Lisa Mann

Lisa Mann

Lisa Mann is a blues singer and bass guitarist from West Virginia who is based in Portland, Oregon. Her work sits across blues, rhythm and blues, and blues rock, and she is also known as a female vocalist within the Northwest blues scene.

Awards and recognition

Mann receives the Cascade Blues Association’s Muddy Waters Award for Vocalist of the Year and is later inducted into the CBA Hall of Fame after a third consecutive Bass Player of the Year win. She also places in the CBA’s Bass Player of the Year category three years in a row.

Band work and competitions

She performs with Lisa Mann and Her Really Good Band, which wins the 2010 Journey to Memphis Finals at the Waterfront Blues Festival over the Fourth of July weekend and goes on to represent the Cascade Blues Association at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis in February 2011. In 2007, the band travels to Austin for the Famecast competition finals, where Mann takes second place in a national field of 162 bands.

Songwriting and releases

Mann writes most of her recorded material. Her songs draw on personal experience and often focus on life, love, and the music business. Her signature song, “Little Sister,” places runner-up in the open category of Mike Pinder’s Song Wars competition in 2009. Her self-titled CD gathers blues-oriented songs from her earlier eclectic releases, Self Material and Chop Water, and adds two new tracks. The album features Jeff Knudsen on engineering and guitar, Dave Melyan on drums, Alex Shakeri of the Insomniacs on keyboards, Janice Scroggins on keys, and Jim Wallace on harmonica.

Collaborations and live work

Mann shares the stage with Northwest artists including Paul DeLay, Duffy Bishop, Ellen Whyte, and Sonny “Smokin’” Hess. She also lends bass lines and musical direction to the NW Women’s Rhythm and Blues Revue, a showcase that appears at festivals such as Waterfront Blues and at its annual Christmas show, which supports cancer charities.

Influences

Her influences include Etta James and Koko Taylor, singer-songwriters such as Bonnie Raitt and Sheryl Crow, and R&B singer Little Milton.