Lily Sazz

What Just Happened

Independent

“What Just Happened” marks Lily Sazz’s debut as a solo artist and producer. After years of working on the sidelines as an accomplished keyboardist, backup vocalist, and bandleader, she finally steps fully into her own voice. This album finds her spreading her musical wings, giving everything she has as a solo performer with a deeply personal collection of songs that tell her story with honesty and heart.

After enduring a traumatic year in 2023, Lily healed by pouring her full focus into making this record. The result is an astounding and cohesive collection of songs that spans a wide emotional range. Featuring a star-studded list of guest musicians on every track, the album delivers tears, laughter, witty irony, and consistently strong musicianship. Lily spent ten years as a member of the Women’s Blues Revue Band, toured with Canada’s Queen of the Blues Rita Chiarelli, and co-founded and led the critically acclaimed bands Trailblazers, Groove Corporation, and Maple Blues Award–nominated Cootes Paradise. The album was produced by Lily and engineered and recorded by Mike Czech at Word of Mouth Studio in Dundas, Ontario. Six songs were written by Lily, one co-written, and three are carefully chosen covers.

The album opens with “Goodnight, Sweetheart,” a slow, melancholy song featuring Colin Linden on slide guitar. Lily sings, “Goodnight, sweetheart, might be the last time we meet. Go home darlin’, you’re sleepin’ on your feet… before I shut the door, could I have given you more? Did I do all I should?” The track features Linden on slide guitar, Carrie Clark on bass, Robin Pirson on drums, and Lily on piano and vocals.

“In a Hurry” shifts gears with a tongue-in-cheek, uptempo burst of humor. Trombone Charlotte McAfee-Brunner adds brass flair while Jack Pedler contributes cowbell as Lily chimes, “I’m in a hurry, I’m in a rush, like it’s 90 degrees and there’s ice cream in the trunk. I gotta get there, I gotta go, if I don’t leave now, gonna bail and let it go.”

“This Train Is Rollin’” settles into a mid-tempo groove and features a vocal duet with slide guitarist Harry Manx as they sing, “This train is gone, it left the station quite a while ago.”

“Knack for That” takes a playful look at self-sabotage, with backing vocalists Boreal and percussionist Scotty Bakalar joining Lily as they shout, “I’ve got a knack for that… I got a way of messin’ things up. If there’s a way to get it right, honey, I’ll find a way to get it wrong.”

“Future Me” feels destined to become a first-dance wedding song, with Darcy Hepner on tenor sax as Lily sings, “I don’t trust future me, ’cause I’ve changed my mind so much, you see. Things that meant so much to me before, they don’t matter anymore.”

“Isn’t That So” is a thoughtful cover of a Jesse Winchester song, featuring Suzie Vinnick on guitar and backing vocals, as Lily delivers lines like, “Didn’t he know what he was doin’, puttin’ eyes into my head, if he didn’t want me watchin’ men.”

“Don’t Let It Show,” an Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson cover, is performed solo by Lily. Her emotional delivery carries the lyric, “If it’s getting harder to face every day, don’t let it show… though it’s getting harder to take what they say, just let it go.”

“Gaslight” is a Sue Foley cover featuring Steve Mariner on harmonica. Lily sings with aching vulnerability, “Sometimes I’m saying yes when I really mean no. I find I’m goin’ out when I wanna stay home. I haven’t been myself, so I ain’t been right. The man I love, he’s givin’ me the gaslight.”

“Better Stop,” co-written by Lily and Sharon Washington, is a metaphorical warning supported by background vocalists Colina Phillips and Jill Zadeh, with Wayne DeAdder on bass and Mike Branton on guitar. Lily warns, “We’d better stop before the bridge is burnin’. We’d better stop before the bridge burns to the ground.”

“I Can’t Jam” closes the album with humor and self-awareness. Joined again by DeAdder on bass and Branton on guitar, Lily croons, “I can’t jam, my songs are hard to follow. I can’t jam, I guess I’ll stick to solo. My original songs have too many changes, I see the blank look on your guitar faces.”

This collection explores a wide spectrum of emotions and experiences, touching on failed relationships, new beginnings, steadfast love, grief, laughter, irony, and the general weirdness of life. Lily Sazz hopes these songs resonate and that the album takes listeners on an entertaining and meaningful ride. Here’s hoping “this” happens again.

Richard Ludmerer

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