Laura Veirs

I haven’t been to a gig in a while - and I’ve really missed the live music vibe and the chance to photograph musicians - so I couldn’t miss the opportunity to see the superb Laura Veirs appearing upstairs at Leaf on Bold Street tonight.

Laura has been making great records since 1999 but I first became aware of her when she released ‘Carbon Glacier’ in 2004. Over the past 20 years she’s continued to release top quality music, such as this… https://youtu.be/srwAMHbHVAE?si=6UFx0UybLHe2VAUe and has collaborated with some of my favourite artists including her fellow Portland, Oregon-based buddies The Decemberists https://youtu.be/NLY4dYFGRjE?si=E7B7VyvocTpCd_A8 the fabulous k.d. lang and Neko Case https://youtu.be/f725jghrwPk?si=8iia_cTqlj2ZdLRz and Sufjan Stevens https://youtu.be/Jq0AuoDQ1HM?si=kynJAEocdJs407f0

She’s also hosted a podcast - ‘Midnight Lightning’ - in which she interviewed female musicians about how they cope with juggling their careers alongside the demands of parenthood, and more recently she’s started selling her visual art too.

She was accompanied tonight by her longtime musical pal, the excellent Karl Blau, who was also her support act https://youtu.be/65vidSJbOLs?si=FwshsJQvhy-d9zIk and their onstage chat and banter was most entertaining. Amongst other things we discovered their love of the joys of an M&S food hall salad and how “It’s impossible to buy anything green to eat when you’re on the road in the USA”, as well as Karl’s unexpected love of Birkenhead.

A few more pictures in the Extras.