The Only Laura Nyro Performance You`ll Ever Need

[Blair N. Cummings]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4R1Hzdf0Uk
I feel bad for everyone who wasn`t around and young back then.
(BTW, you`ll see - among many rare and great photos - a shot of Laura with Miles. She wanted to work with him on New York Tendaberry but he said that there was nothing he could add to it).

[Blair N. Cummings]

I just stumbled across this incomplete demo of a song called "In and Out" from the `66 Verve sessions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygjqSb1AjxA

[Martin Johnson]

The repeated piano chord progression on that demo almost predicts the so called 'Allegro' section from Jimmy Webb's MacArthur Park, still a couple of years away.

[Martin Johnson]

Another demo from 1966. Listening to 'Enough Of You' it just makes me wish that she'd recorded a fully realised studio version for her first album:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=szGLGRpm_gw

[Sara D]

The show Blair posted at the top of this thread has just been released on CD and I've just seen it on Amazon UK.

[Blair N. Cummings]

Sara,thank you for posting this. I`ve just ordered it. It`s seemingly - and incredibly - not being released in the US. Her later albums were melodically lovely although lyrically lame but, god, wasn`t she superb in her prime!

[Sara D]

Blair, it seems ridiculous that the CD isn't being released in the US. Yes, she was a uniquely talented writer and performer in her prime but one I've always found a tough sell among my family and friends, none of whom can stand listening to her recordings, especially when she's singing at or near the top of her range. The highlight for me of that concert/CD is the breathtaking medley of Time And Love and Save The Country and the audience's response to it.

[Martin Johnson]

Personally speaking I'd have been very disappointed to have attended a Laura Nyro show and not heard Wedding Bell Blues, Stoney End, Sweet Blindness, Eli's Comin' and Stoned Soul Picnic.

[Blair N. Cummings]

Martin, there`s a lot of melodic stuff on this album: "Brown Earth", "He`s a Runner", "Emmie", "Timer"... what`s not to like?

[pljms]

Considering Laura Nyro's name means next to nothing these days in the UK I was pleasantly surprised to find the new CD in the racks at the local HMV store this morning. It was only a week or so ago that I and a few fellow musos and amateur musicians were discussing just how tricky but rewarding her music is to play, all of us pronouncing her surname so that it rhymed with 'biro'. Old habits die hard it seems.