About
Laura Love Duo
Laura Love has an uncanny knack for getting an audience to listen beyond their own boundaries.This unique facility is largely a function of being that rare recording artist who is at once deeply rooted and broadly cultured. While Laura, an African-American gifted with an astonishing voice, draws her most profound musical influences from folk and funk, her writing, playing and performing bear unmistakable watermarks from a life deeply touched by a variety of traditions including blues, bluegrass, jazz, gospel, reggae and country. In the past, the songstress and bassist has referred to her pastiche-style as "folk-funk", "Afro-Celtic" or "Hip-Alachian." Regardless of description, through her life and work she reminds us that the true power of America and its music springs only from wells as richly diverse and vital as the artist herself.
How did she get this way? For sure, Laura has an interesting story. So interesting, in fact, that next year Hyperion Books will publish her memoir, You Ain't Got No Easter Clothes, an alternately heart-wrenching and heart-touching depiction of growing up amid poverty and isolation in 1960s' Nebraska.
Laura's mother, Wini, had been a singer in her father's jazz band. Preston Love enjoyed a bit of success with both music and women in the hot climate of Midwest jazz circa 1940 playing sax for Count Basie, Lucky Millander and Johnny Otis before forming his own band in the Fifties. Preston, who already had a wife and children, felt his oats in this play-it-loose environment and sired two girls by the singer he would never marry and eventually discard. Troubled by love and life, Wini subsequently spent time in mental institutions leaving Laura and her sister to bounce around from orphanages to foster homes and eventually to homeless shelters. Laura had always been told that her father had died and so it was with more than a measure of surprise when, at age 16, she ran into Preston at a nightclub in Lincoln. Yeah, it's a story, for sure.
Laura's enormous will helped her not only survive a very difficult childhood but also grow into a whip smart, down to earth and funny adult. The same spirit burns brightly in her and her art today. That strength, combined with her eclectic musical influences and enormous talent, make Laura a remarkable and unique performer.
Although Laura plays fewer than a hundred dates a year, the emotional strength of her music � borne of this whole lotta livin' past and patchwork infused present � has won her the hearts and minds of thousands of fans throughout North America and Europe. And it is the reason why Billboard Magazine continually includes her releases in their annual top ten best lists and the first gig she ever played on the East Coast was in Carnegie Hall.
On stage, Laura channels the adversity of her past and diversity of her future into a powerful focal point somewhere in the mind's ear. Her voice, imbued with all the suffering and joyous spirituality of this melting pot nation, soars into the stratosphere. Her long time band grooves along as she breaks to wisecrack with the audience and alight on a local political issue. Then without notice she shifts into a dance and snaps her funky bass into the next intro. No one who hears her is ever the same.
Laura released her first recording, Z Therapy, in 1990 on her own Octoroon Biography label. After steadily building a fan base through 3 additional self-produced CDs in the years that followed, Laura signed with Mercury Records in 1997 and released two critically acclaimed recordings, 1997's Octoroon and 1998's Shum Ticky. Unfortunately, the turbulence of the major label's mish-mash of mergers at the end of the decade swallowed her champions there and inspired Laura to search for a smaller, stable home to continue nurturing her career. In 2000, Laura found shelter in the Zoe imprint of roots' music staple Rounder Records' and released Fourteen Days � her most political record to date � to strong critical and fan response.
Shortly after the release of Fourteen Days, Laura happened into Dave Wilkes, the A&R man who had originally brought her to Mercury and whom she felt shared her enthusiasm and vision. They began to plot on how they might once again team up. Soon thereafter, Dave began a relationship with mighty indie outfit KOCH Entertainment as a consultant and brought the project to President Bob Frank, himself an ex-Mercury executive, who was delighted at the prospect of again working with such a stellar talent and signed her to the company's KOCH Records imprint.
Welcome To Pagan Place, Laura's eighth CD and KOCH Records debut, finds the veteran singer-songwriter and intellectual leading light on a new millennial mission to make your foot tap, your head think, and your soul awaken. Says Love, "I'm really excited about this new release because it combines all of >my favorite musical genres: funk, bluegrass, and despising the Bush administration!" Enjoy.
Welcome To Pagan Place arrives in stores April 22, 2003 on KOCH Records.
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