Liz Vice - There's A Light

200-gram audiophile quality vinyl

Lacquers cut by Bernie Grundman at Bernie Grundman Mastering, Hollywood

Album download included, with bonus live recording of "There's A Light"

"If you took a little of the jazzy traits of Nina Simone mixed with the depth in tone and effortless delivery of an Aretha Franklin, this might be the result." — My Old Kentucky Blog

Liz Vice didn't grow up with gospel music, and she never really thought of herself as a singer. Things change: The 32-year-old from Portland, Ore. has now released an album called There's A Light, whose songs and sound challenge many of the stereotypes about Christian music. The 200-gram vinyl version was plated and pressed by Quality Record Pressings.

"I started going to a church almost six years ago and they had a 'worship team' — two sets of musicians that would lead worship on Sundays," Vice recalls. "One day I was sitting there listening, and I had this little voice say, 'You need to go and sing on the worship team.' And I'm like, 'Oh no. Where is this coming from?'"

Vice auditioned, got in, and soon found music and performance flooding into her life. And a good thing, too, because talent this special deserves to be shared with the world. The connection between gospel music and 1960s soul is reaffirmed on There's a Light, a set of devout songs in vintage, tambourine-shaking soul style.

"I remember how nervous I was. It just felt like all the pores in my body opened up and then it was just me in a room alone and I was singing to Jesus. When the song was over, I realized I was in front of a congregation," recalls Vice. "Afterward, one of my friends came up to me and asked 'What was that?' She was teary and I said 'I don't know.' That was kinda the beginning of the beautiful journey."

There's a Light is the brainchild of Josh White, who wrote and produced each of the 10 tracks and released them under the Deeper Well label, a local gospel collective representing a number of faith-based musicians.

The first song White introduced Vice to was "Empty Me Out," a classically balanced, up-tempo song that seems pulled from the early days of Motown.

"'People love ‘Empty Me Out.' Out of all of the songs on the album, that is the one song that is brought up over and over," says Vice. "There is something about it that just penetrates the souls of people. It's a prayer."