Laura K. Balke
Much like the above choices speak to her character, Balke prides herself on the D.I.Y. nature of her albums, making sure they're packaged in anything but plastic. 2007's Leaving Home, 2009's Souvenirs and last year's Rumors And Legends were all packaged by hand: a handsewn, fabric envelope here or a screenprinted, gatefold jacket there. Rumors specifically stands out as well, as Balke's friends and family pitched in to package each copy inside of a hardbound book. "This was my first foray into visual art," says Balke, "with each song having a corresponding drawing that is made of the lyrics, creating an image that is illustrative of their content."
The songs themselves, packed with nods to classic country, alt-pop and folk, have garnered wide attention in their own right. RecordGeeks.com calls Balke's repertoire "very pretty, dynamic music with a strong female voice as the focal point. Balke's knack for simplicity and emotional climaxes are reminiscent of some of the best Will Oldham records." Slowcoustic.com also says Rumors "might just have the most beautiful packaging of any record I’ve ever seen... There just really aren’t many artists out there who put the care and sweat into the overall craft like Laura does. Her songs are well arranged and beautifully orchestrated and she doesn’t get caught up in trying to be the hip new thing. She just writes really solid songs and finds creative ways to deliver it to her ever-growing audience... I am inspired by how she is always trying something new and refusing to take the easy road. Her passion and determination to be a meaningful artist or die trying is one of my favorite things about her."
{Jim Hanke, Forest Bride PR & Promo}
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11 songs
Rumors & Legends was recorded in spaces where Laura, producer Jon Autry, and a revolving cast of players often were not supposed to be. A traveling studio was set up and torn down in a matter of hours, usually in the middleof the night, and by the time nine-to-five America was up and about the only evidence was the room\'s reverberance in the recordings.
In addition to Autry, for her third full-length record Balke enlisted the help of percussionist Zachary Jetter (Humans, th\'EMPIRES, Buttonhoof) and keyboard extraordinaire Kurt Friedrich (Rodeo Ruby Love). Together a lush soundscape was created that previous recordings could not afford, orchestrated to compliment Balke\'s songwriting with depth and texture. In the words of Record Geeks\' Jon Rogers, "This is very pretty, dynamic music with a strong female voice as the focal point. Balke\'s knack for simplicity and emotional climaxes are reminiscent of some of the best Will Oldham records."
The record was released independantly in November 2011 to CD and vinyl, both encased in a hardbound book. The pages feature Balke\'s artwork and correspond to each song, using the lyrics to create an image that is illustrative to their content.
11 songs
Laura\'s first venture in a professional studio happened at Bloomington\'s Russian Recording. Armed with a knapsack full of junk keyboards and auxiliary instruments, Laura created most of the layers in two days of tracking with a little help from brother Philip and studio owner Mike Bridavsky.
Souvenirs was released independently, beginning with a special edition of 100 CDs that were tucked inside of a screen-printed, handsewn, fabric envelope along with a letterpressed booklet.
10 songs
Leaving Home was written in the midst of moving from the small town where Balke had spent most of her upbringing, to a bigger small town where she waited tables in order to move to another small town, even farther from home and much more desolate.
Recorded in two days in the home studio of Mike Adams (Husband&Wife, Crossroads of America Records), the sparse instrumentation and minimal production left plenty of room for Balke\'s songwriting to breath deeply of her sentiments surrounding small town Indiana.
CDs were packaged inside of a handsewn, screenprinted paper gatefold jacket displaying Balke\'s artwork. It was an edition of who-knows-how-many, usually made on the fly before a performance.