BSU student makes ends meet with voice, guitar and new CD

Elizabeth Blin is a BSU student and singer/songwriter who often performs with an acoustic guitar in small, intimate venues like coffee shops. If you’re not familiar with her music, you might assume that she’s some kind of Jewel-esque folk artist, singing sad and pretty songs about loss, longing and deep-seated despair

But Blin’s music transcends and handily evaporates these stereotypes. In fact, her style is a refreshingly original and nearly unclassifiable combination of jazz, rock, blues, bossa-nova and folk with classical overtones, often sung in her native French. Her own description, “How the French Blues Met the Magic Of Bossa Nova,” isn’t even close to definitive.

It’s hard not to crack a smile when listening to her new CD, “Therapie Bossa Nova.” It’s danceable, quirky, largely upbeat, unobtrusive, yet still interesting, mellow without being too quiet, and unyieldingly positive. This is the kind of music that, despite its non-traditional (for Boiseans anyway) nature, will raise your spirits a couple of notches and make you want to kick back and have a margarita or two.

Though her music won’t leave listeners feeling heavy, Blin doesn’t hesitate to address some substantial issues and themes in her lyrics. She was raised in Catholicism and even considered becoming a nun as a girl, but didn’t find the religion to be very down to earth and compassionate toward all forms of life.

“I had philosophical questions about our roles as human beings on the planet, especially about killing animals,” Blin said. “It is one aspect of very strong violence that we are used to, and we perpetrate. These are really important values for me; so in my songs, I try not to be preachy, but I just mention ‘hey, let’s love each other and not kill each other and let’s love the animals too.”

The lyrics on “Therapie Bossa Nova” reveal Blin as a hopeful, deeply spiritual person, concerned with questioning as well as enjoying life.

“Limited in this material body, that put its sticks into my wheels, I taste the new potatoes and rediscover a new flavor…I have chosen a path of ripened reasoning…the world is looking for its roots, its cosmic origins”–from “Corps Materiel” (Material Body).

Blin is also very serious about making a career in music, which isn’t the easiest path to take in life, especially for an artist who isn’t playing in a style that is considered commercially viable.

Blin said, “When you choose music as a career, as a means of living, you know you’re going to struggle. It’s definitely a tough choice in a small city like Boise, because you can’t really make a living on your music and that’s too bad.” She isn’t going to ’sell out’ though: “(But) I will not compromise to play in marching bands or to country music, which is very popular around here.” And Boise is certainly lucky that she has such a conviction.

“Therapie Bossa Nova” would make a great Christmas gift, and it is available at the Record Exchange, CD Merchant, Borders, The Co-Op and at any of her gigs.

Jim Toweill

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