From: owner-octoroon-digest@smoe.org (octoroon-digest) To: octoroon-digest@smoe.org Subject: octoroon-digest V2 #37 Reply-To: octoroon@smoe.org Sender: owner-octoroon-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-octoroon-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk octoroon-digest Monday, March 29 1999 Volume 02 : Number 037 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [octoroon] Laura Love in the Boston Globe [LB1823@aol.com] [octoroon] somerville, ma show [jslate@javanet.com (Jonathan Slate)] [octoroon] Their loss [IR81@aol.com] Re: [octoroon] Laura Love in the Boston Globe [FZFan641@aol.com] Re: [octoroon] Their loss [BassBrain@aol.com] [octoroon] laura in utah! [Kevin Allred ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 28 Mar 1999 09:49:51 EST From: LB1823@aol.com Subject: [octoroon] Laura Love in the Boston Globe Friends, Greetings from Cape Cod, where I find myself instead of in Somerville, where Laura is performing tonight!! Arghh!! Oh well, there's always next time, I hope, which leads directly into this article from the Globe, which I will now transcribe, despite my horrible typing skills, because it's really important LL news: * * * * * * * ""Toshi Reagon and Laura Love are both singer-songwriters who filter their African-American roots through prisms of stylistic diversity. And both know what it's like to grow from small record labels to the major leagues - and back again. For Love, that last turn is so recent, it's still sinking in. In the wake of Seagrams buying out the Polygram Label Group, the Seattle singer-bassist was just cut loose by Mercury Records on the eve of her tour coming to the Somerville Theatre tomorrow. ''Three days before we leave, we say, `We need a little help here on this tour,' and they said, `Oh no, we're not going to do that - and you're dropped,''' recalls Love, on the phone. ''It was hard. The band was devastated.'' But the eight-year-old Laura Love Band, which blends styles as disparate as hip-hop, funk, and Appalachian country behind Love's yodel-tinged voice, is keeping the faith so far. And Love knows she can always record again for her own Octoroon Biography label, on which she released four previous albums. ''I was an indie for so long, and I know how that works, and it's a great life,'' says Love, 39. ''It keeps you sort of obscure, 'cause you don't really have any promotional money to work your record. But it's a very organic process, and to be connected to every phase of it just feels good. You feel very connected with the people who listen to your music.'' At least Love was able to release two critically acclaimed albums on Mercury, 1997's ''Octoroon'' and last year's ''Shum Ticky.'' (article then shifts to story about Toshie Reogan for a while), then... Love's rootsy potpourri is even more unusual, prompting such self-described labels as ''Afro-Celtic'' and ''Hip-alachian,'' referencing styles not often traveled by black musicians. ''My ethnicity is reflective of all those things,'' says Love, who was drawn to the word ''octoroon'' (meaning one-eighth black) partly for personal reasons. ''I'm black and German and Irish and Indian, so it's all kind of within me. There's no good reason why it shouldn't come out. A lot of those influences are there: northern European people who ended up in Appalachia, kind of having that hill-people sound that I love, and then really loving the way the blues came from Africa. ''It feels good to borrow from different cultures,'' she adds, ''snippets of this and that, without being able to copy anything truly, because you kinda have to be a part of it.'' Love weaves it all into her own language, a phonetic singing style of syncopated rhymes. ''Take a bit of nursery rhymes and rap music and a whole bunch of different music, and hopefully it fits something,'' she says. ''But even sometimes when it doesn't say something, if it feels good to say, that's enough.'' It wasn't so easy for the Nebraskan-born Love to put together her genealogy. Her mother (diagnosed with schizophrenia) was unwilling to address such topics, and claimed that Love's father, jazz musician Preston Love, was dead. But one day Love saw his name in an Omaha club listing, and introduced herself. He took it in stride, and invited her to sing with his band. ''It was kinda a baptism by fire,'' she says. ''He called me up onstage to sing before he even knew whether I could or not. I just felt this is what I should do. This is what I want to do.'' And it's still what she wants to do - with or without a big label. ''[Mercury] helped me quite a bit in getting further, and when it got ugly, it was time to leave,'' Love says. ''We don't need to be a household word to be fulfilled with what we do.'' ****************************************************************************** ******************************************** Well, that's it- Laura, seems, as usual to be staying upbeat. I'm not sure what to think, I think it could be better, musically, for her, and us, but must be a blow promotionally, none the less. It's up to us, my friends, to keep the word out there!!! Love, Laura (not the other way around!) ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 27 Mar 1999 22:55:55 -0500 From: jslate@javanet.com (Jonathan Slate) Subject: [octoroon] somerville, ma show Just got back from the Somerville, MA show- enjoyed it very much. Almost brought my palm pilot to take down the set list, but then decided that was just plain too dorky. She did a couple of my favorites, including "I'm a Giving Way"(encore) and "Anyway". Barabara Lamb sounded great, as did Rod Cook on acoustic all night (I'm pretty sure he didn't do that when I saw them last in North Hampton). Jon ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Mar 1999 12:11:26 EST From: IR81@aol.com Subject: [octoroon] Their loss Thanks for the transcription LB1823 - I had heard rumors of discontent, but this was a surprise. I was worried when she first signed with Mercury because Michelle Shocked had so much trouble with them. For my part, I'll continue to be the unofficial publicist for the Bay Area. Anybody else out here? ~Laura~ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Mar 1999 12:40:35 EST From: FZFan641@aol.com Subject: Re: [octoroon] Laura Love in the Boston Globe hi y'all..... thanks laura for the very informative letter. that is too bad that mercury has made this decision and yes laura...it is up to us....all of us to support laura in every way we can. laura sounds very upbeat despite an obvious disappointment but i for one very much believe in her and will always be her fan. michael ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Mar 1999 15:34:59 EST From: BassBrain@aol.com Subject: Re: [octoroon] Their loss It sure IS their loss. But then again, I think many many musicians will be dumped from the huge conglomerates that are being formed by the record companies and originality, talent and onstage expertise will be the losers. Crappie one-hit wonders will be the winners. Even Melissa Etheridge's new album has been "delayed" by Polydor for the same reason -- a big faceless corporate blob. This is like the end round of a long battle by cold, calculating, greedy businessmen to "control" the distribution of music. Music is just a tool for making money for these turds -- they could just as well be selling sausages or nuclear waste -- bottom line is bottom line. Where it will really hurt is on the road because there will be little money for promoting touring and so many musicians will have to go back to third world living on the road if they get there at all. I hope this will NOT be the case with Laura. Perhaps the only silver lining is the internet, where many musicians are successfully plying their songs to niche audiences who are, shall we say, unfulfilled by the bland, repetitive and shallow offerings they find coming from the big labels. I remember back to the days (yes I'm THAT old!) when there were hundreds of labels that were primarily independent of one another, and when FM radio was a sort of "underground" reservoir of excellent music that certainly wasn't in the mainstream at the time (tho people like to pretend now that such artists as Janis Joplin were in the mainstream then). Back then AM radio was king of the ordinary. Maybe we should hijack AM, now that FM is totally dominated by the big gize, and make it an underground source! If I had some capital, I'd be tempted! At any rate, hope Laura and others like her will keep on keepin on despite the duds running the "business". Personally I hope MP3 takes all these bigshots' jobs away (and leaves the artists to sell directly to us). Viva la revolution! ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Mar 1999 13:12:11 -0800 (PST) From: Kevin Allred Subject: [octoroon] laura in utah! hey all you laura fans! are any of you guys located in utah? i just found out laura will play the folk and bluegrass festival this summer in park city. just wondering if any of you guys would be there too. anyway, that truly does suck about the record label, but i'm sure laura will make it just fine with all our support. kevin _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ End of octoroon-digest V2 #37 *****************************