LAURIE MCCLAIN: The Child Behind My Eyes

Laurie McClain

The Child Behind My Eyes

© 2002 Laurie McClain (634479372728)

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"Laurie's voice feels like my favorite moisturizer. It sinks in quickly and starts to heal. Her songs go deep and they stay with you." -Suzy Bogguss

tracks

1 In This Old Town
2 I Wanna Be Like You
3 Only Four
4 True Friend
5 When You Forgot to Hide
6 The Beginning of Love
7 Lightning Bugs
8 The Child Behind My Eyes
9 Let It Go
10 Rachel's Sunrise
11 Your Love Is Everywhere
12 Acony Bell
13 If You Believed in Me
14 My Heaven

notes

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REVIEWS OF THE CHILD BEHIND MY EYES:
"Whether performing solo or with the excellent band she has put together, she turns each venue into her own living room, and each listener into a new friend with her disarming humor and passionate performance. Laurie's songs explore the themes of identity, growth, friendship and love in a way that always honors the fundamental mysteries of the human journey. In this Mecca of songwriters, she is a gem of uniqueness and authenticity."
- Mike Kearns, Nashville, TN

"What good folk music should be: earthy, truthful, heartfelt . . . Laurie shows listeners her naturally sweetened voice and delightful sense of humor . . . Some songs lament the world's hassles and heartaches; others long for a kinder world where everyone is happy, healthy and free . . . idealistic without becoming preachy."
- Rainbow Rowell, Daily Nebraskan UNL, Lincoln, NE

"Her music cannot be thrown into one single category. It's predominately folk, but under the influence of alternative, country and a touch of blues. Her songs seem to sing themselves with uplifting energy and positive vibrations."
- Maggie Pleskac, DIG Magazine, Lincoln, NE

BIOGRAPHY
Nashville based singer/songwriter Laurie McClain lived the first 12 years of her life in Los Angeles, and then her family moved to Lincoln, Nebraska. Lonely in her new surroundings, she begged her father for a guitar because she wanted to learn the song "Suzanne" by Leonard Cohen. Soon she began performing at friends' parties, school events and local open stages. Enchanted by the music of the folk era of the '60s and early '70s, artists like Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell & Neil Young, to name a few, Laurie learned to play hundreds of songs. She was 18 when she wrote her first song.

Laurie landed her first paying gig at age 17, at the Freedom Lounge at the Town & Country Motel in Lincoln, Nebraska -- six nights, four sets a night, for $125 a week. Except for a performance at the 1986 Boulder Folk & Bluegrass Festival, she proceeded to play in nearly every bar in Lincoln, Nebraska for the next several years before discovering the folk circuit concert scene in the mid '90s. By then she was a divorced mother of three, so she toured sporadically at first. Then in 1997, Laurie moved with her daughters to Nashville, TN, where she met producer/bass player Charlie Chadwick. He produced her first cd, critically acclaimed The Child Behind My Eyes.

Laurie and Charlie fell in love during the making of the album and were married in 2000. Charlie's support and encouragement have enabled Laurie to tour more consistenly, and she is quickly becoming a sought after act on the national folk circuit.

Laurie and Charlie co-produced her second cd in 2003, The Trumpet Vine, a stunning tribute to the late Kate Wolf, a brilliant singer/songwriter who passed away in 1985 of leukemia after a short but prolific 10-year recording career. Many wonderful musicians and backup singers contributed to this project, including: Bryan Sutton, Stuart Duncan, Nina Gerber, Pam Tillis, Anne Hills, Donna & Kelly of Still on the Hill, Jerry Rau & Muriel Anderson. Laurie wrote music to one of the songs from some lyrics Kate Wolf had left behind. The Trumpet Vine has received high praise from Dirty Linen magazine, Sing Out! magazine, Puremusic.com, Singer magazine, Folkscene Radio Show, Folk & Roots magazine (UK), and many other publications.

Laurie's recordings are played frequently on the folk and Americana radio stations across the U.S. and in several countries around the world. She is currently in the studio and her next cd, of original material, is due out in the winter of 2005.

reviews

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  • all 3 CD's
    author: Sharon Tippens

    Wonderful!!!!!

  • sweetest voice, melts heart
    author: James Budd

    After hearing her voice on the folk sampler, I looked her up and bought a cd of the sweetest voice I've ever heard, feels so good I could weep.

  • Excellent... excellent
    author: Michelle

    Tumblehome... by the Sidehill Winders is, absolutly fantastic. I went to a camp that JJ Alberhasky (the main singer) performed at, what an amazing guy and his song lyrics are true, just hits home.

  • good stuff...
    author: Scott Riggan

    Beautiful, honest music. I love the sincerity in Laurie's voice and lyrics -- there's no posing or posturing. Plus, my daughter really digs the lightning bug song...

  • Soothing folk songs from an engaging performer
    author: Craig's Music Club

    The Child Behind My Eyes suffers in comparison to McClain's Kate Wolf tribute, The Trumpet Vine but that is not to say that this is a lesser album, just different. Where Wolf's songs tend toward "plot-oriented" storytelling, McClain's combine introspection and observation, resulting in "snapshots." My only criticism is that some of the songs on The Child Behind My Eyes can, at times, be too "precious" for these jaded ears. Though "Only Four" is a wonderful song about realizing children don't stay young, on subsequent listens it becomes rather twee and I soon began to skip it. McClain's mellow tones can easily lead to this becoming inadvertent background music. This is also not a complaint, but a plus. McClain is excellent at this "kitchen music"--something to have playing in the background while you cook, clean, or wash dishes. She has a light touch on the guitar and her voice is childlike and soft. It allows your mind to rest and be distracted from mundane tasks, something we could all use a little more of. Laurie McClain is not only a terrific interpreter, but a fine songwriter and an engaging performer whose music would benefit any folk fan's collection.

  • I couldn't get enough.
    author: Alex Burroughs, SFFF, CD Sales

    It goes straight to the heart. My spirit soaked it up like thirsty desert sand. Laurie and Charlie, are you reading this? I can't find my way back to the email button. email me at friedburroughs@bellsouth.net and we can continue to talk cosmic connections and the voice of the poet. Love, Alex

  • Every songs pulls at the heart, penetrates the armor around our true feelings.
    author: Mike Kearns

    Combining the simple honesty of a child and the complex experience of an adult, Laurie explores themes of identity, growth, friendship and love in a way that always honors the fundamental mysteries of the human journey. Her voice, which seems childlike, and her songs that are like bulletins from the trenches of the American family, express not a refusal to grow up, but a refusal to grow old, a refusal to relinquish the light and joy - the clarity - of childhood. Anchored by producer Charlie Chadwick's deft bass work, threads of country, rock, bluegrass and pop interweave to form a unique setting for each song. Every one of the fourteen songs on this CD pulls at the heart, penetrates the armor around our true feelings, summons us to a world where, in the words of "True Friend": "We don't have to be cool now/cause we can be real." Being real is what Laurie McClain's music is all about.

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