Laurie McClain
Website:
http://www.lauriemcclain.com
Discography:
2005 - Live at the Purple Moon Coffeehouse - Double Album
2005 - Laurie McClain Compilation
2004 - Live at the Main Street Cafe w/ Karen Mal
2003 - The Trumpet Vine
2002 - The Child Behind My Eyes
1995 - Live at the Purple Moon Coffeehouse
| Born in southern California, a child of the sixties, Laurie announced to her family at age six she would be a singer when she grew up. The pop music radio of the late '60s carried a heavy dose of folk music, and Laurie gravitated to that sound. Along with her mother, a huge Johnny Cash fan, she watched the Johnny Cash Show religiously each week, where she first saw artists like Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan & Merle Haggard. "I fell in love with folk and country music at the same time."
Her family all moved from the San Fernando Valley back to her parents' birthplace of Lincoln, Nebraska when she was twelve. She heard a Joan Baez recording of the Leonard Cohen song, "Suzanne," and begged her father for a guitar so she could learn it. Soon after that Laurie began playing guitar and singing at junior high assemblies and friends' parties.
By age seventeen, she got her first paying gig at a local bar, where she covered songs by Leonard Cohen, Hank Williams, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Merle Haggard, Woody Guthrie, Joni Mitchell, John Prine, Kate Wolf, Jackson Browne, Steve Forbert, and others.
Taking the advice of a wise friend who told her she should compose her own songs, Laurie wrote her first song at age eighteen. Laurie moved to Nashville, Tennessee in 1997.
In 1999, she released her first CD, THE CHILD BEHIND MY EYES, containing thirteen originals and an a capella version of Gillian Welch's and David Rawlings' "ACONY BELL." Marcia, Mike & Carol Calvert of Blazon Pearl sing harmony on ACONY BELL Jamie Hartford (son of John) appears on the recording playing electric guitar, mandolin, and singing harmony. Charlie Chadwick, a top session bass player in Nashville, produced THE CHILD BEHIND MY EYES. During the recording, Laurie and Charlie fell in love and were subsequently married in 2000.
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Upcoming Performances:
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