Photo by Jason Quigley
After nearly two decades of releases and unyieldingly inspiring songwriting, Laura Veirs prepares for the release of her 10th solo album, The Lookout, a fitting title for an album about protectors. Its themes and influences hit chords on every scope, concrete and abstract, personal and universal. For her, it addresses the turbulence of being a parent and a woman working through the personal challenges and opportunities for growth presented by the throes of midlife juxtaposed with post-election America and its disdainful and heartwrenching racial divides.
The album is the result of implementing years of lessons and experiences in songwriting, collaborating, and re-songwriting, sometimes writing five versions of one song, something Viers said never occurred to her two decades ago when she was writing punk music in college. Written over the course of a year, The Lookout invokes many of the songwriting tricks Veirs has collected in her toolbox over the last ten albums, working with long-time collaborator and producer Tucker Martine to create another album of beautifully melodic and intricate folk-pop, releasing not only another benchmark in her discography but in the genre as a whole.
“Watch Fire” appears on The Lookout, out tomorrow via Raven Marching Band Records.
-Taylor Wallace // Host, Thursdays 8p-11p & Saturdays 2p-6p; Producer, Eklektikos with John Aielli