Jim Lauderdale & The Game Changers with Lillie Mae

“Jim Lauderdale is a consummate entertainer, a sharp dressed man as well, a terrific songwriter and a great singer."– George Strait

“He’s my favorite part of Americana music” – Ketch Secor, Old Crow Medicine Show

“He’s a man of great style, an exceptional songwriter and tremendous singer” – Elvis Costello

“Jim Lauderdale could easily be called a renaissance man. He’s a great singer, great guitar player and there’s no way you could miss his work as a songwriter.” – Ricky Skaggs

At any given time, you’re likely to find Jim Lauderdale making music, whether he’s laying down a new track in the studio or working through a spontaneous melody at his home in Nashville. And if he’s not actively crafting new music, he’s certainly thinking about it. “It's a constant challenge to try to keep making better and better records, write better and better songs. I still always feel like I'm a developing artist,” he says. This may be a surprising sentiment from a man who’s won two Grammys, released 34 full-length albums, and taken home the Americana Music Association’s coveted Wagonmaster Award. But forthcoming album Game Changer is convincing evidence that the North Carolina native is only continuing to hone his craft.

Operating under his own label, Sky Crunch Records, for the first time since 2016, Lauderdale recorded Game Changer at the renowned Blackbird Studios in Nashville, co-producing the release with Jay Weaver and pulling from songs he’d written over the last several years. “There's a mixture on this record of uplifting songs and, at the same time, songs of heartbreak and despair—because that's part of life as well,” he says. “In the country song world especially, that's always been part of it. That’s real life.”

Lauderdale would know: He’s been a vital part of the country music ecosystem since 1991, when he released his debut album and began penning songs for an impressively long roster of country music greats. “When I was a teenager wanting to be a bluegrass banjo player, I never would have imagined that I would get to work with people like Ralph Stanley, Robert Hunter, Loretta Lynn, George Jones, Emmylou Harris, Elvis Costello, Lucinda Williams and John Oates ,” he muses. “Getting to work with them inspires me greatly to this day, and I know it always will.” ,” he muses. “Getting to work with them inspires me greatly to this day, and I know it always will.”

From rollicking guitar riffs on “That Kind of Life (That Kind of Day)” to the slow, sweet harmonies of “I’ll Keep My Heart Open For You,” Game Changer shows off Lauderdale’s ingenuity as a singer, songwriter, and producer—while reestablishing him as one of Americana’s most steadfast champions. "Country music is constantly evolving, but I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for steel guitar and a Telecaster," he says. "I have done my job on this record if people who love classic country feel like they can put it on, or have it in their collection, and it would fit right in."

Respecting the past doesn’t mean he’s not breaking new ground. “We’re All We’ve Got,” a co-write with Mary Gauthier and Jaimee Harris, offers a timely message about healing torn relationships at home and across the world. And “Friends Again,” a grinning number about rekindling a friendship, is fresh and forward-looking. At every turn, Lauderdale’s collaborative spirit and genuine love for the creative process reveal themselves in thoughtful, well-crafted songs sure to stand the test of time. "When everything works right, it's just magical to be able to hear them back," he says. "You feel, at least for those three-and-a-half minutes, like life makes sense.”

Lillie Mae

Lillie Mae Rische is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist known to bluegrass and country fans as a member of all-sibling outfits the Risches and Jypsi. Rock fans discovered her fiddle and mandolin playing in Jack White's live band. They encountered her instantly recognizable singing voice on "Temporary Ground" from his 2014 Lazaretto album, as well as her debut solo single "Nobody's"/"Same Eyes," issued in Third Man Records' Blue Series the same year. Lillie Mae has been singing and playing on stages across the U.S. since she was, quite literally, a child. Though born in Illinois, she was raised almost from the very beginning as an itinerant singer and musician: Her father, Forrest Carter Rische, was a traveling songman who taught all five of his children to play and sing; he eventually drafted them all into the Forrest Carter Family Band. They traveled the American Highway in their motor home, busking from Branson, Missouri to the Texas Rio Grande Valley to Nashville, parking in campgrounds and trailer parks.

Though the family spent most of their time among other well-traveled musicians, the Risches led a sheltered life. Her parents were intensely religious, setting firm boundaries against anything deemed too worldly. With limited access to much outside their musical universe, Lillie Mae and her siblings were a tight-knit family unit, which laid the foundations for their own musical approach a bit later. In 2000, the Rische family was invited by Cowboy Jack Clement to visit Nashville for an audition. He discerned the potential in the siblings in general and the pre-teen Lillie Mae in particular, whom he declared a major voice when she was just nine. In an interview, Lillie Mae stated that "Cowboy was closer to me than any grandparent I ever had. His influence on me is still strong. He always pushed me to play different instruments; he saw how I would pick up everything in the studio. He was a good friend to me and we remained close until he passed away."

Lillie Mae, brother Frank Carter Rische, and sisters Scarlett, Amber-Dawn, and McKenna Grace eventually formed their own band, the Risches. The group's live sets at the Lower Broadway honky tonk Layla’s Bluegrass Inn made them a must-see local attraction. In the press and on the street they were acclaimed for their adept musicianship and an uncommon, original bluegrass/country/pop fusion music. Changing their name to Jypsi, the group signed to a major-label and in 2008, released their self-titled debut album. They scored a Top 40 country hit with the single "I Don’t Love You Like That," penned by Liz Rose and Stephanie Chapman, but fickle country radio programmers weren't ready for Jypsi's iconoclastic Americana.

Lillie Mae kept writing songs that articulated the unique worldview that emerged from her hard-won life experiences. She met White in 2012 and joined his all-female live and studio band the Peacocks as fiddle and mandolin player. The pair -- who are both the youngest children of large families and instrumental polymaths -- had much in common and became fast friends. But it went further in that White respected Lillie Mae as a truly original songwriter. He produced her 2014 Third Man single. Given the musical chemistry shared during that experience, the pair commenced work on an album in 2016. They began with three songs to see if it would hold, and the material kept on coming. Recording at Third Man Studio in Nashville, White got engineer Joshua V. Smith to helm the board. Mae -- who wrote all 11 songs on the album -- roped in brother Frank on guitars and sister Scarlett on mandolin. Brian Zonn and drummer Tanner Jacobson -- longtime family collaborators -- anchored the rhythm section.

The recording sessions also featured a slew of guests: keyboardist Dean Fertita (the Dead Weather), banjoist Ian Craft (the Howlin’ Brothers), and pianist Cory Younts (Old Crow Medicine Show), with harmony vocals from McKenna Grace Rische, and singer/songwriter Carey Kotsonis. Two pre-release singles, "Over the Hill and Through the Woods" and "Wash Me Clean," were released during the winter of 2017, with the full-length, Forever and Then Some, appearing in the spring. That same year Mae also appeared in the PBS documentary The American Epic Sessions. In 2019, Lillie Mae worked with producer Dave Cobb on Other Girls, her second album for Third Man Records, and released her most recent album "Festival Eyes" in September 2023.

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