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.

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