Laura Love
Songwriter/Performer
Laura Love and Mercury Records seemed like a
match made in heaven. Spotted by an A&R man at a stunning
Carnegie Hall performance, Laura was soon pursued by the
eclectic major label. Although she had been resisting the majors
for years, Laura was won over, and Octoroon, Laura's 1997
Mercury debut, garnered rave reviews from The New York Times,
San Francisco Chronicle, Time, People, and
the folk and alternative media. Following a legendary interview
on National Public Radio, the CD topped the noncommercial radio
charts for weeks.
Shum Ticky, her second Mercury recording, landed the
Laura Love Band on the cover of Acoustic Guitar, and the
New York Post heralded the CD as offering "one of the
best albums of 1998."
Then, in what proved to be the largest gutting in the history of
the music business, a corporate merger brought a premature end
to hundreds of bands' contracts. Laura's match-made-in-heaven
was over.
Despite dwindling corporate promotion, Shum Ticky found
its way into commercial radio markets that had previously
ignored her. And 1999 brought a performance schedule that
outpaced even her major label tours.
Laura's word-of-mouth following seems to have a life of its own.
Her burgeoning audience is attracted to her amazing voice and
deep-groove folk-funk bass lines, which merge in a style by
turns called Afro-Celtic or hip-alachian. "My mission in life
is to put the 'yo!' back in yodel," Laura says. "It feels
really good to put a Middle Eastern melody with an Afro-pop
groove; they flow together naturally."
For nearly a decade, she's been stealing shows at dozens of
prestigious festivals throughout North America and
internationally, including Ben & Jerry's Newport Folk Festival,
the Vancouver, Calgary, and Winnipeg Folk Festivals, North
Carolina's Merlefest, Philadelphia Folk Festival, California's
High Sierra and Strawberry Music Festivals, Colorado's Telluride
Festivals, Florida's Magnolia Music Festival, and Germany's
Women in (e)motion.
Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, Laura began her professional career
at age 16, singing pop and jazz standards at the Nebraska State
Penitentiary. She soon moved on to club and college dates,
developing her distinctive vocal and bass style over the years.
Settling in Seattle, she took up grunge-blues as a founding
member of Boom Boom G.I. in the late '80s. Alternately hailed as
the best- and the worst- band in the city, Laura was stung by a
critic who slammed her for wasting her considerable talent in an
"annoyingly pointless" band and took her to task for
singing sexist material. Laura now claims that she was
concentrating so hard on learning to play bass while singing
that she didn't pay any attention to the lyrics! She examined
her priorities and began writing. The result is a weave of
ethnic and American roots-influenced music underscored by
powerful rhythm and executed with stunning vocals.
Prior to her Mercury recordings, Laura released three acclaimed
albums on her own label, Octoroon Biography. Putumayo
World Music included her music on two multi-artist
compilations and released "The Laura Love Collection".
Recently, Laura contributed her soulful rendition of "Son of
a Preacher Man" to the Dusty Springfield tribute
compilation, "Forever Dusty!" and her debut CD for Zoe/Rounder
entitled "Fourteen Days", was released in June, 2000. All
of Laura's CDs enjoy AAA, college and public radio airplay
throughout North America and are distributed nationally.
Laura's performance is exciting and uplifting-literally bringing
audiences to their feet, dancing and singing along. She tours
with her band using electric bass, acoustic guitars, percussion,
and a variety of other acoustic instruments.
Interview
* Laura Love Interview 1 (Techno Dyke)
* Laura Love Interview 2 (Techno Dyke)
Website:
http://www.lauralove.net/
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