Laura Harley

Thanks so much to everyone who came out to the show on Wednesday! It was a great night. I loved seeing everyone and getting to play for you! The combination of playing the new songs, having such great stage sound (and an excellent soundman), and being in such a beautiful theater made for a very meaningful experience. I can’t wait to play again!

There are photos from 2 different photographers and a video from the show. As soon as I get them back I will share some of them with you here.

Thanks again for all your support! More soon…

Wednesday, September 12th is finally here and it means I get to play tonight at the Varsity Theater! (in Minneapolis, Dinkytown, near the U of M, click here for all the details) I’m really looking forward to it. My new guitar, new cutest ever polka dot guitar strap, and new songs will all be making their live debut. I go on at 7:15pm. Wish me luck! I hope to see you there :).

On the sixth anniversary of 9/11, I’m thinking about the sadness of that day, but also about the journey of the souls no longer in this world and the nobility and heroism of those who try to help others. It makes me want to live each day in a way that is worthy of the nobility of the soul.

And as I think about all of the difficulties going on all over the world, I’m feeling so moved and thankful to be involved in community-building activities that fill me with hope and convince me that each of us can make a difference. In particular, I’m involved in a series of courses that invites people to develop spiritually and to be of service to others. These courses result in many community-building activities and socio-economic development projects all around the world (these courses are based on the teachings of the Baha’i Faith and are open to and involve people of all religious backgrounds). Even though each one of these activities may be small, I really believe that each one is changing the world. In fact, I can SEE it!

Recently I’ve been a part of a children’s class that looks like a microcosm of the human family—children whose parents come from many parts of the world and have diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds. And all of the children and all of the parents find a powerful unity in diversity—a unity based on the desire for spiritual growth and connection with the beauty of our Creator found within each of us. When the children in the class sing songs about love and unity and recite beautiful prayers and quotations, it fills me with inspiration and gratitude. I think, “THIS is what the human spirit and the human family can be like!” And I believe it’s how we’ve been created to be. And each of us, in our own way, can contribute to this by working on our own spiritual growth and striving to always be of service to others. There are so many needs in our communities, in each of our neighborhoods, and we have the great privilege of being alive and being able to help. How lucky are we???!! And as an artist, I feel that I have a precious opportunity to focus on themes in my songs that can contribute to growth and progress. It’s something I always strive to do in my songwriting.

In closing, here are a few of the prayers and quotations that the children in that class have been learning.

“O God, guide me, protect me, make of me a shining lamp and a brilliant star. Thou art the Mighty and the Powerful.”

“So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth.”

(All quotations from the Writings of the Baha’i Faith)

I suppose it’s not very glamorous to talk about practicing for a live show. I have this idea that some people want to believe in a romantic notion that artists come up with music and then magically perform it flawlessly without a bunch of hard work in between conception and performance. But I don’t think that’s really true for any artist. And really, I think it’s more beautiful to think about how much hard work DOES go into a performance (plus, knowing this can make us all less judgmental and more appreciative of people who get up on stage and let it all out—it takes courage!).

In any case, I have been practicing. A LOT. Here is a photo of where I practice in my little studio:

And here is a photo of my audience most of the time when I’m practicing:

(Her name is Connie and she is a hippo. I like how she looks sort of bashful in this shot.)

Anyway, as you know (since I mention it in almost EVERY blog post lately, tee hee), I have a show next Wednesday, September 12th at the Varsity in Minneapolis. But I also have a bunch of shows and open mics coming up in the LA area. I am super excited for all of these opportunities to play. All of these particular performances will be acoustic (me switching between acoustic guitar and piano) and most of the songs are still very new to me.

When you practice something enough, or when you’re on tour and you’re performing every night, you get into this zone where you don’t really even have to think about the technical aspects of your performance (i.e. are my fingers in the right place, what are the next lyrics, etc.). Your neural pathways are so used to playing the song that it comes naturally and you can just focus on the emotion and the delivery. I am trying to get to that place with these new songs. It’s coming along, but I’m not there yet.

The other thing that complicates things is that I have an ambitious/foolish tendency to write songs that require me to play things and sing things that are beyond my current skill level or vocal range. This means I need to actually expand my vocal range before being able to properly perform some of these songs. Not a quick or easy task. But I do like challenging myself and the songs just seem to demand it from me.

Check out this crazy cool poster Mr. Brian Larson (a.k.a. musician, designer, artiste extraordinaire) created for our show next week:

What do you think of the bunny outfit?

There are lots of opinions floating around about MySpace, but my experience with it has been tremendously positive overall. I mean, sure, there are many times I get creepy messages or see profiles on there that make me want to cry/ lose my memory/ scream, but, for the most part, I’ve met a lot of wonderful people.

I’ve met fellow musicians whose music I love and who I’ve had the pleasure of playing with. I’ve met lots of people who appreciate my music, many of whom I never would have met unless I was touring all over the world non-stop. And I’ve gotten lovely messages from a lot of them about what my music has meant to them. I’ve also met people on MySpace who’ve gone on to come to see me play live when I tour in their cities—what a great gift for a touring artist—to have friends you’ve never actually “met” before come to support you in a city that is new to you! I’ve also met lots of people who want to support my music beyond buying it—like DJs and podcasters who play my music on their shows and promoters who want to give me shows or share my music with others. I’ve even met some excellent remixers who’ve done wonderful things with my music.

Most of these people are people I never would have met without MySpace; it’s allowed me to reach so many more people. It is really a great resource. And most of my experiences on MySpace have reminded me that there are many generous people in the world who want to help independent artists. (And that’s saying a lot for someone who is somewhat jaded after being in the music business for a while and having many people be….well…less than generous.) So, for me, the good of MySpace far outweighs the bad. I guess that’s a lot like most things in life :).

To close, here is a lovely banner a friend of mine on MySpace made for me recently:

Thanks to all my wonderful MySpace friends! You guys are the BEST.