LAURIE MORVAN
It could have been a disastrous beginning. Laurie’s womanizing,
alcoholic father walked out on her mother and her when she was
ve years old. They were living in a little white house on
Bittersweet Lane in New Lenox, Illinois. While it was a great
struggle, and money was always in short supply, Laurie’s mother
was a hard worker and they managed to live a simple life in a
series of too-hot-in-the-summer and too-cold-in-the-winter
upstairs apartments in nondescript brick buildings in Joliet,
Illinois. Her mom eventually remarried and they soon managed
to buy property in a small town called Plain eld upon which the
family built a house with their own hands.
Laurie grew up surrounded by all kinds of music. Her step-father,
who Laurie considers her “Dad”, was a hard core country fan. Her
mom listened to the lighter side of rock and pop, and Laurie was
a typical Midwest teenager who listened to all kinds of rock, pop,
country, R&B, even disco. She absorbed it all…although
she does remember her Dad actually banning her Kiss
albums from the house! The one thing that was
missing from that period is the blues. Even though
Chicago was less than an hour away, in their tiny
little microcosm of small town Illinois, Laurie was
completely in the dark about the musical form
that would soon shape her very existence.
In the high school band, Laurie played the ute
during concert season and drums during
marching season. Her best friend Brendan, who
she met working a part-time job at the local
lumber store, had an acoustic guitar, and so one
day she gave it a try. It was amazing! In fact, she
thought the guitar was “the greatest thing ever” and
Laurie wrote her rst song after learning only three
chords. A busy kid during those teenaged years, Laurie
was Salutatorian of her Plain eld High School graduating
class, won the John Philip Sousa band award, earned a total of 12
varsity letters during her four years there, and was eventually
inducted into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame.
At 18, she went o to the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign to get a degree in Electrical Engineering. She also
attended the U of I’s Institute of Aviation, earning private,
commercial, instrument and multi-engine pilot's licenses. Her
sophomore year, she was running out of money fast and missing
playing sports. She tried out for the Illini Women’s Volleyball team
and won a full-ride volleyball scholarship. She now had a way to
pay for her education and loved being on the team, where she
made life-long friends with several teammates. She would always
bring her acoustic guitar along on the team’s road trips and it was
quite common for her to get the whole team singing while they
were waiting for delayed ights to and from their games. Named
MVP her senior year, Laurie won the A.R. Buck Knight Award and
the George Hu Award for her excellence in academics and
athletics.
Laurie eventually bought herself an electric guitar, a beautiful,
white Les Paul Custom with gold hardware and an ebony
fretboard, which she says, “took everything I had and then some
to buy.” Years later, it was sold for rent money back home while
she was out on the road somewhere. Laurie laments that she
still misses that guitar.
After graduating from college she took a job in aerospace and
moved to Los Angeles, joining a rock & roll cover band as a
rhythm guitarist and vocalist. It didn't take very long before she
wanted to play lead guitar. Once she started, she progressed
quickly due to her willingness to practice for long, long
hours and never get bored. “The guitar is so
fascinating to me,” says Laurie, “an unending source
of inspiration and wonder, something no mere
human could ever master.” It was then that she
got her rst Stratocaster: “It was red and shiny
and sexy, and I was home, baby!” She quit her
engineering job, never to return, and joined a
road band doing Top 40 covers as its lead
guitarist and vocalist. They traveled around
California and Nevada playing 5 nights a week in
clubs, casinos, hotels, and every dive bar that
would have them. Laurie would play guitar 4 to
5 hours every night at the shows and practice 3 to
4 hours every day in her hotel room. She was
ravenous about that guitar.
In the very early stages of developing her guitar style,
Laurie learned from the world’s greatest rock & roll players,
nourished by the musical smorgasbord of their recordings. She
couldn't get enough! All that intricate, detailed studying paid
o , giving her the dexterity and vocabulary which allowed her
style to develop organically its own unique voice. To Laurie,
playing lead guitar is “a lot like doing a life-long dance of
seduction with your true love. It's just as important to know
when to shut up and listen as it is to hoot and holler, when to
tease and when to please, when to be tough and when to be
tender.”
Her musical performances were rooted in guitar-driven rock as
she was playing lead guitar and singing in a power trio. When
she was introduced to the music of Stevie Ray Vaughan her
whole life changed. She fell head-over-heels in love with
Stevie's powerful, electric blues! He was the gateway through
“Stunning
California axe
slinger...
exhilarating electric
blues guitar style”
Modern Guitars
“Morvan singes
the strings”
Guitar Player
which Laurie was introduced to a world of blues history she'd
never been exposed to before. She says, “It was like being turned
loose in an in nite, beautiful new universe!”
Once she started creating her own brand of red hot blues rock,
she realized quickly that this was what she was born to do. Her
guitar playing style sprang forth as an evolutionary leap into life
from that primordial soup of electric blues, rock, and country she
was listening to. She says, “Nothing had ever felt so real, so
visceral, so expressive, so passionate, so sexual, so nurturing, so
spiritual, so painful, so healing, so thrilling, so demanding, so
all-encompassing and so perfectly suited to me. I genuinely feel
most complete with my guitar in my hands and I don't expect
that will ever change.”
