Hush Now: Lyrics and Daydreams, by Elizabeth Levett Fortier

Poetry, chapbook, 28 pages, from Bottlecap Features.

Elizabeth Levett Fortier has been a singer-songwriter in the acoustic trio, Dreamchair Music which she formed in the early nineties with her husband, guitarist David Fortier. Hush Now is a collection of lyrics she wrote while working on a variety of projects. Many of the lyrics were written for Elizabeth’s first band, Dagburnettes, formed in the mid-1980’s with guitarist William E. Gibson, bass player (and guitarist) Kevin Rusk, and drummer/percussionist David Gould. The songs, “Grace,” “Your Colors,” and “Norman’s Shovel” were recorded for the EP, A Rope of Feathers, in 1993 with bassist Ed Summerfield and percussionist Marcos Fernandes. “Holy Cow Charlie” and “Carnival Skin,” are on the 1994 EP, Carnival Skin with drummer Todd Edelman and violinist Carla Kihlstedt. These early lyrics are more experimental in form than much of Elizabeth’s later material and often explore a broader poetic format than her later songs.

Elizabeth has written poetry, memoir, and short stories since she was very young and often goes to her notebooks for lyric ideas. Generally, she brings rough material to the musicians she’s working with and tries out lines during improvisation and rehearsal. Her songs appear on Dreamchair Music albums released from 2004 through 2019 and on two albums recorded for the project OurTown with William E. Gibson of Toulouse and Marcos Fernandes of Yokohama. Both Dreamchair Music and OurTown can be found on Bandcamp.

Elizabeth Levett Fortier is a teacher, writer, visual artist, and vocalist living in San Francisco. As a teacher consultant for the Bay Area Writing Project, she currently provides instruction for multiple grade levels at their Young Writers’ Camp and after-school writing club. She is the author of the short story collection, Beauty Secrets of the Stars, and has published in Lake, the journal of Laguna Writers. She is a regular contributor to the online magazine of the Bay Area Writing Project Digital Paper. Elizabeth published a chapbook of lyrics, These Days, with Bottlecap Press in 2023. Her work can be found at elizabethlevett.blog.