Eliza Gilkyson (born August 24, 1950,

Hollywood, California Hollywood, sometimes informally called Tinseltown, is a List of districts and neighborhoods in Los Angeles, neighborhood and district in the Central Los Angeles, central region of Los Angeles County, California, within the city of Los Angeles. ...

) is an American folk musician based in

Taos, New Mexico Taos () is a town in Taos County, New Mexico, Taos County, in the north-central region of New Mexico in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Initially founded in 1615, it was intermittently occupied until its formal establishment in 1795 by Santa Fe ...

.Gilkyson moved her base from Austin, Texas, to Taos in 2020. Gilkyson is a two-time

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

nominee, receiving a nomination for Best Contemporary Folk Album in 2004 and

Best Folk Album The Grammy Award for Best Folk Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for releasing albums in the Folk music, folk genre. Honors ...

in 2014.

Career

Gilkyson released ''Eliza '69'', her first album, in 1969 while raising a family in

Santa Fe, New Mexico Santa Fe ( ; , literal translation, lit. "Holy Faith") is the capital city, capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico, and the county seat of Santa Fe County. With over 89,000 residents, Santa Fe is the List of municipalities in New Mexico, fourt ...

. She didn't come out with her second, ''Love from the Heart'', until ten years later. She moved to

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

, in 1981 and released the commercial album ''Pilgrims'' before moving to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

in 1987. After a brief stint in Los Angeles, she returned to New Mexico in the early 1990s, releasing several albums of original material. In 1993 she collaborated with

New Age New Age is a range of Spirituality, spiritual or Religion, religious practices and beliefs that rapidly grew in Western world, Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclecticism, eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise d ...

artist Andreas Vollenweider on his recording, ''Eolian Minstrel''.Eliza Gilkyson profile

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

, July 31, 2009; accessed September 24, 2014. She has been with Red House Records since 2000, although she also worked on three albums independently, recording on her own label, Realiza Records. In 2003 she was inducted into the Texas Music Hall of Fame. Her third album with Red House Records, ''Land of Milk and Honey'' was released in 2004, and was nominated for a Grammy. In 2005, she released ''Paradise Hotel'' with the song "Requiem" about the

2004 Indian Ocean earthquake On 26 December 2004, at 07:58:53 local time (UTC+07:00, UTC+7), a major earthquake with a magnitude of 9.2–9.3 struck with an epicenter, epicentre off the west coast of Aceh in northern Sumatra, Indonesia. The Submarine earthquake, undersea ...

and tsunami in December 2004. Coinciding with

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a powerful, devastating and historic tropical cyclone that caused 1,392 fatalities and damages estimated at $125 billion in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area. ...

's devastation of the Gulf Coast region in August 2005, this song found its way to listeners as a song of prayer and comfort. The same year she was recognized with 3 Austin Music Awards and 4 Folk Alliance Music Awards, one of which was for her song "Man of God" about the Bush administration. In 2008, her album ''Beautiful World'' came out, again on Red House Records. The songs vary from pop to folk and points in-between, with songs ranging from intimate ballads to rallying cries against the imperialist machine. In 2010, she collaborated on a new album entitled '' Red Horse'' with two of her Red House Records label-mates

John Gorka John Gorka (born July 27, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter. In 1991, ''Rolling Stone'' magazine called him "the preeminent male singer-songwriter of what has been dubbed the New Folk Movement." Personal life Gorka was raised in the Colon ...

and Lucy Kaplansky. In 2011, she came out with ''Roses at the End of Time'', and in 2014 released ''The Nocturne Diaries'' which was Grammy nominated for best Folk Album. Both CDs were recorded at her home with the help of her son and co-producer Cisco Ryder. In 2020, she released ''2020'', described as "a collection of politically charged anthems." She continues to tour about 150 dates per year in the United States and overseas, as well as hosting annual songwriting workshops near

Discography

Albums

*1969 – ''Eliza '69'', Mont Clare Records (out of print) *1979 – ''Love from the Heart'', as Lisa Gilkyson, Helios Records (out of print) *1982 – ''No Commercial Potential'', as Lisa Gilkyson, Wind River Productions (cassette - out of print) *1984 – ''Eliza Gilkyson / Mark Hallman'', SouthCoast Records (EP - out of print) *1987 – ''Pilgrims'', Gold Castle Records *1988 – ''Legends of Rainmaker'', Gold Castle Records (out of print) *1992 – ''Through the Looking Glass'',

Private Music Private Music was an American independent record label founded in 1984 by musician Peter Baumann as a "home for instrumental music". Baumann signed Ravi Shankar, Yanni, Suzanne Ciani, Andy Summers, Patrick O'Hearn, Leo Kottke, and his for ...

(out of print but may be reissued in the future) *1993 – ''Eolian Minstrel'' by Andreas Vollenweider, vocals, acoustic guitar, and lyrical co-author, although Gilkyson's credit only appears in the liner notes,

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007), and simply known as Capitol, is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-base ...

*1994 – ''Undressed'', Realiza Records (out of print) *1997 – ''Redemption Road'', Silverwave Records *1999 – ''Misfits'', Realiza Records *2000 – ''Hard Times in Babylon'', Red House Records *2001 – ''More Than a Song'', with Ad Vanderveen and Iain Matthews, Perfect Pitch Productions *2002 – ''Lost and Found'', Red House Records *2004 – ''Land of Milk and Honey'', Red House Records *2005 – ''RetroSpecto'', Realiza Records *2005 – ''Paradise Hotel'', Red House Records *2007 – ''Your Town Tonight'', Red House Records *2008 – ''Beautiful World'', Red House Records *2010 – '' Red Horse'' with

and Lucy Kaplansky, Red House Records *2011 – ''Roses At The End Of Time'', Red House Records *2014 – ''The Nocturne Diaries'', Red House Records *2018 – ''Secularia'', Red House Records *2020 – ''2020'', Red House Records *2022 – ''Songs from the River Wind'', Howling Dog Records *2023 – ''Home'', Realiza

DVDs

*2008 – ''Live From Austin, Texas''

Personal life

Gilkyson is the daughter of songwriter and folk musician Terry Gilkyson and his wife, Jane. Her brother is guitarist Tony Gilkyson, who played with the

–based bands Lone Justice and X. She is married to scholar and author Robert Jensen.Profile
News-record.com; accessed September 24, 2014.

References

External links

Texas Music Hall of Fame Singer/Songwriter Eliza Gilkyson, The Rag Blog, December 21, 2011
(with podcast of

Thorne Dreyer Thorne Webb Dreyer (born August 1, 1945) is an American writer, editor, publisher, and political activist who played a major role in the 1960s-1970s Counterculture of the 1960s, counterculture, New Left, and underground press movements. Dreyer no ...

's December 16, 2011, Rag Radio interview with Eliza Gilkyson, including live performance—55:48) {{DEFAULTSORT:Gilkyson, Eliza 1950 births Living people American women singers American folk singers Musicians from Austin, Texas Songwriters from California Singers from Los Angeles Songwriters from Texas Private Music artists Red House Records artists 21st-century American women