The next step was to begin recording her own music. Recording
was expensive so that meant raising funds which in turn meant
having to work at something besides music while still pursuing
music. A terrible and painful sacri ce, but there was no way to
get around it. Laurie got a Master's Degree in Applied
Mathematics and taught college math classes to raise recording
money.
Her rst album was Out Of The Woods in 1997, and the
band was called Backroad Shack in those days.
Laurie wrote all 10 songs. Second in 2004, came
Find My Way Home, where Laurie wrote 8 of the 11
songs and there was a name change to the Laurie
Morvan Band. Her third CD, Cures What Ails Ya,
was released in 2007, and came close to
capturing the raw power, dynamics, versatility
and passion of a Laurie Morvan Band live
performance. Laurie wrote all 12 tracks on this
one.
The release of that third CD was a turning point for
the band, and a real highlight for Laurie was when
Guitar Player magazine interviewed her for a two
page feature article in their October 2007 issue. Next
came an interview with Vintage Guitar magazine, a
feature spot on Dan Aykroyd’s House of Blues Radio Hour
with Kickin’ Down Doors chosen as the Blues Breaker Song of the
Week, and a ood of great reviews and articles in DownBeat,
Blues Revue, Modern Guitars, and others.
In February of 2008, the band advanced to the nals of the
International Blues Challenge held in Memphis, TN. Their CD
Cures What Ails Ya also made it into the nals (top 5) of the Blues
Foundation’s Best Self-Produced CD competition. Out of 160 acts
that fought their way through their own regional competitions
and made it to Memphis, the Laurie Morvan Band was the only
one to advance to the nals of both the live band and CD
competitions. Through the exposure of the IBC they were able to
make connections for touring in the Midwest, something they do
regularly now.
For her fourth CD, Laurie made the decision to work with an
outside producer for the rst time, co-producing with Steve
Savage (Elvin Bishop, Robert Cray). In 2009, Fire It Up! was
released, a classy, blues statement which showcased Laurie’s
continued growth as a songwriter, producer and guitarist. Laurie
wrote all 12 songs on Fire It Up! and on January 23, 2010, it won
the Blues Foundation Award for Best Self-Produced CD at the
International Blues Challenge. Once again the band was
honored by the House of Blues Radio Hour when You Don‘t
Know About Me was selected as the Blues Breaker Song of the
Week.
A proli c writer with a seemingly unending source of inspired
material, Laurie penned 11 new songs for her fth CD, Breathe
Deep, released in June of 2011. Once again, Laurie took the
reins of co-producer, this time with bandmate and record label
partner, Lisa Morvan. Another praise-worthy recording, this CD
made it to the semi- nals of the Blues Foundation’s Best
Self-Produced CD competition in 2012.
The band continued to tour, playing festival and club dates all
over the USA. They did their rst short European Tour, and
ventured into Canada to perform for 6000 people at the
Thunder Bay Blues Fest, as well as a few club dates sprinkled in
their touring. In October of 2014, just as preparations were
underway to record her next CD, Laurie missed the top step
on the stairs heading out from her kitchen and fell,
fracturing her right wrist. Ultimately, two surgeries
were required, and while Laurie was able to return to
touring pretty quickly, she wanted to wait until her
wrist was fully healed and the time was right
before recording her next CD. Everything fell into
place in 2017, as Laurie recorded her rst solo
CD, working with drummer extraordinaire and
producer Tony Braunagel, along with a crew of
blues industry veterans: Mike Finnigan, Bob
Glaub, Jim Pugh, and Barry Goldberg. The result
is Laurie’s most compelling and exciting
recording to date, GRAVITY, whose release date is
February 9, 2018.
Deeply committed to connecting with her
audiences, Laurie is a powerful, inviting and
charismatic performer. At live shows, her personal,
in-between song banter alternates between inspirational
and at out hilarious. Accessible and a able, Laurie spends
hours meeting with fans after shows. She often speaks onstage
about her belief that “music is the most healing force in the
universe and that we, as musicians, have a sacred calling to get
out there and share that love and healing with the good folks in
this world.”
Laurie Morvan, Discography (Screaming Lizard Records)
GRAVITY, 2018, Laurie Morvan
Breathe Deep, 2011, Laurie Morvan Band
Fire It Up!, 2009, Laurie Morvan Band
Cures What Ails Ya, 2007, Laurie Morvan Band
Find My Way Home, 2004, Laurie Morvan Band
Out Of The Woods, 1997, Backroad Shack
Contacts
Media Relations: Betsie Brown, Blind Raccoon,
betsie@blindraccoon.com, (901) 268-6065
Radio Playlists: LMB@LaurieMorvan.com
Booking Inquiries: (562) 301-9686, Booking@LaurieMorvan.com
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