Laura Pauline Veirs[1] (born October 24, 1973)[2] is an American singer-songwriter based in Portland, Oregon.[3] She is known for her folk and alternative country records and live performances as well as her collaboration with Neko Case and k.d. lang on the case/lang/veirs project. Veirs has written a children's book and hosts a podcast about parenting and performing.
In 1997, Veirs graduated from Carleton College, where she was a geology major and studied Mandarin Chinese.[4][5] During this time, she worked as a translator for a geological expedition in China.[6]
Growing up, Veirs heard folk-country, classical, and pop music at home; however, she did not "listen seriously," she says, until in her 20s.[7]
At Carleton, she joined all-girl punk band, Rair Kx![8] After graduation, her taste moved to older country and folk, and during her time in China she began writing lyrics.[7]
Veirs released her final studio album for Nonesuch, Saltbreakers, in 2007.
In January 2010, Veirs released July Flame on her own Raven Marching Band Records.[9] The album received praise from The Washington Post among other publications.[10]
In November 2011, Veirs released the album Tumble Bee: Laura Veirs Sings Folk Songs for Children. The album presented mostly traditional songs, and featured an array of guest musicians, including Colin Meloy, Jim James and Béla Fleck.[11]Tumble Bee won a Parents' Choice Award in 2012.[citation needed]
In September 2012, her first feature film soundtrack was released: Hello I Must Be Going, for the movie of the same name. The exclusive soundtrack featured eight instrumental versions of previously released songs, five catalog favorites and one new vocal track, "Spring Song".
In April 2018, she released her tenth studio album The Lookout on her own label Raven Marching Band in North American and Bella Union in the rest of the world. It was a concept album about the fragility of precious things. It featured contributions from Sufjan Stevens, Jim James and was produced by Tucker Martine. Earlier, in January 2018, she had launched a podcast, Midnight Lightning, about the lives of musician parents. The first season featured weekly interviews with 14 mother musicians such as Corin Tucker (Sleater-Kinney), Carol Kaye, Rosanne Cash, Rhiannon Giddens, Meshell Ndegeocello, Amanda Bergman among others. In early 2018, Chronicle Books published her first picture book, Libba: The Magnificent Musical Life of Elizabeth Cotten.[14] A story about the influential American folk and blues musician Elizabeth Cotten (aka "Libba") it was illustrated by Tatyana Fazlalizadeh. Libba was a Junior Library Guild selection and received the Parents' Choice Award.
On Valentine's Day 2020, Veirs released the song "I Was a Fool", exploring her divorce.[15] In July, her eleventh studio album My Echo was made available for pre-order with a scheduled release in October.[16] Veirs continued to write and record, finishing most of an album's worth of material by the time, My Echo, was released.[17] In 2022, Veirs co-produced her first studio album Found Light with Shahzad Ismaily. Phone Orphans was released in 2023 – this is an album of demos Veirs recorded on her iPhone. Veirs released Laura Veirs and Her Band – Live in Brooklyn in 2024 featuring a show in Brooklyn at The Owl Parlor with her bandmates Shahzad Ismaily, Sam Amidon, Karl Blau and Charlotte Greve. Veirs was inducted into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame in October, 2024.
Tucker Martine was a producer on many of the albums including Carbon Glacier, Year of Meteors,Saltbreakers, July Flame, Tumble Bee andWarp & Weft.[18][19]
Raven Marching Band Records
Veirs runs a record label, Raven Marching Band Records, that has released her own and other artists' music. In 2016, the label released Introducing Karl Blau, which was crowdfunded.[20][21]
Style
In 2007, Veirs said about her lyrics, "I like to be personal in my writing, but not overly confessional."[22]
Many of her lyrics are inspired by literary works. The song "Saltbreakers" on her sixth studio album Saltbreakers (2007) was partially inspired by A. S. Byatt's Possession (1990). Another song on the same album, "Don't Lose Yourself", was partially inspired by José Saramago's novel, Blindness (1995). T. S. Eliot was an inspiration for the song "Margaret Sands" on The Lookout.
Personal life
Veirs lives in Portland, Oregon. Around 2000, Veirs married Tucker Martine, who has collaborated with her musically. The couple have two children born 2010 and 2013. In November 2019, Veirs announced she and Martine were divorcing.[23][24][18] In the summer of 2024 Veirs announced her engagement to Reed College music professor and ethnomusicologist Morgan Luker.
Discography
Veirs performing at the Deaf Institute in Manchester, England, 2022
Neko Richelle Case is an American singer-songwriter and member of the Canadian indie rock group the New Pornographers. Case' contralto voice has been described by contemporaries and critics as a "flamethrower", "a powerhouse [which] seems like it might level buildings," "a 120-mph fastball," and a "vocal tornado". Critics also note her idiosyncratic, "cryptic," "imagistic" lyrics, and credit her as a significant figure in the early 21st-century American revival of the tenor guitar. Case's body of work has spanned and drawn on a range of traditions including country, folk, art rock, indie rock, and pop and is frequently described as defying or avoiding easy generic classification.
Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten was an influential American folk and blues musician. She was a self-taught left-handed guitarist who played a guitar strung for a right-handed player, but played it upside down. This position meant that she would play the bass lines with her fingers and the melody with her thumb. Her signature alternating bass style has become known as "Cotten picking". NPR stated "her influence has reverberated through the generations, permeating every genre of music."
Year of Meteors is the fifth studio album by Laura Veirs, released in 2005. On August 7, 2018, it was announced that this album, along with the rest of her releases through Nonesuch would be reissued for the first time in over ten years on both compact disc and vinyl by Veirs' own record label, Raven Marching Band.
Thao & the Get Down Stay Down was an American alternative/folk rock group that originated in Falls Church, Virginia in 2003, before relocating to San Francisco, California. Its final lineup consisted of Thao Nguyen and Adam Thompson. Previous members of the project included Frank Stewart and Willis Thompson (drums). The band released five studio albums: We Brave Bee Stings and All (2008), Know Better Learn Faster (2009), We the Common (2013), A Man Alive (2016) and Temple (2020).
Saltbreakers is the sixth studio album by American singer-songwriter Laura Veirs.
Transnormal Skiperoo is a 2007 album by Jim White. It was produced by Joe Pernice and Michael Deming, recorded with the band Olabelle and also features tracks with Tucker Martine and Laura Veirs, local Georgia legend Don Chambers and Goat, bluegrass duo Jeff & Vida and percussionist Mauro Refosco.
Two Beers Veirs is a self-released EP released by American singer-songwriter Laura Veirs in 2008. It features covers of traditional folk songs, ranging from traditional ballads to an Elizabeth Cotten song.
July Flame is the seventh studio album by American singer-songwriter Laura Veirs, released on January 12, 2010.
Flora Recording & Playback is a recording studio located in Portland, Oregon operated by Grammy-nominated record producer Tucker Martine.
Tumble Bee is the eighth studio album by Laura Veirs, released in 2011. The album contains folk songs for children.
Warp & Weft is the ninth studio album by American singer-songwriter Laura Veirs. Released on August 19, 2013 in the United States, and August 24, 2013 in Europe, the album was written by Veirs herself and produced by her husband Tucker Martine.
American rock/folk music singer Laura Veirs has released fourteen studio albums, four singles, an extended plays, a live album and four music videos on Raven Marching Band and Bella Records (Europe).
Robert Burger is an American composer, arranger, multi-instrumentalist, and music director.
Gina Villalobos is an American singer-songwriter and composer. From 1992 thorough 2013, she extensively toured and recorded in the United States, the UK and Europe, writing songs and making music in bands and as a solo artist. Counting her most recent release, Sola (2014), Villalobos has released five solo studio albums. She continues to sing and compose in her work as a music creator at Feverpitch, where she services the motion picture industry, specifically those companies making movie trailer music. She creates sound effects, produces music, and composes original scores.
case/lang/veirs is a Canadian-American supergroup consisting of Neko Case, k.d. lang, and Laura Veirs, formed in Portland, Oregon in 2013. The group launched with a June 2016 eponymous album, followed by a 19-city summer 2016 tour.
case/lang/veirs is the self-titled debut album by Canadian-American supergroup case/lang/veirs which consists of Neko Case, k.d. lang, and Laura Veirs. The album was recorded in November 2015 and released June 17, 2016.
Hell-On is the seventh studio album by American singer-songwriter Neko Case, released by record label Anti- on June 1, 2018. It was largely recorded in Stockholm, and Case co-produced six of the album's twelve tracks with Björn Yttling of Peter Bjorn and John.
The Lookout is the tenth studio album by American folk musician Laura Veirs, released on April 13, 2018 by Raven Marching Band Records to a positive critical reception. Veirs recorded the work around her collaboration case/lang/veirs and continued a streak of working with her husband Tucker Martine as producer.
My Echo is the eleventh studio album by American singer-songwriter Laura Veirs, released on October23, 2020 by Raven Marching Band. The album received a positive reception from music critics.
Found Light is a 2022 studio album by American singer-songwriter Laura Veirs. This is the first album without long-time producer Tucker Martine and also the first where Veirs recorded her guitar and vocals simultaneously. It has received positive critical reception.
↑ Veirs, Laura; Fazlalizadeh, Tatyana (illustrated by) (2018). Libba: The Magnificent Musical Life of Elizabeth Cotten. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books. ISBN978-1-452-14858-8. OCLC1001572148.
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