Laura Veirs brings a colorful Flame on a cold New York night

February 15, 2010, at Mercury Lounge

By Dominick Mastrangelo
Published: February 19th, 2010 | 8:00pm

Though it's only been out a month, Laura Veirs’ new record, July Flame (Raven Marching Band), is already looking like a contender for many year-end “Best Of” lists. This third release is yet another in a string of wonderfully arranged and beautifully constructed albums for the Portland-based singer/songwriter.

Her sold-out show New York's Mercury Lounge contained all of Veirs’ hallmark charm and humor and was colored with many day-after-Valentine's couples who were taking advantage of the President's Day holiday to extend the romantic weekend. Though it may sound cliché, Veirs brings so much warmth to her songs that her show became the perfect antidote to the snowy and freezing conditions outside the venue.

Already with a devoted following, Veirs’ fan base and profile only look to grow as buzz builds behind all the positive reviews her new album has received (July Flame landed at #1 on the Billboard Heatseekers and Folk charts a couple weeks back.)

Her Mercury Lounge set consisted mostly of songs from the new record and 2008's Saltbreakers (Nonesuch). Veirs opened with "Carol Kaye,” a song about the session bass player and guitarist who played on over 10,000 songs. The track was peppered with many of the historic songs Kaye performed on including "I'm A Believer,” "Good Vibrations," and the Mission, Impossible theme. "It would be so cool to be like Carol, Carol Kaye," Veirs sang in her fragile, almost child-like voice.

Veirs was interactive with the crowd and took questions throughout the show. As she tuned her guitar and her seven-month pregnancy bump became visible, the inevitable question came, boy or girl? "Don't know," she quickly answered. Favorite city? "Barcelona."

Some background — on her blog and website, Veirs gives awards to various cities for everything from food to experiences to crowd participation on songs. And so, on the track "To The Country,” Veirs had the audience offering ooohs and ahhhs — and after some conferring it was agreed that New York had indeed wrestled the “best participation” title from Boston who had claimed the title from Amsterdam.

In dissent was L. Alex Guy who opened the show under her own moniker, Led To Sea, and played viola as part of Veirs' "Hall of Flames” backing band — although she was overruled by Veirs and multi-instrumentalists Eric Anderson and Nelson Kempf.

The three members helped Veirs add the hushed textures of her scaled-back numbers (July Flame on the whole has nothing close to up-tempo) especially Guy’s work on "Make Something Good" and "Icebound" (from Carbon Glacier.) The songs may be pretty but you can't write them off as simple — not with the way the vocal arrangements, Veirs’ finger-picking, and the accents of strings and piano all come together in lush three- to four-minute vignettes. That sentiment was nowhere more apparent than on the new record's title track where the vocal layering of the refrain "Can I call you mine" was beautifully orchestrated. Or, on the haunting "Sleeper In The Valley" which opened a three-song encore to end the night with Veirs’ Flame still burning bright.

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For more photos, visit Venus Zine's Flickr page

Laura Veirs official site

Laura Veirs MySpace page

Raven Marching Band Records