco gallup of “Hard To Brake” (nice play on words), this album is off and running, filled with instant likeability; a very capable team of musicians backing her, you get a feeling from Ms. Said that she doesn’t lack confidence in her songs even though this is her first release. “In Retrospect” has an airiness that has flavors of country/honky tonk and pure pop that works and is a fast favorite; “For Today” has a delicious semi-country flavor mixed with a danceability, while her voice just reaches into you as “Once In A While” goes pure country with sweeping fiddle and twangy riffs and crisp sound. “No Turns” is bouncy while possessing a certain melancholia (fine use of Hammond and strings) and “One Too Many” is a sweet, piano-driven track with a dense, just-right series of guitar runs which ends the album on a high and satisfactory note.

There can be no question that Ms. Said has made me an immediate fan; everything about this album is right; she has the gift of constructing memorable songs; quality melodies and smart (probably beyond her years) lyrics. Seek this album out – you’ll understand what I’m saying on first listen. - PopDose

Lisa Said could be called a country musician, but which country? The local singer­songwriter really did grow up in Tennessee, the state she invokes in “Hard to Brake,” which opens her brand-new debut album, “No Turn Left Behind.”

Yet the performer, whose name is pronounced “sa-yeed,” is of Egyptian descent. In her otherwise Nashville-ready tunes, that heritage is expressed mostly by drummer Andrew Toy’s pan­Arabic intros and Al Sevilla’s sometimes Eastern-tinged mandolin fills. Those accents were heard when Said played at Iota on Sunday night, but her dynamic set traveled beyond both Egypt and Americana.

Although her album features a full band, Said was accompanied at Iota by just those two musicians. Toy drove the music as Sevilla embellished it, and such pithy numbers as “Been Around” sounded close to their recorded versions, even without bass, violin, piano and multiple guitars. But the 45-minute show was dominated by such sprawling numbers as “Somebody Someday” and “One Too Many,” which stressed churning guitar and free-flowing lyrics over tidy hooks and catchy refrains.

These songs’ vibe, more Patti Smith than Patsy Cline, indicated that Said’s influences are broader than her album reveals. On her website, the performer offers a back-porch version of David Bowie’s once-futuristic “Heroes.” At Iota, she made Bob Dylan’s “Isis” sound like one of her own longer, more conversational compositions. The song contains some references to ancient Egypt but, more significantly, has generally been interpreted as the chronicle of an unraveling marriage. That dovetails with “No Turn Left Behind,” a post-divorce album that treats romantic disappointment both intimately and playfully: “I think it’s best/ You stop mentioning your ex/ Or else you might become mine,” begins “In Retrospect.”

Such pungent lines are as engaging as Said’s punchy melodies, although at least one of her album’s jokes is apparently inadvertent. (“Hard to Brake” includes a reference to “afternoon delights,” but it’s a pure coincidence that former Starland Vocal Band member Jon Carroll plays piano on the track, according to Said’s co-producer Don Zientara — a Dischord Records veteran on hand to perform a solo set Sunday.)

Said’s style could become more distinctive if its non-Western flourishes were more fully integrated, or she might continue to rely on the accessible tunes and automotive metaphors of her most mainstream material. But the most exhilarating moments of the Iota show entered uncharted territory, which suggests that Said’s music could smoothly negotiate any number of turns.

[photo footnote: Lisa Said, a country musician who is more Patti Smith than Patsy Cline, but with pan-Arabic accents. ] - The Washington Post

Egyptian-American from Tennessee kicks off her Americana EP with a Huey Smith figure and makes you wonder whether her melodic shading is cultural or individual. ("Been Around," "One Too Many") ** - Robert Christgau

LISA SAID – “First Time, Long Time” (Lisa Said)

Having already been wowed around here when given the marvelous opportunity to debut the video for the winking romp of a delight that is “Hard To Brake,” we’re only too happy to expand our coverage to the full solo debut EP from whence it came.

First Time, Long Time from what may well be SEM’s favorite, most intriguing anomaly – an Egyptian-American from the hill country of Tennessee named Lisa Said that emerges from years of duty in garage/punk/power-pop bands with a mini-LP of seductive, gently experimental Americana – is, simply put, the kind of quality recording that Dolly Parton might have made had she come of age in the gold age of innovative indie. While the goal of the co-producing singer and legendary punk production and engineering guru Don Zientara when they entered the studio was to crossbreed the 70’s Laurel Canyon folk rock Said heard (among much else) as she was growing up with the deep polyrhythmic peculiarities of North African beats native to her DNA, the results – wonderfully, it should be said – tend to lean more toward a kind of exoticized country rock.

With the percussion, thanks to the acute mastery of Andrew Toy, indeed hewing quite often toward the nimble mystique of Saharan tribal traditions – opening track “Been Around” features a master class in applying fingertip djembe or tabla technique to a classic Nashvillian template – a foundation is laid for the remaining quilt of traditional elements to lie persuasively across, resulting in a record that’s as easy-going as it is emotionally rich.

