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The CD is ready for your ears. If you would like to order the CD in hardcopy or digital formats, even ring tones (tee hee), you can go to CDbaby.com and type us in.XXXXX
Exciting......
XXXXXXXXXXXXX The music is everywhere. It’s the musicians, but also the mocking birds, the crickets, the water rushing, the kids laughing across the streets, the church folks in reverence, the bumping and thumping of big cars, it’s music from the "oh! dammit" when you get bitten by those infernal ants, it’s riding my bike on the sandy roads, the unchained dogs growling as they chase me (I’m gonna get some pepper spray you mutts) it’s the thunder. I feel it changing me a bit. It encourages me, it forces me out the door to meet strangers. XXXXXXXXXX
Layout Created atMarch 13-19, 2007 Folio Weekly (Jacksonville’s version of the Willamette Week)
written by Claire Clark [email protected] of Hard KnocksThis is intended as a compliment: Jacksonville songwriter Laurel Lee’s wry country music sounds like literary fiction backed by the Heartbreakers. She’s a skillful lyricist and novice guitarist wo elicits vivid images. Even a slot machine sounds plaintive when she sings: A redhead lady in a wig plays with that damn machine/Smiles like she’s really hot when it goes ding, ding, ding/That cigarette, that four point bet, keeps her organized/If she keeps doubling her points she’ll avoid her own mind.Although classified as indie country, Lee’s sweet-tempered, ironic tunes are inspired by the hard knocks of Portland, Ore.’s youth culture, not the coal mine. Because Lee’s art (she’s also been a painter) springs from her emotions, she didn’t start songwriting until she hit 30 and found she needed a new medium."The necissity of cathersis is different when you’re 20 than when you’re 35," says Lee. "You have different things you’re trying to express. People in their 20s have a lot of physical energy they’ve gotta get out. Then you have other things happen in your life. You have your heart broken. You can’t get a job. You have to live in little hovels with people you don’t like and people who don’t treat you the way they say they’re gonna treat you. I was enjoying my catharsis as a young person by going to shows and dancing and riding my bike."When Lee worked in a Portland guitar sotre, she boned up on sound production but never learned how to play. "I couldn’t actually pick up a guitar to play without some Eric Clapton wannabe physically taking the guitar from me to show me something," she says. It wasn’t until Lee got a job at a pizza shop that she met some guys she was "comfortable making noise with." What began as jams evolved ino the reflective, lyrical sound that transformed Lee from Portland scenster to regular player. She cut the album "Why Don’t We Don’t Get Married?" in 2005, shortly before she relocated to Jacksonville, lured by the sunshine and her husband’s family ties.Lee’s more recent material is inspired by her move to the South. While the bar-band culture of the Jacksonville music scene isn’t always receptive to original music, Lee’s commitment to style and subject keeps her from playing familiar covers or imitating other artists. "I still have a lot of things to say," Lee grins, "Some of them are funny, and some of them are really sore."
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I just found this review for "Why Don’t We Don’t Get Married"... thanks Derek:
By Derek W. Hudson (Jacksonville, FL USA)
Before big hair, bare midriffs, and the blast of stage pyrotechnics; Nashville was known to turn out music so pure with production so minimal that artist talent was heavily depended on in order to sell records. While Nashville and its children have gone the way of glitz, glamor, and electronic vocal enhancement; there are artists out there who remember how it’s supposed to be done.Enter Laurel Lee and the Escapees with the solidly-grounded "Why Don’t We Don’t Get Married". Steeped in the traditions of 1920s - 1970s rural American music, the album evokes the feeling an old-school direct-to-disk recording and sets the curve for other Roots Country recordings.Laurel’s lyrics are witty and well-sung while her instrumental backing from the Escapees is tight and sounds like skilled, old friends playing together on a mountain stage. Vocal harmonies on this album are provided by Bev Edge and Laurel’s sisters Alisa and Elizabeth (who can resist a good, family harmony?).Try it, you’ll like it.****************My niece Franny has Cerebral Palsy, and though she is doing well, she needs assistance for the medically necessary items not covered by Medicaid. We thank you.
