Laurie McClain

about

Born in southern California, a child of the sixties, Laurie announced to her family at age six she would be a singer when she grew up. The pop music radio of the late '60s carried a heavy dose of folk music, and Laurie gravitated to that sound. Along with her mother, a huge Johnny Cash fan, she watched the Johnny Cash Show religiously each week, where she first saw artists like Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan & Merle Haggard. "I fell in love with folk and country music at the same time." Her family all moved from the San Fernando Valley back to her parents' birthplace of Lincoln, Nebraska when she was twelve. She heard a Joan Baez recording of the Leonard Cohen song, "Suzanne," and begged her father for a guitar so she could learn it. Soon after that Laurie began playing guitar and singing at junior high assemblies and friends' parties. At age 15 she began playing frequently at the local open stages, where she heard slightly older local performers singing songs by artists like Hank Williams and John Prine, which further fueled her love for folk and roots country music. "Kids my age were starting to go for the new disco music, or they were into bands like REO Speedwagon, Led Zepplin, Aerosmith. I just couldn't relate to any of that." By age seventeen, she got her first paying gig at a local bar, where she covered songs by Leonard Cohen, Hank Williams, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Merle Haggard, Woody Guthrie, Joni Mitchell, John Prine, Kate Wolf, Jackson Browne, Steve Forbert, and others.

top songs

albums

The Trumpet Vine, a tribute to Kate Wolf

The Child Behind My Eyes

Compilation

Ascend

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The Trumpet Vine

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The Irony Of Your Perfection

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The Trumpet Vine: A Tribute To Kate Wolf

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Night Parrots

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Live At the Purple Moon 1995

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The Trumpet Vine : a Tribute to Kate Wolf

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Laurie McClain LIVE at the Purple Moon2/2

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A Charity Record

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