Artist Profile - Lisa Donnelly

"When I look back I realize: I’m a writer who sings," declares Los Angeles via Kansas singer/songwriter Lisa Donnelly. On her debut We Had A Thing, Donnelly teams with co-writer/producer/multi-instrumentalist Rob Giles (The Rescues) & Rich Jacques, alongside songwriter Kevin Hunter, engineers John Morrical (Rancid) & John Fields (Jonas Brothers). Chris Bellman put the finishing touches in mastering at Bernie Grundman Studios. The disc is due June 2, 2009 on indie Sound/B-Team Media.

Excelling at dance and theater, Lisa was a late bloomer when it came to music. “All my life I couldn’t figure out what my biggest passion was,” she recalls. “It never occurred to me to sing in bands until I was a freshman in college in San Diego.”

After fronting several bands – including L.A outfit A.M. Pacific – Donnelly embarked on a solo career and found a kindred spirits in Rob Giles and Rick Jacques. She recalls, “In all of my time in L.A. no one had ever asked me the right questions,” she further explains “they wanted to know who I was and what I wanted to say and then from there we could figure out how to say it together.”

Donnelly has crafted ten smoldering tracks that Grammy.com in a recent “Indie Artist Spotlight” feature declares, “will take you on a ride.” On the opener “Laugh,” Donnelly proclaims, “sex and money make the world go around,” in the words of an 83-year old clairvoyant who reads her future, backpacks through the cobblestone streets of Spain with the guitar-toting troubadour, “Julian,” and sizes up an interest of lust on “Little Devil.”

Grammy.comfurther praised the debut, “rooted in folk/pop, she crosses genres and sounds, weaving Indian sitar for eastern flavor in "Blue," while gravitating to the blues with the ballad "Stuck In A Rut," and showcasing her fresh, sharp wit in the pop single "Laugh."

In 2008, Lisa co-headlined the Roxy in Los Angeles with Rooney and Brett Dennen, was a featured indie artist on the “AFL Music – The Cause” compilation alongside talent such as Joshua James and Priscilla Ahn and earned a spot on the MTV “Choose or Lose” tour performing in her hometown of Lawrence. Prepping for her debut, Donnelly recently previewed songs to a packed house at the Hotel Café in her adopted hometown of Los Angeles.