“Ms. Veirs's songs qualify as poems: they're careful, word-conscious, narrative, neither foggy nor overwritten, and tend to give you a take on regular life experience that you don't quite expect.”—The New York Times
With her band The Tortured Souls, singer/songwriter/guitar player Laura Veirs recorded her new record, Year of Meteors, in Seattle in February of this year. She calls the album “a road record,” drawing inspiration from being in constant motion for much of 2004, touring in support of the critically acclaimed Carbon Glacier, her first album for Nonesuch Records in the U.S. Year of Meteors, Veirs’ first record released worldwide by Nonesuch, will be available on August 23, 2005.
Produced by Tortured Soul band member, Tucker Martine, Year of Meteors' lyrics include dream-like images of sky and sea, punctuated by guitar bursts, handclaps and melodic keyboards and strings. In addition to Martine’s percussion and “beats” the album features Steve Moore (piano, organs), Karl Blau (bass, guitar, vocals), and Eyvind Kang (viola).
“When we talked about making the album, we decided to record a lot of these songs as a band first, then do some more of the solo type of songs,” Veirs said. “It had always been the opposite before, I would go in and record the more quiet guitar parts and sing. This time, half of the record or more are tracks that we did live as a band first. Then we went in and recorded the quieter ones. We approached this from the beginning more as a band album and it really turned out that way.”
A Seattle resident by way of Colorado, Veirs’ background in geology and kinship with the rugged landscape meld together with her punk performing roots to form an unusual musical outlook. Her recordings have elicited overwhelming praise in the U.K., where the Independent called Carbon Glacier “the most enthralling album I have encountered this year…a benchmark by which future Americana releases will be judged” and Mojo said, “Laura Veirs might be the bridge between the alt-country ghetto and the Sheryl Crow-revering mainstream.” The band will be back on the road in September for a series of dates with Sufjan Stevens on the East Coast, followed by three weeks of touring in Europe. A video for the track “Galaxies” is being directed by Terri Timely (Joanna Newsom, The Wrens).
