Lisa Gorlin
Lisa's musical training began by ear at a very early age when her parent's took her to the symphony and the ballet at Lincoln Center in New York. It continued with her older sibling's passion for the music of the 60's and early 70's which became her passion as well. There was always live music in the house. Lisa's interest in becoming a player began when she was ten. In summer camp at the age of twelve she started playing folk songs with the basic chords. Her first guitar arrived shortly afterwards.
Starting with the folk-rock music of the era, Lisa's immersion in the blues occurred gradually, coexisting with the music of her favorite group at that time: Pink Floyd. She followed Jorma Kaukonen of Hot Tuna around from show to show, over 30 of them, soaking up his virtuoso fingerpicking style. Lisa invented her own style, however, and began to play acoustic blues, eventually performing solo in coffeehouses and restaurants.
While in college Lisa was the booking agent for the campus coffeehouse. She went on to manage two bands, performing in one of them, and worked as a live sound engineer and concert producer. Wearing many hats, she started Laughing Raven Music in 1995, a music production company and mobile recording studio which included audio engineering, concert and CD production, promotion and music sales.
Lisa fell in love with Celtic music after listening to a CD of The Bothy Band, the traditional Irish supergroup of the 70's (Matt Molloy, Paddy Keenan, Donal Lunny, Kevin Burke, Michael O'Domhnaill, Trina Ni Dhomhnaill).
Upon discovering her knack for arranging that music she quickly adjusted her playing style to the new time signatures and everything just took off from there. She co-founded Silverhand with multi-instrumentalist and composer Chris Burbick in 1996. Their first performances were as a duo at private parties and SCA events. Soon afterwards, with the full lineup on board, they launched the extremely popular Bardic Night series of shows at the Blue Pine Brew Pub in Grants Pass, Oregon. Silverhand enjoyed a great deal of popularity in Southern Oregon and Northern California and their self-produced CD, released in 2001, garnered rave reviews and frequent airplay on college and community radio stations across the U.S. as well as in Canada and Australia. The group went on hiatus indefinitely when Chris left the band in August, 2002.
Lisa currently plays a mixture of Celtic tunes and original compositions with guitarist Larry Randall. Their originals reflect a wide range of influences including Classical, Celtic, Folk, Rock, Jazz and Blues. Lisa comments: “I still hear a whole band when I write music, so I am looking forward to having a full group again in the near future."
Lisa also teaches a drawing class, "Drawing Innovations", at the Mount Tabor SUN Community School in Portland, Oregon. Visit the activities page at Portland Parks and Recreation , the next course number TBA.