Liz Longley’s New Life: A Nashville Musician Mom on Gratitude, Independence, and Songwriting That Meets the Moment

Making it as a musician living in Nashville isn’t as easy as showing up to the Bluebird Cafe with a guitar. But for Liz Longley, a Downington, Pa., native who moved there in 2011, it almost was. The singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist had barely put down roots before she got the chance to play at a record label board meeting in 2013 — and got signed on the spot. 

It was dream come true … until it wasn’t. 

After releasing the self-titled Liz Longley (2013), the musician was on hard at work on a follow-up record when the label’s management suddenly changed — and Longley was dropped. There was a small silver lining, but an expensive one: Longley would be able to buy back the masters from her recording sessions — but only if she could come up with $45,000.

“I was really excited to work with Grammy nominated producer Paul Moak for the first time, and we put together a record that we were so proud of. … [but] the people that believed in me and championed me were no longer there, and I got dropped,” Longley recalls.

Longley was initially hesitant to ask for help, partially because she was embarrassed that she needed to after supposedly having made it by being signed in 2013. But with a little encouragement, she launched a kickstarter campaign — and within hours became the fourth most-funded solo female musician in Kickstarter history.

“It changed my life,” says Longley. “I’ve been independent ever since.”

The experience not only made her stronger but fueled creativity for her next album, 2020’s Funeral For My Past, a collection of songs that highlights Longley’s versatile vocal style and spans multiple genres, from soul to pop-rock and Americana.

Five years later, her life is bigger than she ever imagined, musically and personally. In 2022, she and her husband welcomed a daughter into their world, and Longley felt a wave of fresh inspiration to write new songs and finally finish ones she’d started before becoming a parent.

The result is her forthcoming album, New Life, a vocally emotive, musically cinematic body of work inspired by everyday moments as well as big events. What sets this album apart from earlier releases is the wisdom Longley has gained through the life challenges she’s moved through. The second single “Start Over” is lush ode to fading love, aging, and the deep longing to resurrect romance. “Wake You Up,” meanwhile, is a more pepped-up, pop-rock driven call to action — a reminder to be grateful for the life you have.

We recently sat down with Longley to talk about her new adventures in motherhood, songwriting, and finding the fearlessness to start over. The following conversation is an excerpt from the full video interview, available here:

Rockmommy: How did you get started on your path to being musician?

Liz Longley: I grew up in a really musical house. My dad grew up in a musical house too. So my grandfather was an Army band leader, and music was always in their house. And my dad thought that he just passed [that] on to me, my brother. I grew up always playing music, loving music, and then I had this spark of a moment where I fell in love with songwriting, when I listened to Joni Mitchell. And that just changed everything for me, and that’s when I realized I wanted to study songwriting.

Rockmommy: How’d you end up in Nashville?

Liz Longley: Well, when I graduated from college [at Berklee], I knew that I wanted to be in a musical city, and so I lived in New York City for a couple months. I always joked that I’ve been driving a minivan since I could drive. And I always joked that when I lived in New York City, I paid more in parking violations than I did in rent. It just became impossible as a touring musician to live there, so I decided to move back to Boston and regroup and decide where to move. And that’s when I landed on Nashville, and I’ve been there since 2011.

Rockmommy: Wow, that’s great. That’s a substantial amount of time to sort of soak into the ecosystem of Nashville, which is a bit different from New York. I feel like, when I watch the show Nashville, it seems like everyone just goes to the Bluebird [Cafe], and then they’re in!

Liz Longley: I wish that was how it worked. I mean, Bluebird is amazing. I love playing there, yeah, but I’ve played there at countless times and never been, quote, unquote, discovered. But I guess I did kind of have a discovery moment in Nashville when I first moved here. I wanted to make a record with some of the greatest musicians that live here.

And so I launched a Kickstarter, and made a record, independently, and then I happened to play it at a board meeting for a label, and I got signed. It was wild! Very shortly after making that record and moving here, all the dreams that I had for Nashville started coming true, and that was a wave that I rode for a couple years until it crashed.

Rockmommy: I do want to get into that, because it’s the story around your last LPFuneral For My Past (2020), and a big part of that story is about how you decided, to pave your own way. Can you take me back to that initial period?

Liz Longley: So, I had done two records with this label, and when it was time for me to do my third I was really excited about the batch of songs. I was really excited to work with Grammy nominated producer Paul Moak for the first time, and we put together a record that we were so proud of.

And when I handed it in, the people at the label who had signed me had just left. The people that believed in me and championed me were no longer there, and I got dropped. [The label] basically said, ‘if you want to release this record, we’ll give it to you if you buy it back from us.’ The plus side is that I was given the opportunity to buy it back.

