what laura says thinks and feels

In a life spent searching for the one multi-faceted, atypically melodic dirt road that travels across many musical landscapes, I have found quite possibly the one band that not only has traveled this road, but also rocked it's many stories to the slack-jawed hitchhikers along the way. Gospel blues? Classic stomp rock? Indie? Folk? They all have hopped along for the ride on a road this startlingly authentic band has christened "laura".

Hailing from the Phoenix area, the originally acoustic-clad duo of danny godbold (keys, guitar, vocals) and james mulhern (guitar, percussion, vocals) wrote stories that wandered through gardens of lovely melodies, multi-part vocal harmonies and raw, gut-bucket truthness, which undoubtedly stood out and was praised. Claiming "what laura says thinks and feels" as the ultimate word, the boys decided to lay down her tales to tape.

With a spoon, comes a fork, and in the year of the knife, two thousand and six, the duo met, at a crossroads, a rhythm section wrought with tales of sunny nights and rainy mornings: greg muller (drums), mitch freedom (bass, vocals) and jacob woolsey (percussion, various weirdness). Now an outstandingly solid five-piece, the stories were developed, and early the next year a full-length album was born.

Immediately and to great precedence, many local musicians and fans hailed the collection of storied songs as the album of the year (it was released in February, mind you) and just as quickly, the boys' incredible live show has garnered some serious buzz throughout Arizona and across the southwest. Unwilling to meander down one path, the young gentlemen of what laura says thinks and feels put their inventively unique style and homegrown creativity to every aspect of every note that really leaves me breathlessly assured of good things to come. The boys continue to make new friends with every show, and no doubt exists in my dire-need-of-a-fresh-breath mind that the word will spread and a certain in-dire-need-of-a-fresh-breath local music scene will get their new wind.