You can’t get nothing out of your art if it don’t sting you a little bit in the process. That’s my philosophy on writing songs. I’ve been writing songs and stories since I was 5 years old. I’ve been doing it as a job for the past 15 years.
I specialize in love and murder ballads, ghost stories, and done-somebody-wrong songs. I love the blues, rock and roll, and country music, and you can tell it when you listen to my records. I hate the term ‘folk-rock,’ almost as much as I hate what Nashville’s done to country music. I’ve put out three records independently, and played every beer joint in the southeast that’s worth playing (and a few that weren’t).
I think it’s always been a bad idea to mix music and business. I think a good woman doesn’t come into her own until she veers past 30. I think that people from the South tell better stories than people from probably just about anywhere else. I think that if I ever make any money writing songs then I’m going to invest it all into figuring out how to power muscle cars with biodiesel.
Favorite things: Live music, playing live music, Muscle cars (especially ‘65 Mustangs), Appalachian Mountains, Southern Writers (especially Barbara Kingsolver, Toni Morrisson), Southern Accents, and ghost stories
To check out new tunes, and to obtain high-res photos, go to http://www.myspace.com/laurablackley
Look for Laura Blackley’s brand new album, “Love and Monsters,” available at live shows and any decent record store, sometime in 2007.
Official CD release show for “Love and Monsters” is Sunday, December 9 at Grey Eagle Tavern & Music Hall at 185 Clingman Avenue in Asheville. There’ll be a slew of new tunes, as well as some of Asheville’s best and brightest joining me onstage to celebrate.
Discography:
“Intentions of Mine,” 6-song EP, © 2000
“When A Woman.”, © 2002
“Liquid Courage,” © 2004
“Love & Monsters,” © 2007
Laura Blackley is a singer-songwriter, raconteur, music writer, and all around Renaissance woman living in the hills west of Asheville, NC.