I just, unfortunately, didn’t have the funds to do so, so I was really torn about what to do, and ended up launching a Kickstarter to buy back that record. And it’s just kind of a crazy, full circle moment … my fans made me the fourth most-funded solo female musician in Kickstarter history. So it changed my life, and I’ve been independent ever since.

Rockmommy: I know you had some initial hesitancies about Kickstarter. Why is that?

Liz Longley: I think I felt a little bit of embarrassment, and because I had launched a Kickstarter that got me into this record deal, I didn’t see myself having to go back to that spot where I needed so much support. And so it was very humbling. But my husband, he was my boyfriend at the time, he encouraged me to do it, and he’s like, ‘your people are gonna stand beside you in this.’ I think it was like the first couple hours [after] the campaign had gone live, I had raised $45,000 and I was just crying! I just couldn’t believe that it was true that people were willing to support me and help me out.

Rockmommy: There’s a saying that if you have faith, you’ll get taken care of.

Liz Longley: The biggest lesson for me as somebody who was on a label and is now no longer on a label … I had this realization where I was, like, ‘wait a minute, I make the thing that this label needs to survive.’ So even though they dropped me, I still have the thing, essentially, that they run on.

Rockmommy: So let’s talk about your new music. You are a mom now — tell us how your life has changed.  

Liz Longley: It’s been a massive change. My daughter is two and a half, and I always wanted to be a mom, aways wanted to be a musician. And I’m so lucky that I’ve been able to do [both], especially because I have this amazing husband who holds down the fort while I tour, or they come with me, and it’s so much fun, it’s so much stress and so much fun … but having a child has just shifted the way that I see the world, the way that I feel the world, and it definitely had a huge impact on what I write about … what I want to make people feel.

I joke that I built a career on writing songs about my failed love life, and that when I got happy, I honestly was worried, ‘what am I going to write about?’ There’s so many things to write about, especially this day and age that we live in. You know, there’s …. so many pain points and so many beautiful things too. And I think that’s the thing that I’ve learned as a songwriter, is how to write from a place of gratitude … I’m heartbroken at the state of the world, and also I’m so grateful for the life that I have.

Rockmommy: Can you take me through the first couple of singles for your forthcoming album?

Liz Longley: The first single that came out is called “More Than Ever,” and that’s actually what I was just thinking about in my mind when I was saying that two things can be true, that you can be so grateful and also so heartbroken by state of the world. That is how I would sum up that song. And that’s the first song that I wrote after my daughter was born, and I just sat on my front porch and just lost it.

The second single that came out is a song that I wrote many years ago that really just resonated with me at this point in my life. It’s called “Wake You Up,” and it’s a song about just wanting to wake somebody up and wake them up to the joy of their lives. I struggled a lot postpartum with anxiety and depression. Having this song that I could sing every night, that’s a reminder to wake up and be here and enjoy the now is something that I wanted for myself, but also something that I wanted to sing, sing and share with others. So that was really an important song to put on the record.

And then the third single, “Start Again” … this is another one that I wrote years ago. I wasn’t married. I had just started dating my husband at the time and I wrote this song with Isaac Fox, and I just love singing the song. It’s kind of got the Spanish feel, and then Paul Moak played this insane guitar solo. It’s so delicious … this song really felt like it resonated with me again at this point in my life, and it was important to put on the record. And I haven’t announced this yet, but we’re gonna be putting a music video out for this song.

Rockmommy: So what kind of gear do you bring with you on tour?

Liz Longley: I have Sennheiser microphones that I love., I like to have, like to have a really clear vocal sound. It’s really important to me, and also it’s really important to me to have a really good capo. I know that sounds so funny, but the G7th capos, if I don’t have that during my show, is not going to be right. It saves so much time every time I put it on … it keeps the intonation good. that’s so important to me. And then if I’m traveling, not by plane, I take an Avalon preamp for my acoustic guitars. Since it’s just me and my guitars and a piano, it’s important to me that my guitars sound really delicious, and so I take that with me.

Rockmommy: So I want to talk about … mom life. Like, do you have to sneak in guitar, like, between naps, and, you know, how does, how does that work with your new workflow?

Liz Longley: I basically have to. When she was young, when I would play, it would make her cry. I had this theory that I like traumatized her from playing guitar while I was pregnant. I was like, ‘Oh no, she hates music.’ Luckily, now she loves music and she likes to sing all the time … lately what I do is I actually write while she’s playing in front of me, or she’s coloring. I’ll just sit on my chair and she’ll create her mess, and I’ll just sing and I’ll know it’s good if she starts singing it back to me.

Rockmommy: Any inspiring advice other musician moms like me, especially the ones with the littles?

Liz Longley: What I remind myself of daily is, you know, on the airplane, they always say, put your mask on first before you put it on your kid. And for me, music is my mask. Music is my what breathes new life into me. I know that I’m a better person, a better mama, when I’m taking care of myself. My advice is just keep pouring into yourself and let it trickle down to your loved ones.