Laura Cantrell
{{short description|American singer-songwriter}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2020}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name = Laura Cantrell
| background = solo_singer
| image = Laura Cantrell.jpg
| caption =
| alias =
|birth_date = {{birth date and age|1967|07|16}}
|birth_place = Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
|birth_name = Laura Rose Cantrell
| death_date =
| death_place =
|genre = Alt Country, Singer-Songwriter, Indie
| occupation = Songwriter, singer, radio dj
| instrument = Guitar, piano
| years_active = 1996–present
| label = Diesel Only, Shoeshine, Matador
| associated_acts = Bricks, They Might Be Giants, Elvis Costello
| website = {{URL|www.lauracantrell.com}}
}}
Laura Rose Cantrell (born July 16, 1967)[http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article3791080.ece Laura Cantrell interview] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110617005106/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article3791080.ece |date=June 17, 2011 }}, The Times, April 21, 2008 is a country singer-songwriter and DJ from Nashville, Tennessee.
Biography
Cantrell moved to New York City from her native Nashville to study English at Columbia University. She briefly recorded songs with future Superchunk guitarist Mac McCaughan and others in a lo-fi band called Bricks and deejaying on the university's radio station, WKCR, until joining WFMU after her graduation in 1993.
Her singing career began when she was at college, performing with various local groups. She later befriended John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants, with whom she sings on the band's Apollo 18 (1992). Flansburgh also released her first solo material: an EP on his "Hello CD of the Month Club" in June 1996, which was reissued in 2004 as The Hello Recordings.
Cantrell married Jeremy Tepper, the founder of Diesel Only Records and later programming director of Sirius XM radio station Outlaw Country, in 1997.{{cite web | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/07/06/style/laura-cantrell-jeremy-tepper.html | title=Laura Cantrell, Jeremy Tepper | work=The New York Times | date=6 July 1997 | accessdate=26 April 2017}} They have one daughter. Cantrell went on to release all but one of her studio albums on Diesel Only.{{cite web | url=https://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052748703509104576327631392991132 | title=A Little Country in the City | work=Wall Street Journal | date=May 18, 2011 | accessdate=June 21, 2014 | author=Bennett, Bruce | archive-date=December 14, 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191214031756/https://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052748703509104576327631392991132 | url-status=live }}
Cantrell reached wider recognition in 2000 with her debut album, Not the Tremblin' Kind. The album reached the attention of legendary UK DJ John Peel, who wrote of it, "[It is] my favourite record of the last ten years and possibly my life". She went on to record five sessions for Peel and dedicated her 2005 album, Humming by the Flowered Vine, to his memory.
In the spring of 2011, Cantrell released Kitty Wells Dresses: Songs Of the Queen of Country Music, "a recording she made in honor of one of her heroines, the great Kitty Wells",{{cite web |url=http://www.lauracantrell.com/bio.asp |publisher=LauraCantrell.com |title=Bio & Press |accessdate=December 16, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190423202609/http://lauracantrell.com/bio.asp |archive-date=April 23, 2019 |url-status=dead }} taking its title from an original song of Cantrell's written in tribute to Wells.
Her 4th album of original material, No Way There From Here, was released in the UK in September 2013, on Shoeshine/ Spit and Polish Records. The release preceded a tour of the UK.
Cantrell's music has been celebrated in the press including features in The New York Times. In recent years, she has been a contributor to The New York Times and VanityFair.com.
Cantrell used to present a weekly country and old-time music radio show on WFMU called The Radio Thrift Shop. Since October 2005 she has only made occasional appearances on the station. In August 2017, she began hosting Dark Horse Radio, a weekly 30-minute program on SiriusXM featuring the music of George Harrison.{{cite web|url=http://blog.siriusxm.com/dark-horse-radio-new-weekly-show-featuring-george-harrison-originals-his-favorite-music/|title=Dark Horse Radio: New weekly show featuring George Harrison originals & his favorite music|date=August 23, 2017|publisher=|accessdate=September 23, 2018|archive-date=September 25, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180925112847/http://blog.siriusxm.com/dark-horse-radio-new-weekly-show-featuring-george-harrison-originals-his-favorite-music/|url-status=live}}
In June 2024, Jeremy Tepper, Cantrell's husband of 27 years, died.{{cite news|url=https://variety.com/2024/music/news/jeremy-tepper-outlaw-country-dead-1236039151/|title=Jeremy Tepper, SiriusXM's 'Outlaw Country' Chief and a Leader of the Americana Movement, Dies at 60|first=Jem|last=Aswad|publisher=Variety|date=June 15, 2024|accessdate=June 15, 2024}}
Career outside music
In the early part of her career, Cantrell combined her musical activities with a day job as a vice-president in the equity research department of Bank of America.{{cite web |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/3586474/Laura-Cantrell-High-credit-rating.html |publisher=www.telegraph.co.uk |title=Laura Cantrell: High credit rating |date=November 29, 2002 |accessdate=November 11, 2018 |archive-date=November 11, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181111133805/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/3586474/Laura-Cantrell-High-credit-rating.html |url-status=live }} She left this position in 2003.{{cite web |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2004/BUSINESS/07/13/go.cantrell/index.html |publisher=www.cnn.com |title=Giving up the day job for a guitar |accessdate=November 11, 2018 |archive-date=November 11, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181111133744/http://edition.cnn.com/2004/BUSINESS/07/13/go.cantrell/index.html |url-status=live }} In 2011 she began working as a recruiter for AllianceBernstein.{{cite web |url=https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-cantrell-53936b5/ |title=Laura Cantrell |publisher=www.linkedin.com |accessdate=November 11, 2018}}
Discography
=Albums=
- Not the Tremblin' Kind (2000)
- When the Roses Bloom Again (2002)
- Humming by the Flowered Vine (2005)
- Kitty Wells Dresses: Songs of the Queen of Country Music (2011) (UK chart peak: No. 138){{Cite web |title=CHART: CLUK Update 7.05.2011 (wk17) |url=https://www.zobbel.de/cluk/110507cluk.txt}}
- No Way There From Here (2014)
- Just Like a Rose (2023)
=EPs=
- Laura Cantrell (1996) (Hello Records 67)
- All the Same to You (2002)
- The Hello Recordings (2004) – Reissue of 1996 EP
- Humming Songs: Acoustic Performances from the Flowered Vine (2006) (download only)
- Trains and Boats and Planes (2008)
=Other releases=
- This Is Next Year: A Brooklyn-Based Compilation (2001) – (Arena Rock Recording Co.)
- Ojo (album by Vince Bell) (2018)
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Official website|www.lauracantrell.com}}
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20050619080553/http://www.radiothriftshop.com/ The Radio Thrift Shop website]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cantrell, Laura}}
Category:American women country singers
Category:American country singer-songwriters
Category:Singers from Nashville, Tennessee
Category:Drag City (record label) artists
Category:Columbia College (New York) alumni
Category:Singer-songwriters from Tennessee
Category:Country musicians from Tennessee