Untitled Document

Songwriter of the Year - Lise Liddell
August 5, 2004

By William Michael Smith

Since she was attired in black jeans and matching T-shirt and not her trademark postage-stamp-sized miniskirt, it's safe to assume that Lise Liddell didn't expect to win. And all she could do once her name was announced was take the stage, brandish her award, stare myopically at the blaring spotlights and waffle on aimlessly. Winner by a wide margin, all Liddell could say later was "I wish I hadn't sounded so retarded up there." Liddell also professed to be at a loss about how it was she came to win. After all, she said, her last album had been out for over a year and "didn't sell squat," and her new one has yet to be released. (When it does come out, it will be on brother Frank Liddell's new Carnival Music label based in Nashville.) Liddell once said she doesn't write her dark, Leonard Cohen-ish lyrics "while having orange juice and cornflakes," and whatever her doubts, there seems to be a large non-OJ-and-cereal-consuming fan base here.