Lisa Null will be appearing at a concert at Glen Echo Town Hall on Sunday November 17th at 7:00 PM. She plans the evening as a fund-raising event for her planned recording of traditional songs as well as some of her own material.
?I haven?t made a solo album in 33 years,? she says, though once upon a time she headed Green Linnet Records, which grew into the largest America?s largest label for Celtic music. Her business partner at the time was Pat Sky, a well-known ?60s folk performer and song-writer who increasingly immersed himself in Irish piping.
Lisa sang in Irish bars during the early ?70s and was only too happy to travel to Ireland for a recording session with Seamus Ennis, the great folklore collector and master of the uillean pipes. This was a turning point in her life, for Seamus urged her to explore the great trove of American- Irish traditional song. Soon, she began performing with Bill Shute, the legendary lead guitarist of the Fifth Estate, a top band during the ?60s best known for their hit, ?Ding Dong, the Wicked Witch is Dead.?
Bill and Lisa worked out pulsing arrangements for the mostly Celtic and American songs and ballads she explored?Bill used modal banjo tunings and wrapped his intricate rhythms around her strong, crystalline voice and her clear diction. Peter Bellamy took an interest in them and they all toured together in both England and America. They also played at festivals and clubs throughout the United States and Canada, appearing several times on Garrison Keillor?s ?A Prairie Home Companion.? The two albums Bill and Lisa recorded for Green Linnet, during the late 1970s and early 1980s, developed a cult reputation and were eventually reissued by Folk-Legacy.
After Bill and Lisa went their separate ways, Lisa moved to the DC area, teaching American Musical Life at Georgetown University and getting more and more involved with Folklore Society of Greater Washington events. ?Cancer got to me in the late ?90s,? she says, ?and later complications restricted my ability to walk, to tour much, or to play my guitar.? I began singing most of my songs a cappella and soon discovered the improvisational delights of singing on my own and thinking of each audience as my accompaniment.? She has formed close musical friendships with other performers, however, and has worked with them in a shifting series of groups. FSGW audiences heard her most recently with East-West Highway and with Peter Brice and Judy Cook, performing music from the War of 1812. Some of these musicians may make surprise appearances at this performance.
?I?m seventy years old now,? Lisa says with a touch of nostalgia. "I work and teach voice at home, as much as my health will allow. Teaching has been deeply rewarding, but I also have a legacy of songs I long to pass on. If I don?t get them recorded, who will learn them and love them as I have?? One of her students, Bethesda realtor Tom Hopper, is serving as her manager: prodding her to focus on the recording project and assisting her with the logistics of fundraising. This concert was his idea.
