Laurel has opened for:
Matt Costa, Matt Pond PA, Greg Brown, Patty Larkin, Peter Mulvey, The Wood Brothers, Enter the Haggis, Hot Buttered Rum String Band, Grace Potter, Tara Jane O’Neil, and the Winterpills
Notable Venues Performed:
Fall Fest, Bend, OR
The Music Hall, Portsmouth, NH
The Capitol Center for the Arts, Concord, NH
Palace Theater, Manchester, NH
Higher Ground, Burlington, VT
Colleges Played:
Bates College
Bennington College
Bentley University
Babson College
Phillips Exeter Academy
Colby College
College of the Atlantic
Unity College
Dartmouth University
University of New Hampshire
University of Vermont
University of Maine
Williams College
Wheaton College
St. Lawrence University
Middlebury College
Hampshire College
University of New England
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Skidmore College
Worcester Polytech
Lesley University
Northfield Mount Hermon
Lydon State College
Southern Vermont College
Johnson State College
Daniel Webster College
McIntosh College
St. Michael’s College
Simon’s Rock College of Bard
Plymouth State University
Keene State College
Lewis & Clark College
Willamette University
Portland State University
Montana State University
North Idaho College
University of Idaho
Gonzaga University
Oregon State – Cascades Campus
Laurel is from a small town in central New Hampshire. This background has instilled in her an obsessive love of the outdoors, and a healthy hatred of vinyl siding and SUVs. For a short time she was a member of the Gunstock Parish Militia, an organization formed to ward off encroaching developers and suburbanites from out of state, but the group soon abandoned monkey-wrenching for drinking, and became a loose association renamed Lovers of Schlitz, or LOS for short.
Laurel is a singer/songwriter whose work ranges from indie americana to quiet rock. She did not sing in a punk band before getting in touch with her sensitive side. She was a trad-music geek in high school, and spent much of her time learning obscure Celtic ballads and raucous Pogues songs. After high school, she lived in Ireland, busking on the street and joining sessions in pubs.
During college in Portland, Oregon, she formed a number of duos and trios, the most popular of which was Queen Anne's Lace, featuring Anna Fritz on the cello and Erica McGee on violin. She did her senior thesis on indie labels of the Pacific Northwest such as K Records, Kill Rock Stars, and Sub Pop, then started her own label after graduating.
Laurel's first album, recorded in friends' apartments, has sold 2,000 copies and received reviews in Performing Songwriter and other national media outlets. Her second release, Periphery, was recorded and co-produced by Larry Crane at Jackpot! Studios (Elliott Smith, The Decemberists). Jeff Saltzman (producer Stephen Malkmus) mastered the album and hailed it as “elegantly arranged modern/folk pop” and “one of the strongest efforts I've worked on this past year.”
Logging over 100,000 miles on her car in the past few years, Laurel enjoys being out on the road. Lured by the possibility that there is something left of Kerouac's America out there on the great highways, her songs are "like wistful Polaroid's, nostalgic memories of people and places throughout the country." (Matt Kanner, The Wire, Portsmouth, NH) "It's somewhere out there that she meets her characters and gives you a peak into their stories, she puts you right out there in the cornfield under the wide-open skies..." (Melissa Bearns, The Source, Bend, OR.)
Laurel released her third album, Closed for the Season, in February of 2007, produced by Jon Nolan, and inspired by the mercurial scenery of her native New Hampshire. Chris Dahlen of Pitchfork and Paste Magazine says, "She brings to bear all of her Celtic and indie influences on her haunting new album where cellos and dark finger-picked acoustic guitar all but surround you with the ghosts of the by-gone characters the songs speak of."
While living in Portsmouth, NH, she booked and promoted the Hush Hush Sweet Harlot music series, showcasing regional and national talent like John Vanderslice and the Winterpills. In 2008, Laurel moved to beautiful Bend, Oregon where she lives in a old ski cottage with her sister. She started a band called the Sweet Harlots and will be releasing a new album in 2009.
laurel brauns: Bio
Sweet Harlots
Let the Sweet Harlots lead you astray with their enchanting combination of cello, mandolin and haunting vocals. Lead singer and songwriter, Laurel Brauns, describes their sound as a place in time: “that moment just before twilight in high summer when the sound of railroad trains in the distance mix with the gentle tinker of wind chimes.”
Laurel first heard cellist Amy Mitchell while she was out on an evening stroll. From the second floor window of a neighboring home, the nostalgic notes of Beethoven and Mozart caused her to imagine for a moment that she had been transported back in time to the streets of Vienna. She began to throw rocks at Amy’s window to get her attention and then sang her a song in the street below in hopes she would want to join the band.
Months later, the newly formed-duo were returning from a weekend performance at Elk Lake Lodge in the heart of the Deschutes National Forest. They dragged their cello and guitar behind them in sleds as they cross-country skied 11 miles out to civilization. Moments before reaching their final junction, Molly Grove burst out of the forest with a mandolin strapped to her back. She had just climbed Broken Top Mountain and played some songs on her mando at the peak. It was immediately decided that she would join the band and add little bursts of sunshine to group’s moody chamber pop.
Honorary Harlots include singer/songwriter and percussionist Shireen Amini and violinist Jenny Harada. Collectively the group has toured all over the U.S., played hundreds of colleges and shared the stage with the likes of Matt Costa, Yo La Tengo and Greg Brown