Poor and shy, she sang her way out of the blues

Vocalist who once crooned alone now wows crowds

August 21, 2011|By Lenny Megliola, Globe Correspondent

Lisa Marie Harrington says, Music got me through the hard times. (Bill Greene/Globe Staff )

She didn’t risk daydreaming about being the vocalist in her own band, or being the recipient of the Worcester Music Award for best female vocalist in 2006. But it happened.

“I had all of this stuff in my head,’’ recalls Lisa Marie Harrington, a Milford resident whose soulful voice can regularly be heard at the Colonial Inn in Concord.

“When I was a kid I used to crawl up next to the stereo speaker and sometimes fall asleep listening to the music.’’ Mostly oldies, she said. “I was drawn to 1950s and ’60s rock and roll. Buddy Holly. Elvis Presley. Rock-a-billy stuff.’’

She’d memorize the songs and sing them to an audience of one: herself. “Music was such a big part of my life, but I was so shy.’’ In time, her audience grew. Sort of. “I entertained my brothers and sisters, but I never imagined myself in a band.’’

Not only does she perform now with other people’s bands, she fronts her own: Lisa Marie & All Shook Up. You can catch her singing from 4 to 8 p.m. today at the Upper Deck in Salisbury Beach, a frequent venue, and at the Blues Barge at the Boston Harbor Hotel from 6 to 10 p.m. Thursday.

“She knows how to get in touch with an audience. She knows hundreds of songs. She can take any request,’’ says Maynard resident Rick Maida, who has asked her to perform occasionally with his ensemble, the Workingman’s Jazz Band.

Guitarist Steve Coveney, known as Silvertone Steve, has backed a number of her gigs. “She has a wide grasp of American music,’’ says Coveney. “She knows all the ’50s and ’60s songs, early New Orleans music, Hank Williams. She’s very unique.’’

So where did it start for this shy and often sad girl?

Before moving to Milford 12 years ago, Harrington lived on the South Shore. There was too much going on in her early rough-edged life.

“My mother was a single mom with five kids.’’ Harrington was the oldest. She had to step up. “It was hard, and lonely. There was a lot of pressure on me. A lot of responsibility and chores. I missed out on a lot of my childhood.’’

It was difficult growing up poor in a rich town. “You don’t think you’re poor until you’re around the other children,’’ she says. “They could be cruel. It could get mean and ugly. But they were honest.’’

When she was feeling blue, she’d go to the ocean. But there was something else that calmed her soul. “Music got me through the hard times. It could make me feel good when I was feeling bad.’’

One night a friend took her to the Chicken Bone Saloon in Framingham to listen to a blues jam. Harrington was going through a despondent time, and the music resonated deep within her. “I didn’t go there to say I’m going on stage and sing.’’