Florida is often reduced to a postcard: beaches, theme parks, palm trees and an endless promise of sunshine. But on her new release ‘Livin Like a Local’, Mount Dora singer-songwriter Liz Nash looks beyond that familiar surface, offering a warmer and more personal portrait of the place she calls home.
The fourth single from her developing ‘Florida Songs’ project, the track unfolds as a playful exchange between a resident and an outsider still learning the unwritten rules of life in the Sunshine State. She gently teases her central character, but the humour never becomes exclusionary. Beneath the jokes sits an open invitation to slow down, join in and discover the habits, personalities and small pleasures that rarely appear in travel brochures.
And that welcoming spirit gives the song much of its charm. ‘Livin Like a Local’ is proudly regional without becoming overly sentimental, presenting Florida as a lived-in community rather than an abstract destination. She writes from close observation, showing an instinct for turning ordinary details into scenes that feel familiar even to those who have never visited Central Florida.
Her admiration for Paul Simon can be felt in the attention paid to rhythm, narrative and instrumental colour. And the arrangement avoids relying on guitar alone, with Paul Gonzalez’s percussion, Oskar Cartaya’s bass and John Marsden’s electric piano giving the track an easy, gently buoyant movement.
Within the wider ‘Florida Songs’ collection, ‘Livin Like a Local’ also helps establish the project’s sense of place. She’s not attempting to summarise an entire state in one song, but is creating a series of individual perspectives, using local experiences and characters to build a more detailed picture over time.
The result is an upbeat and personable release that succeeds through specificity. ‘Livin Like a Local’ celebrates regional identity without shutting anyone out, suggesting that belonging is more about how willing people are to listen, participate and appreciate the world around them.
