If you are a part of the St. Louis Twitterverse, you have probably seen some of Liz Schranck’s work. Remember the girl that calmly raised her hand in class, put on a ball cap and proceeded to rap about the crime statistics that are so often used to label the city of St. Louis as one of the most violent cities in America? That was Ms. Schranck. Her point? Those stats are wack. You missed that video? No worries, it’s at the bottom of this post.

Liz made that video with the help of some classmates at Washington University in her role as communications and journalism student there. This Friday you can see her reach the next level in another role. She is also local singer-songwriter Lizzie Weber. Weber’s self-titled debut album is the product of a very successful KickStarter campaign that went beyond Schranck’s expectations. In an email interview Liz said that she felt “truly blessed to have friends, family, and even strangers willing to help make this album I’m releasing a possibility.” She pointed out that she even had a donation come in from Barcelona, Spain. Overall the campaign raised $2,400, which was $400 over the original goal. 65 backers donated to help with the post-production costs of the album.

Each donor donated at least $10 to the cause and two backers donated $250 each. Those two top donors were rewarded with a plethora of Lizzie Weber goodies as well as a private house show in their St. Louis area homes. Here’s the video that promoted the campaign.

Before taking on the Weber persona, Liz Schranck grew up in Richmond Heights and attended Nerinx Hall. She started playing the piano at the age of 10, but didn’t write her first song with lyrics until she learned to play the guitar at 18. Schranck is a self-taught guitarist who counts her proudest musical moment to date as when she learned to “finger-pick”. How’d she do it? “I would listen to Joni Mitchell’s “Cactus Tree” over and over, perplexed at how she did it, and finally when I was able to play that way through my own determination, it was the most gratifying feeling,” said Weber.

Liz counts her favorite places to play in St. Louis as Venice Café, Sip Salon in Clayton and yoga studios. “They have the best acoustics around!” She says of yoga studios. “There’s nothing more fun than playing a sweet song to folks in savasana after their practice.” Weber’s music is influenced by the great “story-teller” musicians like Mitchell and Judy Collins from yesteryear and Josh Ritter and Norah Jones from more recent times.

While Schranck is a student at Washington University now, she spent two years in Los Angeles for school before transferring. She is happy to be back in St. Louis and counts “the people and the great sense of community” as her favorite part about St. Louis. She goes on to say “nothing beats that Midwestern hospitality that can be hard to come by these days.” Like all great St. Louisans, she is also a huge fan of Forest Park, Crown Candy and Busch Stadium.

Friday night in the shadows of Busch Stadium, Lizzie Weber will take the stage at the Old Rock House. Tickets to the show are $7 and can be purchased at the door. Rachel Brandt and Audri and Aaron will be performing on the bill as well. Physical copies of Weber’s album will be available for pre-order. A special preview of  the album will be available through Bandcamp.com

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