Emma Lizzie Downing is an artist, singer and songwriter who grew up working in the family business, the Heart of Dixie Motel in Dadeville, AL. There she was influenced by peeping Toms, traveling Evangelists, circus people, birds in the woods and a mother who sang constantly. After graduation in 1981 from Auburn University, she moved to Baltimore to study painting with Grace Hartigan at MICA. There she began a performance art trio, Lambs Eat Ivy, with singer Michael Willis and filmmaker/photographer Nancy Andrews. This trio created and toured plays described by the San Francisco Chronicle as "Mystic Hillbilly Theater." ArtForum said "From the apocalyptic imagery of its sets and costumes to its eccentric hillbilly music, LEI seems to embody Southern-style outsider art as if it were the performance counterpart of the Rev. Howard Finster." Some of their favorite venues were The Whitney Museum of Art, Dixon Place and Dance Theater Workshop in New York; the Corcoran and the Hirshorn Museum of Art in Washington DC; Intersection for the Arts in San Francisco, and LACE in Los Angeles. In 1990, the trio added Jonathan Gorrie and became a quartet, receiving a National Endowment for the Arts grant and other awards that helped fund their plays and tours. Some incarnations of this group have been Girls Ranch, a country-western group; 3 Pigs Café, a psychedelic folk trio; Radiant Pig, a shaman rock quartet and currently Lurch & Holler, an Appalachian parlor music duo using banjo, piano and a couple of careening vocals. Lizzie is also a member of a group formed from members of The Tinklers and Half Japanese called Old Songs. This group translates and creates songs from Ancient Greek philosophy and poetry. Return Home