Wonderful voice and guitar playing, exceptional songwriting! Contentedly Ever After tells a great story about having passion in your life. Crushes is the kind of song you just have to sing along with. Another Moon has some viola in it that really sounds nice with Joni's voice. I listen to this CD all the time and never tire of it.

Joni has a superb voice and she is an outstanding guitar player but I think her real genius is in her songwriting. These songs transport me; they make me laugh, cry, think, yearn. Who could ask for more from a CD. My 14 year old daughter and I both love this CD and we listen to it A LOT. And anyone who has ever lived in a smallish town with mediocre weather will LOVE Browntown.

Short Time is my favorite CD. No matter what my mood may be, Short Time fits the bill. I'm from the Midwest, so of course I love Browntown. I also love Contentedly Ever After, and Courtyard Cafe is very funny and upbeat. Joni's lyrics and voice are beautiful and clever. Obviously I highly recommend this CD.

Singer Joni Laurence finding herself by Kirby Pringle News-Gazette Staff Writer January 21, 1999 When it's just you and your guitar on stage, there's no place to hide. And for a shy person, that can be unnerving. "I'd say I'm fairly comfortable on stage now, but it's taken a while," says Joni Laurence, a Champaign singer-songwriter who opens at 7:30 today for Canadian folk singer Lynn Miles. "It took me a while to get going as a soloist. It's very different when you don't have the support of other people on stage," she says. "When I was in Dear Connie, I was the most introverted of all the members. I've had to be much more confident and skilled in my playing" to overcome that shy streak. "I have to be well-rehearsed." Laurence has been performing solo for the past four years, but only recently has she kicked her career into a higher gear. She released her first solo album, "Short Time," last year and has been busy working on the business side of her career -- booking more gigs, and marketing and promoting herself. "You really need to let people know who you are and what you are about," Laurence says. So who is Joni Laurence? She grew up in Quincy, Illinois, and was raised in a single-parent household. But she wasn't a musical prodigy as a kid. After a false start trying to learn the guitar at age 12, she didn't learn the instrument in earnest until she was 20. "I knew some people who played and I learned a few easy songs from them," Laurence says. "When I moved to Champaign I found a lot more people to play with. My mother also played upright bass and guitar, and I think that motivated me. I loved those special times when she would get the guitar out and play it." The gathering of guitar playing friends evolved into an all-female group, the Girlfriends. "We all played and sang the same parts, it was really a lot of fun. We also spent a lot of time playing basketball and drinking beer. It was a very sweet and innocent thing -- but playing in the Girlfriends was also a great learning experience," Laurence adds. The Girlfriends evolved into Dear Connie, a band more focused on creating and performing. It was through the Girlfriends and Dear Connie, that Laurence met M.J. Walker. The two occasionally perform together on stage. "I edit myself constantly when I'm writing a song," Laurence says. "I have to ponder every line and ask myself the question, 'Is this the way I want this song to sound?'" She writes about love and relationships, about experiences and introspection. Her lyrics tell straightforward stories, without ponderous wordplay or abstract concepts. In that respect, Laurence follows in the footsteps of those singer-songwriters she most admires: Suzanne Vega, Nanci Griffith, Mary Chapin Carpenter. "As I've gotten older and life has gotten less dramatic, my songs are a little more thoughtful. They are better crafted. I take more care with each line and each word. Every part of a song is purposeful," Laurence says. She writes the lyrics and music together, starting with a theme or emotion, like having a crush or a nervous open stage performance. Her music is predominantly in the folk mode with shadings of pop/blues/rock. "I listen to a variety of music now," Laurence adds. "I want to be exposed to a wide range of sounds. ...When I'm in the audience, one of the things I pay attention to is how the artist carries on the show between songs. It's a delicate art and that's one of the things I struggle with. Each performer needs to figure out what he or she wants to be on stage. The more comfortable I am being myself on stage, the more I like it."