“For Today” banks Said’s soulful, crystalline voice inside a weave of funky honky-tonk guitar (yes, that is possible), t(w)inkling piano textures and an organ break straight out of Big Pink central casting. “Somebody Someday” evokes the yearning lope of vestigial tear-stained country, the organ this time damn near gospel-laced, the piano rolling down the song’s cheeks, the whole thing enough to prompt the googling of every lost lover there’s ever been while “One Too Many” seals the deal with a six-and-a-half minute stroll down romantic melancholy’s most bittersweet by-ways, a distant echo-loaded electric guitar lending a haunted pathos, the piano, ever faithful to the end and lovely in its upper register, escorting the singer once again to the land of the foregone conclusion, where the debt of regret gets paid by the heart’s most dubious assurances.

Ms Said, in short, writes a mean tune, and the confident, sparkling charm that extends over the whole of First Time, Long Time is a type that belies its debut status. With the EP’s depth and irresistibility, Lisa Said as a solo artist has hit the ground sprinting, her easy gait disguising just how comfortably complex this record is. We’re promised a full-length in 2016. The heart tremors. [First Time, Long Time available here] √√√¼ - Stereo Embers

Lisa Said kinda exemplifies what I love about this country. She is the embodiment of the classic melting pot: Egyptian and American heritage, living on the outskirts of Washington DC, raised in the Tennessee hills listening to Pop, Soul, Country, Folk, Oldies and Arabic music. FIRST TIME, LONG TIME is her debut EP and it features a delightful mish-mash of all of those musical styles and more; with all of those elements coming to bear, generally all vying for attention within the framework of each of the five tracks, this is epitome of Americana music. Lisa’s Bandcamp page describes the recording process of these songs (some of which as old as ten years) as “fueled by pistachios and bourbon,” trying to find “the sweet spot between early ’70s Folk Rock and North African percussion.” The first track, “Been Around,” begins with some cool Middle Eastern percussion courtesy of Andrew Toy before morphing into a nifty little 1950s rock and roll tune with a kind of strolling piano from Jon Carroll and Lisa’s acoustic guitar and some subtle sitar from Seth Kauffman. The vocals come off as sort of a breathy Country Soul thing. “For Today” is well on its way to being a weird mix of Uncle Tupelo style Americana and “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’”-era Nancy Sinatra. Carroll adds a solid organ part that somehow would not have sounded out of place on a record by the Band.

There are more comparisons on the record’s centerpiece (literally and figuratively), the raucous, countrified old time rock and roll of “Hard To Brake,” as Said’s melody line puts me in mind of “We’re Not Gonna Take It” – in particular, the “See Me, Feel Me” section – from the Who’s TOMMY. There’s a Rockabilly urgency in Toy’s percussion and Justin Harbin’s bass; Carroll’s piano tinkles along, while Al Sevilla virtually mimics it on the mandolin. “Somebody Someday” is a real-deal Country number with that vague honky-tonk feel from the piano. The only thing missing is the drawl and the twang. Kauffman’s bass highlights the song, while Sevilla’s playing is so understated that you may need a few listens to pick it out of a line-up. One of those moody alternative singer/songwriter thingys closes out the EP. Lisa’s vocals have an Aimee Mann-cum-Sheryl Crow vibe happening on “One Too Many,” with Kauffman adding some echoey Hawaiian sounding guitar in the breaks, as well as some nice solos. The whole song is rather dichotomous with a stripped-down sound that still manages to evoke Phil Spector’s famous Wall of Sound. While the production tends to be a tad muddy in parts, FIRST TIME, LONG TIME is a fine debut. Lisa is already in the studio working on a follow-up full-length, scheduled for a mid-to-late 2016 release. - Zachary Mule

The first thing I noticed one the back cover of this 5-song ep was that it was recorded at Inner Ear Studios and engineered by none other than Don Zientara. If you’re a longtime fan of music on the Dischord label (like me) you’ll remember Don’s name for recording nearly every significant release the label did back in the 80’s. I assumed he was still recording bands and figured he did all genres of music (not just DC hardcore). So cool! Anywho, Lisa Said is an Egyptian-American from Tennessee .Taking cues of the music from her childhood, especially jangly folk and some 70’’s soul/pop she and her crew lay down five tracks and it’s got a real pleasant beat and easy to like (but not pap by any means…and apparently she cut her teeth in punk and garage bands in her younger years). Lisa’s vocals remind me a bit of Natalie Merchant who I am not a fan of but I like Lisa’s vocals (go figure) and thanks to the drummer Andrew Toy, who can play some real complex rhythms, the songs really swing. Opening cut “Been Around” exudes this perfectly as does the folkier “For Today” (musically reminding me a bit of Tim Buckley’s 70’s stuff) while “Hard to Brake” jumps it up a bit and was real rollicking. The final two cuts, “Somebody Someday”(countryish) and “One Too many” (folkier) were both gentler, kinder. I think this gal and her band are ready for a full-length. Let’s have it. www.lisasaid.com - Dagger Zine