So the other day after a comment was made that there were no females on my Favorite Blues Albums of 2010, I picked up the November/December copy of Blues Revue that I bought a while ago and the cover story was Powerful Women Play the Blues with Joanne Shaw Taylor’s picture on the cover. So I downloaded her album and gave it a listen and wrote a post about it. There were several other articles covering artists like Cyndi Lauper, Debbie Davis and another powerful woman blues player Laurie Morvan and the Laurie Morvan Band. After reading the article, I went to her website and read that her most recent album Fire It Up! won the Best Self-Produced Album at the 2010 International Blues Challenge! Since past winners and 2nd place finishers like JP Blues Band and the Ty Curtis Band were both great artist, I went to Amazon and bought Laurie’s album and I haven’t been disappointed!! It’s a dynamite album filled with some great blues songs and guitar playing!
Morvan grew up in Joliet and Plainfield, Illinois, accumulated 12 varsity letters in high school and attended the University of Illinois and obtained a degree in Electrical Engineering. After college she went west to California to work in the aerospace industry. Her love of music lead her to a rock band and a Top 40 cover band and finally she discovered her true calling the blues, when she discovered Stevie Ray, Etta James and Big Mama Thornton her rock life ended. Her blues life began with her first album in 1997 with the release of Out of the Woods (The band’s name then was Back Road Shack). On that first album Morvan wrote almost all of the songs and on her follow up albums in 2007 Cures What Ails Ya and 2009 Fire it Up that were honored by the Blues Foundation she wrote all of songs! For Morvan songwriting is the most important aspect of her music. She feels that songwriting is what it’s really all about and that musicians have a calling to heal the world but you’ve gotta have the songs!!
Well she’s got them on Fire it Up! Twelve originals to be exact! Anyway after writing the above, I am listening again and concentrating on the lyrics which are great on songs like “Livin’ In a Man’s World” and one of those that may touch people when they need it “Let Me Carry Your Troubles” and how about a little lovin’ for those “Skinny Chicks” or maybe you do like she says and you can “Come over to my Barbecue” Yes, like Laurie says in the opening track she plays “Nothin’ But the Blues” and plays them well! The closing track “Cafe Boogaloo” just may be my favorite! So if you’ve never heard Laurie’s music check her out. As for me I think I have to amend my favorite blues albums of 2010 to include Fire It Up!
Places to check out Laurie’s Music:
Myspace: Laurie Morvan Band; Facebook – Laurie Morvan Band; CDbaby: Laurie Morvan Band
Here’s Laurie with “Where are the Girls with Guitars?” (Oh, and by the way it was a song that made me smile!)
