Veirs, Laura

Troubled By The Fire was originally released on CD in 2003 and was never before available in vinyl LP format. It is the album that essentially broke her career, originally licensed to Nonesuch in the US and Bella Union in the UK.

Veirs, Laura: Tumble Bee [Vinyl LP]

"If Gillian Welch floats your boat, chances are Laura Veirs will, too, though her take on homespun Appalachia is tempered by modernist tendencies. Anyone familiar with 1999's eponymous guitar-and-voice-only debut will be taken aback here, ditching much of its thorny agit-folk for dreamily intoxicating balladry, sawing strings and near-perfect vocal phrasing. Opener "Lost At Seaflower Cove" and "Tiger Tattoos" are flawless backwoods country pickers, while Danny Barnes duets on the folksy "Ballad Of John Vogelin" and jazz legend/sometime Jeff Buckley collaborator Bill Frisell provides classy fretwork. Scintillating stuff." - Uncut

On her Nonesuch debut Carbon Glacier, Veirs reimagines folk music in a bravely boundary-crossing way, employing the genre as a jumping-off point to create an intimate, affecting sound entirely her own. The Independent described it as "a benchmark by which future Americana releases will be judged." Uncut simply declared Carbon Glacier Veirs' "first masterpiece." Veirs' songs are steeped in natural imagery, blending influences ranging from folk to blues to punk. A Seattle (now Portland) resident by way of Colorado, Veirs' background in geology and kinship with the rugged landscape she grew up in meld together with her punk and country blues roots to form an unusual musical outlook.

On Year Of Meteors, familiar surroundings come into sharper focus as the lyrical themes of the sky and outer space now seem mysterious, magical and new. Veirs lyrical allusions to the natural world are disarmingly dreamlike yet scientifically precise. Using synergistic elements of contemporary folk, Americana, alternative rock and laptop style electronics, she creates an amalgam that remains her own. There's an elegantly sad quality, a jagged yearning, forcing you to be silent witness to this exquisite, seductive pain. With soft electronic rhythms and tape loops bubbling underneath, her impassive voice lays out rich melodies that build and explode around standout tracks like Galaxies and Parisian Dreams.

With organic imagery and a sense of open-eyed, open-hearted wonder, Veirs songs seem to hover between the sea and the stars taking inspiration from each. Though To the Country is the undisputed highlight here, featuring a luminous call-and-response with the Cedar Hill Choir and guest guitar from Bill Frisell, Veirs extends her range from the soul groove of the title track to the propulsive rock of Phantom Mountain. Produced by Tucker Martine (The Decemberists, Built To Spill), Saltbreakers is by turns haunting, playful, tender, and fierce, embracing everything from machine-driven beats to angelic gospel choirs to fuzzed-out guitars.