Lisa Richards is a Canberra-based singer-songwriter who’s called the city home for the past 12 years, after a long stretch living and working in New York City and Austin, Texas.

Known for raw, story-driven songs, a voice that can hush a room and her somewhat dry sense of humour. She has performed at festivals in the USA including Telluride, Rocky Mountain Folks Festival, Merlefest, SXSW, and CMJ, and has received national radio support from ABC in Australia.

This Smith’s Alternative show is a live “song test kitchen”: Lisa’s trying out brand-new material and wants you to help choose which songs she records next. She will also be playing some songs from her back catalogue of 8 albums and there will be some duets with Evan Buckley.

Evan Buckley (The Burley Griffin) serves up folk-infused alt Austral-Americana, created globally and curated locally on Ngunnawal land in Canberra.

Having spent his childhood waiting for the rapture in a strict fundamentalist cult, Buckley’s songs are a poignant reflection on loss of faith, marriage, and certainty, balanced out by the ecstatic freedom found in embracing life’s unpredictability and rolling with the hits.

Live, Buckley covers a sweeping emotional range - gentle introspection swells into searing crescendos and soaring vocals, punctuated by Evan’s charismatic and wry storytelling. 

Established as an act to keep an eye on, The Burley Griffin has earned support slots for Australian icons Mia Dyson, Augie March, and CUSTARD alongside appearances at major festivals including St Albans, Cobargo, Corinbank, Kangaroo Valley Folk Fest, The National Folk Festival and Jindyfest.