It’s March 2007 and another Open Mic Night commences at the now defunct Green Bean Coffee House in Hammond, LA.  Lilli Lewis is setting up the PA while Liz Hogan is strumming her 3/4-sized guitar for sound check.  A marimba playing SLU percussion major walks in and inconspicuously sets up a floor tom in the back right corner of the stage.  Liz’s sound check seamlessly morphs into a stirring rendition of Gordon Lightfoot’s “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” The entire room lifts when the floor tom falls into its steady 6/8 time, and The Shiz is born, only it will be two more years before anyone knows about it.

The Shiz, an almost all woman roots rock quartet, was founded in 2009 by its songwriters Lilli Lewis and Hammond native Liz Hogan.  Liz and Lilli have been traveling and making music together since they met in Decatur, GA in 2004. 

Liz is a life-long multi-instrumentalist whose evocative songs have been inspired by rock veterans such as Neil Young and Tom Petty.  Lilli hails from Athens, GA. A finalist in the 2008 Mountain Stage New Song Competition and the 2006 International Songwriting Competition, her arsenal of compositions has been celebrated in indie folk, rock and jazz scenes of Boston, Atlanta and abroad.

Lilli: “Liz used to sit in the corner of the ice cream shop where I played every week with this big red bag of harmonicas.  It took a while to get her to sit in with us, but the first time I heard her play I knew she was the truth.  I invited her to play with me in Atlanta’s Music Midtown Festival and the rest was history.”

It’s January 2009.  Liz and Lilli find themselves returning home to Hammond after stints in Colorado, Connecticut and Arizona respectively.  Their day gigs at a Buddhist Retreat Center, Wal-Mart, and in Wilderness Therapy have all fallen through, and they are unsure of their next move. 

Liz: “Basically, we were driving on another long road trip, jammin’ out to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and we suddenly accepted the fact that being in a band was the only job we really wanted.  We had a very short list of drummers we wanted to collaborate with, and ‘that girl’ from the Green Bean back in 2007 was at the top.  Too bad neither one of us knew her name.”

As fate would have it, the threesome fortuitously reunited in January, 2009 during an impromptu stop at Hammond’s Organic Planet.  A slightly longer-haired Melinda McElveen approached the unsuspecting Liz and Lilli, introducing herself as “that girl from the Green Bean.”  Melinda signed on then and there, and the band has been full speed ahead ever since.

Melinda: “Even though I hadn’t seen either one of them in two years, I still remembered how great it had felt that night.  When we finally all played together, it seemed like everyone’s individual musicianship was coming together to make something pretty awesome.”

The three teamed up with Anna Byars, a dynamic young lead guitarist from the Baton Rouge scene.  That collaboration yielded the debut LP “Where We Stand.” The recording was released in September 2009, and can be heard on college, public and independent radio throughout the Southeast.

“Where We Stand” brought the band even more momentum and caught the attention of the rock steady wunder-kind Wade Hymel.  An accomplished lead guitarist and drummer in his own right, Wade signed on as the band’s bass player just to be a part of the project.

Wade: “What I really dig is that there is no such thing as ‘Shiz filler.’  Every song means something.”

The Shiz performs familiar songs that show a real love for the best craftsmen of the trade, and their originals always leave audiences wanting to hear more.  Liz and Lilli’s lyrical strength is found in their restless quest for truth and unity.  Their message is backed by a southern rock sound with commanding melodic harmonies and driving rhythms that resurrect the old ghosts and give them hope. 

When asked what kind of music they play the reply is always an emphatic “Shiz Rock!” And just what is Shiz Rock?  Unexpectedly stirring, and a damned good time.