Milwaukee Songstress Liv Mueller to Perform Sturgeon Bay Show

Liv Mueller. Photo by Nick Berg.

A veteran of the Holiday Music Motel’s thrice-yearly songwriting festivals, Milwaukee songstress Liv Mueller returns to Sturgeon Bay this Saturday for an evening performance at Door County Makers Space.

The visit comes a day after a reunion concert at Linneman’s Riverwest Inn in Milwaukee with her former indie rock band, The Lovelies. Originally formed in Austin, Texas in the mid ‘90s, the band was reincarnated after Mueller’s move to Milwaukee, where their best successes were realized: they landed on the CMJ Charts, performed South by Southwest, and had songs used in film and television. After a decade in which they put out four albums and toured the country, The Lovelies disbanded in 2004.

Next up: The Dark Horse Project, a three-piece band that took her into 2009. Mueller credits this band with helping her refine a sound she had long envisioned, “capturing a beautiful, haunted landscape of listening.” For the past six years, she has brought that refined sound of smoky vocals to stages and festivals across the country as a solo artist.

Recording and releasing her own material is no longer a new venture for Mueller, who patiently awaits the arrival of copies of her second solo album, Light Of the Valley, Shadow Of the Mountain.

Mueller considers the new album to be a continuation of her first solo album, 2013’s Liv Sings: Love Songs for the Forlorn & Misguided, which has been described by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel as “an arty collection of dreamy, slightly unsettling, Nancy Sinatra-like torch songs.”

“I get a lot of flak because I sing a lot about love and heartbreak, and sometimes people try to intervene and they say, ‘Oh Liv, all your songs are about love and heartbreak,’” Mueller said. “And I guess that’s just too bad! Because that’s just what comes out.”

Mueller recorded the entire album “either in a basement or in a bedroom or wherever I could find space…partly in Texas, partly in Wisconsin.” Artwork and pressing of the album were supported through a crowdfunding campaign.

“I was very conflicted about it and very pleased to say the money was raised in two days but the landscape has changed now in terms of musicians’ ability to make money,” Mueller said. “There are all these websites now where you can download albums for free or listen to the whole album for free or pay almost nothing and that’s not the entirety of it of course but I had friends who had been crowdfunding, done it successfully, and so I thought I’d give it a shot. In the future I plan on most likely using it again but, again, just for the release or the pressing. I like to absorb the cost to myself of recording myself. I may use it again and I think it’s a great tool for people to preorder your music.”

Liv Mueller performs at 8pm on Saturday, Nov. 26 at Door County Makers Space, 26 N. Third Ave. in Sturgeon Bay. Tickets are $20 and advance purchase is recommended by calling 920.333.0323. For more on the musician, visit LivMueller.com.