The Lizzy Ross Band has been touring professionally since 2009, and the group will bring its music to The Red Room Friday.
The group includes Luis Rodriguez on the guitar, Max Palmer on the drums and Brett Hart on the bass. They are equally at home in a pin-drop quiet listening room or rocking full-tilt on a late-night festival set.
Ross is a vocalist, but songwriting is her first love and enduring strength. She cites such influences as Guy Clark, Sam Cooke and the Velvet Underground, landing somewhere in the middle with her country-soul roots and rock and roll spirit.
Stephen Markley with Chicago RedEye described Ross as “Folksy, jazzy, bluesy in all the best senses of the words ... a voice like cigarettes and the smoothest whiskey you’ve ever tasted.”
In 2011, Ross was voted North and South Carolinas’ Best Rock Female of the year and received an Emerging Artist Award from the Durham Arts Council. Also that year, the band’s debut release “Read Me Out Loud” earned a No. 1 spot on HGMN radio charts.
Since then, the band has competed in a variety of contests and locations, including being named a finalist and competing in the Kerrville, Texas, New Folk Songwriting Contest, whose past finalists include Steve Earle, Townes Van Zandt, Nanci Griffith, Lyle Lovett and Lucinda Williams.
The band continues to tour and spread its reach in Florida, Tennessee and Virginia, sharing the stage with artists like Keb’ Mo’, Kathy Mattea, Sarah Jarosz, Ben Solee and Kaki King.
For more information on the band, visit lizzy.net.
Lizzy Ross Band
9 p.m. Friday, doors open at 8 p.m.
The Red Room
220 N. Herritage St.
Info: 252-208-2437