In the winter of 2016, St. Louis native and singer-songwriter Lizzie Weber packed her things and moved more than 2,000 miles across the country. The change brought her closer to her now-husband, who was stationed as a Navy pilot near Fidalgo Island, Washington. But she was a long way from home—and from the community who supported her early music career. So, Weber started writing a song.
“I’ve never been a woman of tradition, no, / I never saw myself living in the wilderness,” its opening lyrics read. “So let it teach me something good / Like the art of letting go.”
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That song would go on to become the title track of Weber’s upcoming album, Fidalgo. While the full record is slated for release in 2023, listeners can stream the single on September 16. Weber will play “Fidalgo” live for the first time at Off Broadway this Thursday, where she will be joined by musical guests Cara Louise and Yannon. The event is a partnership with Rung for Women, a nonprofit dedicated to helping women find professional and economic independence, and a portion of the night’s proceeds will be donated to the organization. Being back at home in St. Louis for the performance, she says, feels like “a full-circle moment.”
“When I got to Fidalgo, I was feeling a lot of pressure because I was removed from a community to fall back into a more traditional career path,” Weber says. “[This song] was me triumphantly saying, ‘I’m not going to do that. I have to persevere. I have to be okay.’”
Weber didn’t always want to be a musician. In fact, her original goal was to pursue a career in acting. It wasn’t until her early 20s that she began exploring songwriting, an experience that reignited her early interest in female musicians of the 90s. Singers like Alanis Morissette, Regina Spektor, and Fiona Apple shaped a “formative phase” of her childhood—and inspired her future music.
In 2014, as an undergraduate at Washington University, Weber created her self-titled debut album. Since then, she’s won accolades for music video direction, released an EP in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic, and founded her own production label, Magnolia Music. According to a 2022 USC Annenberg study that analyzed the Billboard Hot 100 Year-End Charts, only 2.8 percent of credited producers between 2012 and 2021 were women. That lack of representation is something that Weber wants to address through her work.
“If I can have an all-female lineup, it’s going to happen. If I can have a woman-owned organization or nonprofit or business as a part of the event, it’s going to happen,” Weber says. “It just fills my soul in a way that helps combat the noise of constantly having to promote yourself—in this world we’re in, so many people need to be uplifted right now.”
In her self-produced album, Fidalgo, Weber says she confronts her own insecurities and commits to her path as an artist.
“This is my baby, my opus, that I dreamt up since the winter of 2016,” she says. “Hell would have to freeze over for me to not see it through.”
Isn’t it Iconic
Women in music who dominated the music scene with their grit, passion, and dynamic songwriting—paving the way for the women who came after them. Curated by Lizzie Weber.
“Fidalgo” is currently available for pre-save. Catch Weber at Off Broadway on September 15.
