| March Concert: Laura Collins |
Sunday 22 March, 8pmToi Poneke67 Abel Smith St
Laura Collins cut her teeth in the late 80s Wellington folk scene playing with Robbie Duncan and Alan Quinn, then went the electric route with rock/blues band Wild Blue in the 90s. A later duo with guitar player Dave Murphy was the beginning of her foray into the country- blues and alt-country genre where she has found her style and voice. She has spent the last eight years working in this territory with her previous band Urban Ruby, particularly alongside New Zealand based American guitarist Matthew Newman. In 2002 she began writing more seriously and penned most of her first album. She furthered her long time association with Robbie Duncan as he then engineered, mixed and mastered her first album, ‘One Feather at a Time’ (2003) at Braeburn Recording Studio. Always having been ‘just a singer’ eventually became too much of an impediment to getting out there and playing her own songs, so she returned home from a pilgrimage to Louisiana and Austin, Texas with a Taylor acoustic guitar and has been making friends with her ever since. The songs on her new album ‘Cast a Line’ were written on her return from that trip. Laura says, ‘I’m interested in songs that have a true emotional vulnerability, and in telling stories that delve into both the dark and the lighter sides of human nature. The tone of Cast a line ranges from a confessional intimacy to the exuberant celebration of being alive. For the last four years Laura has produced the Wellington-based South of the Divide events, which celebrate local musicians whose roots lie in the southern states of America. Laura’s musical influences are very much from that neck of the woods, with artists such as Lucinda Williams, John Hiatt, Stacey |
