“It’s like a hug for my heart,” Lizzie No said of the warm reception she recently received from the audience at Jammin’ Java during a heartfelt set that featured songs from her latest album, Halfsies, released earlier this year.

One does not see many artists who play, as Lizzie does, the harp. (She also plays guitar.) The only one who comes to mind is Joanna Newsom. (Editor: And Mary Lattimore and Parklife fave Mikaela Davis!)

The harp is a beautiful instrument, and the unconventional choice is fitting for Lizzie No’s quirky personality. At Jammin’ Java on March 23, Lizzie quipped, “I did really well in school,” hinting she just might be — gasp! — a nerd. She’s certainly quite intelligent, with a quick, dry wit.

After “Lagunita,” she teased that she and her band were “the cast of Inside Llewyn Davis,” the superb Coen Brothers film about the pre-Bob Dylan Greenwich Village folk scene. When someone, noticing her Marty Stuart t-shirt, mentioned he’s coming to town soon, she snapped back, “Focus on me!”

Watch the official lyric video for “Lagunita” by Lizzie No on YouTube:

Relatedly, her stage name comes from hearing the phrase, “Lizzie, no!” frequently as a child. While she’s not at all mean-spirited, Lizzie comes off as a tough woman who doesn’t put up with any bullshit. In that way, she’s like one of her idols, Lucinda Williams. Before the last number of her main set, she said “this goes out to my haters and the youth.” (Touchingly, she stayed on stage after her encore to take a photo with a couple of kids who were in the audience.)

Like Williams and another of her influences, Bob Dylan, No’s songs range from the deeply personal to the overtly political. She wrote “Babylon” to express the hope that “something’s going to be left [for future generations], and it’s going to be good, maybe even better.” (The horror writer and essayist Thomas Ligotti argues that, just as almost no one alive today would want to be born into an earlier era, the same will be true of future people looking back on us.)  For her encore, she played “Have Mercy,” which she contributed to the collection Songs Not Bombs, from which all proceeds are going to relief efforts for Palestinians. She called it “a song of healing” and “a little everyday meditation.” She called for an end to the violence and the occupation.

While her songs come from a personal place, Lizzie guards the details of her life that inspire them. The most transparent she was during her set was when she explained she wrote “Annie Oakley” at a “time when I was considering given up my dreams.” She acknowledged that many of her songs, like “Heartbreak Store” and “Deadbeat” were inspired by breakups, but she didn’t dish the details. (She can save those for the memoir she will write several decades from now.)

Watch the official music video for “The Heartbreak Store” by Lizzie No on YouTube:

While she’s been an artist to watch for several years, Halfsies represents Lizzie’s most accomplished work. The strength of the songs was evident from her opener, “Getaway Car.” Other standouts in the set were the Western-themed “Silverado,” “Sleeping In the Next Room,” and “Shield and Sword.” 

Before Lizzie and her band took the stage, Brooklyn singer-songwriter Eliza Edens played an opening set. She opened with “Ineffable.” “If anyone’s going through a breakup, this is your song,” she said of “I Needed You.” “Tom  & Jerry” uses the cartoon “as a metaphor for a relationship gone sour.” Her next song, she briefly mentioned, was inspired by a cockroach infestation. (After the show, I told her I’d hoped to hear more about the cockroaches. I added, “You’ve probably never heard that before,” and she agreed.) “Hand In Your Hand,” a new song is about “appreciating who you’re with, whether that’s romantic or not. “I hope I remember the words,” she said, “but that won’t matter to you.” She finished her set with “Old Home Video.”