Laura here. It’s a dark and stormy night and I’m writing to express my thanks for your ongoing support over the years. Tim Young and Alex Guy and I are headed out on a tour (the last one for quite some time as I’m digging into songwriting in the coming months) and we’d love to see you! We are going to the UK on Saturday, and after that we’ll be playing a few select shows throughout the US. On most days be doing a matinee family show and a ‘normal’ show at night featuring some new original songs as well as many of the old faves. Please spread the word about these shows to your friends — we rely a lot on word of mouth. THANK YOU!
A fan video edited by Chad Crouch of Team Raven Marching Band with public domain ‘found footage’ from archive.org.
I had the amazing experience of singing on stage with Peter of Peter, Paul and Mary last week! Here’s some footage from our show in Portland, OR. It was an incredibly uplifting show! – Laura
Performing “The Fox” in their adopted home of Melbourne Australia, former neighbor and musician Scott Garred (Super XX Man) and son Cy deliver a charming tribute.
Cy knew all the words, had to correct me and everything. I came home from work one night and he said, “Daddy, I have a new favorite song and it’s by Laura Veirs.”
Laura will be guest starring at Peter Yarrow’s show at Alberta Theater on Friday Jan 20. Laura and Peter will sing “Puff the Magic Dragon” together as well as “The Fox.” Classic stuff!
Notes:School Of Rock “Best of Portland” Show, Doors: 7pm, Show: 8-10:30, Dance Party After
(Laura will play one song with the children)
Teenage musicians pay tribute to 30 of Portland’s best bands. Joining the kids on stage include members of: The Thermals, M. Ward, Blitzen Trapper, Typhoon, Radiation City, Menomena, and more…
“Have you ever heard of such traditional songs as “Little Lap-Dog Lullaby” and “King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki Me O”? Now you will! Veirs, who is known for her adult albums, has remade old folk songs that most people have probably never heard. These are beautiful bedtime songs, sure to send you into dreamland with images of foxes, elephants, horses and starlit nights.”
Laura’s Fourth Annual “Two Beers Veirs” New Year’s Celebration at the Laurelthirst Pub will be a star-studded event again this year. Veirs’ band includes Nate Query, John Moen, Chris Funk (all Decemberists), Jon Neufeld (Jackstraw) and Annalisa Tornfelt. Five local luminaries will join them during their set: Willy Vlautin (Richmond Fontaine), Sallie Ford, Ritchie Young (Loch Lomond), Israel Nebeker (Blind Pilot) and Kevin and Anita Robinson (Blue Giant). Black Prairie and Scott McCaughey’s Minus 5 will play opening sets.
Few sites inspire the kind of fear in independent musicians that Pitchfork does. Known for long-form reviews from writers that seem to relish any opportunity to eviscerate an album with a critical eye, the Raven Marching Band Camp didn’t know quite what to expect from the bastion of hipsterdom when word came down that they were reviewing it. (A cursory search couldn’t turn up any other Childrens titles in its vast trove.)
Happily, writer Joshua Love concludes:
“Tumble Bee is a welcome addition to contemporary children’s music, not only because it’s sufficiently involving to appeal to adults, but also because it further demonstrates that songs for kids don’t have to be cloying or sanitized.”
(Cloying is a popular descriptor on the site.)
Kid Tested
Meanwhile children across the land–an equally discerning and even less inhibited audience–have been weighing in with their own critical approval which has been entertaining and delightful:
“My daughter keeps pressing her closed fingertips together (“more, more”) at the end of each song.” -www.ohdeedoh.com
“At the first starting, it just shivered me, like this. [Eliott demonstrates.] Woh-oh-oh-oh!!! And I don’t know what’s going on! I think it’s an earthquake! It just shivers me.” – Eliott, four and three quarters
“This is a good song for jumping and spinning around” -Tess, 5
“My daughter asks to listen to this album as she falls asleep, and I find myself wanting to do the same!” – intheknowmom.net
A Child’s Garden of Song; We Sent a Kid to Interview Laura Veirs
A BUNCH OF GROWNUPS talking about a kids’ record is fine and well, but we knew we needed to keep Tumble Bee‘s target audience in mind. So we sent guest interviewer Eliott Black on a special assignment. At a mere four and three-quarters years old, Black possesses the inquisitive prowess of a young Terry Gross, and it was his job to hold Veirs accountable to her primary audience. When Black wasn’t demonstrating his invented dance moves to “Jump Down Spin Around,” he really got to the meat.
ELIOTT BLACK, AGE FOUR AND THREE QUARTERS: “Tumblebee” is my favorite, and also “Jump Down Spin Around.” At the first starting, it just shivered me, like this. [Eliott demonstrates.] Woh-oh-oh-oh!!! And I don’t know what’s going on! I think it’s an earthquake! It just shivers me.
LAURA VEIRS: You get excited when you hear those first beats? There are a lot of voices on that song, and there are drums, so I think that’s exciting.
