the storyteller

There’s a word that comes up whenever Liddy Clark talks about her music – “connection.” 

A confessional storyteller with an old soul, her songwriter roots intertwine with a breezy west coast chill vibe grounded by earthy tones. Now with her first full-length album being finalized, she continues to build connections in a desperate world. A Taylor Guitar artist, Clark’s music has been highlighted by Rolling Stone, Radio Disney, CMT, Hollywood Life,  and iHeart Radio. She’s been tapped an “Artist to Watch" by AXS, Thrive Global, Celebuzz, PopCulturalist and named in PopStar!’s “On The Radar” series. Connection is such a strong element of her personality that even The Recording Academy (GRAMMYs) invited her to make a presentation this past year to the President and Board regarding how The Recording Academy can connect with the Gen Z generation.

“Honestly I feel like it’s my own therapy session when I write a song, because I tend to bottle my emotions up,” explains the singer/songwriter. “Being able to write a song about it and figure out what I’m feeling as I write it – and then use that to connect with others – that means everything to me.”

Currently based in Los Angeles, the Plano, Texas native relocated with her family to South Florida (Parkland), just before first grade. This was a pivotal move for Liddy, as theatre is very important in the area and the move put her in a position to grow up on the stage. Inspired by artistic family members like her cousin, Drew Womack (formerly Sons of the Desert and writer of Kenny Chesney’s first number one hit “She’s Got it All”), she amassed the resume of a seasoned entertainer. 

Having been identified in a talent contest by the South Florida Parenting Magazine, Clark started working professionally with a Miami talent agency at the age of 9, modeling for American Girl magazine and Scholastic Bookclub and was even cast for a role in the first commercial for Fox’s The X Factor with Simon Cowell. By the time she was 13, Liddy had appeared in over 30 musical-theater productions, including the musical Oliver! at the famed Actors’ Playhouse on Miami’s Miracle Mile with award winning Director David Arisco. In middle school, the budding actor went on to win the State of Florida’s Best in Show: One Act Play for her skills playing the Madame in To Burn a Witch.  But everything changed at the age of 12 when she wrote her first song. 

Instantly obsessed with the new connection between her soul and the page, Clark started honing a gift for beautifully nuanced lyrics, both catchy and wise beyond her years. She spent three summers in Boston attending the Berklee College of Music Summer Programs where she continued to further her songwriting skills. During her last summer in high school Liddy won a scholarship to join the esteemed Berklee Five Week Summer Program, additionally earning a spot on the coveted Performer Singer-Songwriter Showcase and praise from professors like famed singer-songwriter Melissa Ferrick, who called Clark’s raw and revealing lyrics “award-winning.”

But even as she began fronting her own band at 15 – opening for major artists like Scotty McCreery and performing for major radio stations in South Florida – she was searching for something deeper than fame or fortune.

“A lot of times you can feel very alone and like no one understands the struggles you’re going through,” Liddy explains, “but whenever I hear a song that describes exactly what I’m feeling, that connection makes it so much less painful.”

Out of the gate, Clark was finding connection through tender, personal lyricism, earning praise from heavyweights like Garth Brooks after seeing Liddy perform at the iHeart Country Music Summit in 2017. In 2018, Liddy contributed a mystical rendition of “Do You Hear What I Hear?” to the Cracker Barrel exclusive Country Faith Christmas, Vol. 2, joining the likes of Carrie Underwood, Kelsea Ballerini, Darius Rucker and Brenda Lee on the album’s track list. She went on to win a songwriting scholarship with former Senior Vice President of Creative at Warner Chappell Music, Judy Stakee (Katy Perry, Sheryl Crow, and Gavin DeGraw) who quickly identified Clark’s talent and invited her to a songwriting retreat in New York’s Catskill Mountains.

In 2018 the tragic school shooting in Clark’s hometown of Parkland, Florida, gave her a sense of clarity about her mission. By then, a freshman at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music, she knew many of the families affected, and indeed, her own family still lived just a few blocks from the school.  

“I knew that songwriting had helped me get through hard times before, but this was so much more emotionally charged than any topic I had written about. I knew that I didn’t want to write a political song or a song that made people more upset than they already were. I wanted to write a song that could inspire people and make them realize the weight of this issue.”

Later that year she was invited to perform at Parkland’s Wear Orange gun-violence awareness event.  Clark delivered the emotional anthem she had written the week prior at the Catskill Mountain retreat “Shot Down (Stand Up),” boldly speaking truth to power and voicing the concerns of her peers. “This problem has answers that won’t be found / If every time we try to stand up, we get shot down,” 

“I’m no longer focused on being perfect and saying the right thing in every song, or scrutinizing everything I do,” she explains. “I’m focused on connecting with people and creating that bridge between me and the audience, creating that feeling of knowing you’re not alone.” 

With the release of new music on the horizon, Clark is now living that mantra. Collaborating with producer Mark Siegel at Dubway West Studios, and working around the challenges of the pandemic by recording remotely from her apartment in Los Angeles while Siegel orchestrated production in real-time from quarantine in Nashville, Liddy embraced a vivid sound that fuses the introspection and expression of a seasoned songwriter with a mellow vibe creating a whole new kind of connection. “I’m really excited because I feel like this collection of songs is very personal to me, and they’re all songs I’ve written within the past year or two,” she says. 

With the bop “We Both Know,” for example, Clark applies her satin vocals to a lovestruck dance-floor anthem about a pair of friends who’ve waltzed around their obvious attraction far too long. Grammy winning Taylor Swift collaborator Liz Rose heard the track and quickly gave it her stamp of approval. Pulling influence from songwriting superstars like Taylor Swift, Maren Morris, JP Saxe, Julia Michaels, Ed Sheeran and John Mayer, the left-handed talent is currently finishing up her last year at USC and finalizing her full-album debut. Walking the same stages as her influencers, including iconic venues like the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, The Hotel Cafe in Los Angeles, and the iHeart Stage in NYC, has prepared her for the next step. But really, it’s all just a means to a different end – one that sets her old soul free.

“I just want to be a source of comfort and connection for people, because that’s what music is all about,” says the redhead. “It’s finding that rhythm and that vibe that people from all different backgrounds can listen to and be on the same page. I just want to inspire that.”