TAKE THIS JOB AND LOVE IT
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‘THOSE ARE THE BEST MOMENTS’
A little bit country and a little bit rock ‘n’ roll, Lizzie No ’09 lets her music do the talking.
t was almost a confession, a plea to the world to understand the unnerving thought that always threatens to stifle the voice of Lizzie No ’09. After pouring out lyrics and dressing them in a melody, there is that moment just before she commits her creation to a recording when doubt seizes her. She made this clear in late January when she tweeted, “Every time I sit in front of a mic and record, I’m like, Wow, I’m nothing.” “It’s such a crazy feeling because I really do believe that writing songs is the thing that I am best at in this world,” says No, perhaps better known to Lawrenceville classmates as Lizzie Quinlan. “It is what I’m meant to do.” She’s got a point: In 2016, No was the recipient of the American Songwriter lyrics contest and was a finalist in the New England Indie Rock Competition. Last May, No and the first cut off her second album, “Vanity,” were highlighted by Rolling Stone as a “Song You Need to Know.” She has every reason to express herself with confidence, and she does. “You get really excited, and you become almost obsessed with this thing for however
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long it takes to finish it,” No says of songwriting. “It’s a little love affair that you have with the song, and you’re so excited.” Growing up, No and her sister were encouraged by their parents to be musical, and she played the violin and sang in a choir. Soon her creativity began to blossom, making up lyrics to parody pop songs, or singing harmony to music on the radio. “That’s when it started to become my own thing,” No says, “and not just something that someone else was having me do.” Later, as a Lawrenceville student, No and a few friends played at a Valentine’s Day coffee house in Irwin Dining Center. They came up with an arrangement of “I Hear Them All” by Old Crow Medicine Show, a bluegrass country hit, and afterward they continued to play together. For No, the experience resonated. “That’s when I really felt that feeling that anyone who’s ever been in a band feels like: I’m part of something. This feels really, really good,” she says. “So I’ve just really been chasing that forever.” No says she grew up steeped in folk music, with James Taylor and Peter, Paul, and Mary providing the soundtrack of her youth.
Branching out, she soon identified with Tracy Chapman and the Indigo Girls – “People who were really talented musically, but also had a message, and who were just so substantive and spoke truth to power,” she says. Only at Lawrenceville did No gain an ear for the sounds of country and bluegrass, which instantly attracted her stylistically. “It’s a spiritual thing. That’s just what sticks with me the most,” she says. “And it wasn’t until I heard Valerie June that it clicked in my head that you could be a black girl and play twangy country music. It is still a surprise to me, but it also was inevitable.” At Stanford, No played in a number of bands before graduating, a milestone that placed her at her first crossroads. “You face that moment once you’ve graduated, when you say, ‘I have this fancy degree; what am I going to do with it?’” No says. “But I still felt this pull, like I really needed to keep writing and performing. So that was my path to it, and I’ve just been hustling since then.” The hustle is perhaps the defining characteristic for a performer like No, who balances writing and recording with tours to
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