She likes to write.
Laura Stevenson and The Cans at Valentines, Albany, NY 2/11/11
If you are not familiar with Laura Stevenson, you may be hearing about the talented artist on the rise as she gathers an ever-growing following with her lovable and intimate music. A perfect balance of a gentle sweetness in her voice that protrudes conviction when the song demands, she portrays a confidence unexpected because of her humble demeanor onstage. Hailing from Brooklyn, she makes music you would expect to be donned with a pretty voice and acoustic guitar, but instead she incorporates The Cans, a band comprised of the usual bass, guitar, drums, but also including a trumpet, trombone, accordion and a xylophone. As an opener for the band Iron Chic she had a shortened set from what the audience wanted, but delivered in the amount of time she had.
The bar where she was playing was small, and the bands before her were nearly covered up by the rattle and clink of glasses and the shrieks of nighttime bars. When Laura Stevenson began to play, however, this ceased immediately. Everyone inched towards the stage where she effortlessly went from soft whisper to an incredible yelp of passion in less than a second. People who knew her bobbed along and mouthed lyrics and the ones who weren’t familiar with her watched with widened eyes as she opened her set with some songs off her first full-length album A Record. As the night wore on she played some new singles off her upcoming album Sit Resist, due out on April 26 on Don Giovanni. The highlight of the night came when she played her new single “Master of Art”, which was a the number one download off of recordlabel.com the week before I saw her. Watch out for Laura Stevenson in the next few months after her new album comes out; we may be hearing a lot more from Laura Stevenson and The Cans.
