Hi, I’m Erin

Lady Southpaw is an old nickname, a fitness alter ego, a band name, an art project, a desire to create in the zone…

Often, I feel like I’m fighting this daily mental static. Running and making music both help me break out of it. Some call it flow, a runner’s high, or the zone. That’s what I’m chasing when I do “Lady Southpaw” stuff.

My first love is the arts, all and anything art. It’s what drew me from Michigan where I grew up to New York where I’ve lived about as long.

The nickname Lady Southpaw came from a boxing class. Despite always being lefty, I learned lots of things right-handed out of convenience, like playing guitar. When it came to learning boxing, I was adamant about taking a southpaw stance. There was already a guy nicknamed “Southpaw” in the class, so the instructor called me, “Lady Southpaw.” Once a week I was Lady Southpaw and it was empowering. It felt like what I would later I recognize as a “runner’s high.” I wanted to capture that feeling.

The first time I posted my original music to the internet, I felt a little weird about using my full name. Lady Southpaw was the closest thing I had to a nickname at the time and, well, it stuck. It felt like a superhero alias and took some pressure off of everyday normal me.

Then, I got more serious about running, I discovered that I could tap this runner’s high feeling by running in sync to music. Most of this website is about running music. I obsessed over beats per minute, steps per minute and the history of the NYC Marathon. Marathoners Rocking New York is a concept album that is both a microcosm of the marathon route in song and a story about a 70’s punk fan running it for the first time. The whole thing is in a reliable 180bpm (or a little higher near the end.) It’s in the style of the Ramones meet Blondie and Patti Smith.

More recently I was contacted by author Christopher McDougall to write a song for Born to Run 2.

Nowadays, my main pursuit is raising my two boys alongside my husband and Lady Southpaw Band bassist, Andrew. We also have a little black dog named Metsy who we are lovingly dressed as in the portrait above. 

I am also an RRCA Certified Running Coach, NASM Certified Personal Trainer, and have started working on ways to help people use music and cadence to love running more. You can sign up for a free consultation here or try a customized running playlist here.