Laura Nyro, J. J. Cale, Van Morrison

[RedEarth]

Home alone today, doing some work around the house so I broke out some old albums(turntable needed on these). Got re-acquainted with some music I hadn't listened to in awhile....Laura Nyro(Stoney End, Flim Flan Man, Never Meant to Hurt You), J. J. Cale(Crazy Mama, Magnolia, After Midnight) and Van's album "Saint Dominic's Preview".

Saint Dominic's Preview is an absolute killer of an ablum.....Listen to the Lion, Almost Independence Day(f... incredible song) and Saint Dominic's Preview. If you have this CD or album and haven't listened to it in awhile, do yourself a favor and listen to it....crank it up, feel Van getting soulful....it will send chills up your back. In fact I need to re-start it ...

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

1. ooh - this is exciting

I love Van Morrison (and yeah, "Saint Dominic's Preview" is a fantastic album) and like what I've got of JJ Cale, but I don't think I've ever heard of Laura Nyro. Where does one start?

[RedEarth]

5. Here's a little information on Laura Nyro

this is from one of the Laura Nyro's sites...





"By age 17, she had written the classic “And When I Die,” popularized by Peter, Paul and Mary, and later Blood, Sweat and Tears. The radio airwaves of the late ‘60’s and ‘70’s were filled with her songs. “Wedding Bell Blues,” “Stoned Soul Picnic,” “Blowin’ Away,” “Save The Country,” and “Sweet Blindness,” a bouquet of compositions, all became hits for The Fifth Dimension, as did “Eli’s Comin’” for Three Dog Night, and “Stoney End” for Barbra Streisand. “She wrote the most unexpected songs,” observer Stereo Review, “a dazzling display of lyrical and musical innovation that gave her music a fresh feeling….”
Laura’s work draws from soul, jazz, blues, R&B, and folk-rooted music, along with a modern classical influence. Her songs have been recorded by artists as diverse as Carmen McCrae, Suzanne Vega, Phoebe Snow, Roseane Cash, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Jane Siberry, Mongo Santamaria, Junior Walker and the All Stars, Chet Atkins, Frank Sinatra, Linda Ronstadt, George Duke, Maynard Ferguson, Thelma Houston, Patti Larkin, The Roches, and many, many others. The prestigious Alvin Ailey Dance Company includes Laura’s music in their performance piece “Cry.” And the Canadian Ballet has danced to “Emmie.”

Born in New York on October 18, 1947, Laura was brought up on city life and summers spent in the lush greenery of the Northeast. She began playing music very early, and enjoyed a wide range of influences through her high school years at Manhattan’s Music and Art. Laura listened to the late ‘50’s and ‘60’s girl groups, Nina Simone, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions, Mary Wells, Dusty Springfield, and the early Burt Bacharach-Hal David songs of Dionne Warwick, among many others. Laura read poetry and at home her mother played records by Leontyne Price and impressionist classical composers such as Ravel, Debussy and Persicetti.

Throughout high school Laura also listened to the protest music of Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, early Bob Dylan the Beatles and others. Laura always "adored" the music of Van Morrison. “I was always interested in the social consciousness of certain songs. My mother and grandfather were progressive thinkers, so I felt at home in the peace movement and the women's movement, and that has influenced my music.”


http://www.lauranyro.com/bio.htm

and a few more sites...

on this site you can listen to a few sound clips from her albums

http://www.lauranyro.net/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Nyro

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

7. Thank you :)

:yourock:

[mac56]

2. Forgot all about "Saint Dominic's Preview"!

"Redwood Tree" and "Jackie Wilson Said": two of my faves.

[Karenina]

3. Laura is a goddess...

:cry:

[RedEarth]

6. She is a goddess

a beautiful lady and beautiful music...


Laura Nyro (born Laura Nigro on October 18, 1947 in The Bronx, New York, died April 8, 1997 in Danbury, Connecticut) was an American songwriter and singer.

Nyro was best known, and had the most commercial success, as a songwriter rather than a performer. Her most well-known songs include "And When I Die" (made a hit by Blood, Sweat & Tears), "Stoney End" (covered by Barbra Streisand), "Wedding Bell Blues," "Stoned Soul Picnic," "Sweet Blindness," "Save the Country" (all covered by Fifth Dimension), and "Eli's Coming" (a hit for Three Dog Night). (Ironically, Nyro's own best-selling single was a cover of Carole King and Gerry Goffin's "Up on the Roof.")

Frustrated by her lack of commercial success, and a music industry disinclined to support artistic innovation, Nyro announced her retirement from the music business at the age of 24. Five years later, however, she returned with Smile, a jazzy, laid-back album. After 1978, she would continue to release albums at the rate of about once every five years. None of these works became a major hit.

Nyro died of ovarian cancer in 1997. Her life partner had been Maria Desiderio.



Laura Nyro with Miles Davis

[WritingIsMyReligion]

4. I LOVE Van!

:D :D