Lisa Biales is Making a Scene

December 2, 2023

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Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Lisa Biales about her new Christmas Release

At Christmas contains nine newly written songs for the season plus a remake of Louis Prima’s swing classic “Shake Hands with Santa Claus.” The Ohio-based Biales’ and her band of ace Los Angeles musicians move easily through various musical styles, filling the album with blues, big band swing, classic rock, Southern rock, country-soul and mid-20th century pop.

Recorded at Johnny Lee Schell’s Ultratone Studios in Los Angeles and produced by Tony Braunagel (who earned his stripes playing for Bonnie Raitt; Taj Mahal and The Phantom Blues Band; and Robert Cray.), At Christmas features Braunagel (drums/jingle bells/percussion/BGVs), Jeff Paris (piano/Hammond organ/BGVs/glockenspiel), Johnny Lee Schell (guitar/BGVs), Chuck Berghofer and David J. Carpenter (bass), Mark Pender (trumpet), Jerry Vivino (sax), Joe Sublett (tenor sax), Garrett Smith (trombone), Doug Hamilton (violin), Michael G. Ronstadt (cello), Maxayn Lewis (BGVs).

The title track “At Christmas” pairs Biales (pronounced Be-Alice) with a New Orleans-style second-line beat and horn section. The jaunty “The Boy I Met for Christmas” and “Lulu Magoo” sound familiar enough to be standards. Biales’ heartrending vocals in the roots-blues song “When the Snowflakes Fall” may remind listeners of one of her major influences, Bonnie Raitt. “Mary’s Little Baby Boy” moves to a classic ZZ Top sound and “Christmas Cheer” evokes the Allman Brothers Band’s Southern rock. “Christmas Record” transforms the singer’s anxiety about recording a Christmas album in sunny southern California in September into musical comedy.

A longtime lover of Christmas music, Biales has performed holiday concerts for her Ohio community for many years. In 2022, she contacted Braunagel, producer of her 2017 album, The Beat of My Heart, about recording a Christmas album. Immediately on board, Braunagel with Paris and Schell helped Biales compose all the album’s original songs.

Biales felt completely at ease during her week of recording in L.A., and the camaraderie she and the musicians shared is apparent in the finished recording. “It was extra special for me because we had written these tunes together,” she said. “It was so easy. They’re so wonderful to work with, you could feel the love. And Tony, the producer, knows so many people. He said, ‘I’ve got a horn section for you. They played with Conan O’Brien, we’ll get Richie ‘LaBamba’ Rosenberg to write the charts, And we’ll bring back Chuck Burghoffer, who played on The Beat of My Heart, he played bass with Frank and Nancy Sinatra. That’s him on the intro to ‘These Boots Are Made for Walking.’ Chuck puts his hands on that bass and makes it sing.”

A native of Fairfield, Ohio, Lisa Biales comes from a musical family. Her father led and played upright bass in a Dixieland jazz band. Her mother sang in community theater productions, church choir and constantly at the family’s home. Biales was 12 years old when her brother gave her a few guitar lessons, after which she taught herself with the help of a Beatles songbook. Biales began writing songs at 13 — the same year she performed in public for the first time, playing at an amusement park during the breaks between her father’s jazz band sets. “My dad was nervous that the younger folks wouldn’t like his music, so he asked me to play during his two 15 minute breaks. I played popular music of the time and my two original songs,” she recalled of stage debut. “When it was all over, my dad paid me ten bucks and I thought, well, that’s alright!” She was hooked. Her first full-length album was released in 1999. Since that time, Biales has released 10 critically-acclaimed albums.

Also a music educator, Biales has for the past four years, taught at the Pinetop Perkins Workshop Experience in Clarksdale, Mississippi. “The kids are so inspiring and it’s wonderful to watch their progress over the week. I love helping them find their strongest, most expressive voice.”

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