With no Plan B on the horizon, Parkland resident and indie-pop country music singer Liddy Clark, 22, knows who she is and where she’s going.
Currently a senior at the Thornton School of Music at USC in Los Angeles, Clark is home with her parents and two younger brothers in Parkland for the summer, where she has a home recording studio.
Making the most of the COVID-19 quarantine, Clark is busy working on her music, taking her dogs for walks at the Parkland dog park, bicycling, and reading Paulo Coelho’s “The Alchemist.”
“It’s all about the music for me,” says Clark. “I thrive in creative environments, and I have a unique way of transmitting my message in a way that hasn’t been done before.”
Singing since the age of seven, when she realized she had perfect pitch, Clark appeared in a talent show performing ‘Colors of the Wind,’ from the Disney movie Pocahontas at the former Day School in Coral Springs.
After taking vocal lessons and learning to play the guitar at age 12, Clark says, “Things snowballed from there.”
She started writing her own songs at age 13 and at 15 studied at Boston’s Berklee College of Music summer program for three years in a row.
At 17, she earned a scholarship to Berklee’s five-week Summer Performance Program, one of the most distinguished summer musical performance programs in the country, and landed a coveted spot in the school’s Singer-Songwriter Showcase, with professor and singer/ songwriter Melissa Ferrick.
According to Ferrick, Clark “writes award-winning lyrics.”
With her warm, soulful voice and from-the-heart lyrics, Clark is an advocate for change through her music. In 2018, she released “Shot Down (Stand Up),” about the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas, a call to action for her generation of students plagued by gun violence.
That same year, Clark released her debut EP, Testing the Waters: a selection of original songs, showcasing her indie-pop take on country music.
The highlight of her career to date has been the gap year she took between high school and college, where she toured radio stations, including Spotify and iHeartRadio, meeting with program directors. She played the Country Music Hall of Fame appearing after Garth Brooks and likes to say he opened for her.
Locally, Clark has played in and around Parkland for the past five years and had her first paying gig at the Parkland Amphitheatre in Pinetrails Park. In 2015, she played at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Ballfields opening during the last phase of the building of that same park.
“Liddy is a wonderful representative for the City of Parkland,” says Mayor Christine Hunschofsky. “She has graciously volunteered her time and talents over the years for many local performances.”
“As a community, we’re so happy to have been able to observe and be a part of Liddy’s growth as a musician/songwriter, and as a young woman, and know she has an exciting future ahead of her,” Hunschofsky says.
A former competitive cheerleader, Clark spent a lot of time driving from school to school with her mom listening to a variety of music, including Shania Twain, John Mayer, Ed Sheeran, and Taylor Swift. All of them, she considers influenced her musical style.
Other role models include her parents, “especially my dad who pushes me always to be a better version of myself,” says Clark.
She has a single coming out in October and hopes to also release an album and go on tour. After college, she plans to stay either in Los Angeles or relocate to Nashville.
About Parkland, she says, “I’m just so thankful to grow up here in Parkland. It’s such a nice city with such great people.”
Visit liddyclark.com for more information.
By Jan Engoren
Like other 17-year-olds, Liddy Clark enjoys going to the movies or hanging out with friends at the beach. Unlike other teens, though, Liddy goes to a recording studio after school for two or three hours a day and takes frequent trips to Nashville, where she collaborates with other songwriters.