Profile

Lila Nelson has been composing songs since her single digits. She grew up in Fallbrook, CA with no dearth of siblings, cats and musical instruments, which—combined with a healthy skepticism regarding recipes and going to school—helped to nurture an imaginative and illustrative mind. Washing dishes to the likes of Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Nina Simone, Nick Drake, Stevie Wonder, and the Beatles (shall I go on?), practicing harmonies with sisters on walks in Santa Margarita River Valley and writing lyrics for her brother's early three chord ventures on the guitar helped set the stage for a career as a prolific singer/songwriter.

Lila conveys at once the joy, pain, and irony of the everyday through masterful acoustic arrangements infused with "a voice like spring rain.” Loudon Wainwright III says, “Great songs with poetic tendrils that cling...her environment as a writer is environment itself."

Her songs move from traditional folk to contemporary folk/Americana, to jazz, blues, and ballad always finding their home inside of the rich stories that they tell. Her love of performance is reflected in the intimacy she creates with audiences big and small, and an irrepressible sense of humor that would make both her grandfathers proud.

Her latest CD, "still got the farm" (self-produced with her husband and partner Ian Caliendo, who plays mandolin, guitar, and mbira and is an all around renaissance guy), has received airplay on folk shows across the nation. Having just completed a West Coast tour with fellow musician Casey Connor, Lila is currently embarking on her next recording project and booking an East Coast tour for the fall.

Exclusive Interview
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Q&A
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Contact
www.lilanelson.org
lmn@lilanelson.org
Lila Nelson
P.O. Box 4150
Arcata, CA 95518