Lissa LeGrand

Interviewed on June 23, 2015.

Lissa LeGrand, born in 1954 and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, graduated from Vanderbilt University, in Tennessee, in 1976, with a degree in medieval and Renaissance history. She spent time in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, between 1978 and 1981.

Back in Birmingham, Alabama, in the 1980s, Lissa and another Birmingham singer-songwriter, started a band called Marathon. They helped to found the Magnolia Productions collective, which produced over 25 women’s events in Birmingham between 1982 and 1987.  Then, Lissa went on the road, touring with the Fabulous Dyketones, from 1988 to 1989.

In 1990, Lissa LeGrand moved to in Los Angeles, California, where music festival producer and performer, Robin Tyler, had hired Lissa’s then-partner, Josie Grable, as office manager. Lissa and Josie had met Robin Tyler while playing with the Dyketones in Los Angeles in 1989.  Lissa also worked for a time for Robin Tyler.

Lissa LeGrand completed the music program, majoring in the bass instrument, at the Grove School in Los Angeles, graduating in 1991. After graduation in 1991, Lissa moved again to Birmingham, Alabama. She has worked there ever since, off and on, for Birmingham’s National Public Radio affiliate, 90.3 WBHM, as announcer, producer, news anchor; and as a reporter on pieces featuring the arts. Lissa and her wife, Laure Friedman, own a business, LSL Event Design, They also own a farm where they grow all kinds of food.

Lissa LeGrand still plays the bass, mostly for theatrical productions. She is very proud to have performed for a couple of years with the distinguished, American blues guitarist and singer, Willie King, who was born in Mississippi and who lived in Alabama.

See also:

Woody Blue and Beth York, “Lesbian Music Producers: ‘Leapin’ Lesbians’,” Sinister Wisdom 104 (Spring 2017): 51-60.