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Reprinted with Author's permission.
Originally published in Victory Music Review, vol. 13, no.3

blues review by Pedar Herom

I first saw Laurette Langille at the Folklife Festival last May; at that
time I promised myself to check her out sometime for more than just a
couple of tunes. Well, it took me eight monthes, but I finally got
around to it last Saturday at Murphy's. Now, I happen to think of
Murphy's as a great place to drink, but not to play or listen to music,
due to the crowd noise. There was a fair amount of that, but LL's
style and repertoire seemed to blend with, and be enhanced by, the
smoky, Saturday night feel, rather than clash with it.

I was struck by the variety of her musical selections--I think of her as
a blues artist, and, to me, blues is what she's best at. But, given that,
she dusted off a fair amount of swing, ballad and even pop stuff. I was
pleasantly surprised to hear Warren Zevon's classic "Poor Pitiful Me,"
Neil Young's "Motorcycle Mama," and standards like "Crazy" and
"Don't Get Around Much Anymore."

Ms. Langille sat up on stage, perched on her stool with a big, floppy
hat over one eye, alternating dirty bellows, sweet clean phrases,
staightforward stanzas, and phrases she bent and customized to the
point you could probably see (around) the corners with them. Her
playing is straightforward and efficient--nothing much fancy, but a
good, solid basis for her voice to come over, under, around and/or
through. For her second set, Ed Smith (who was in the Fabulous
Nitecrawlers band with her) joined in on bass and second vocals,
giving her even more of an opportunity to go for variety (like "You've
Got A Problem," "Peace Of Mind," and a nice stretched out version
of the classic "Let's Go Get Stoned"*).

It was a fun night, and your correspondent is looking forward to
hearing more from LL--her blues are good news, and so is the other
stuff.

"I was struck
by the variety
of her musical
selections--I
think of her as a
blues artist,
and, to me,
blues is what
she's best at.
But, given that,
she dusted off a
fair amount of
swing, ballad
and even pop
stuff."
Pedar Herom

*NOTE: The 3 songs referred to here were all recorded by the
late Ray Charles during his blues meets country period. Laurette
Langille & the Fabulous Nitecrawlers performed a large amount
of this Ray Charles material in the mid 1980's including "You've
Got A Problem" and "Peace of Mind". The venue referred to in
the article was Murphy's Pub in Seattle, Washington.

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Go to Pedar Herom article written eight monthes earlier when Langille performed at Seattle
Folklife in the Puget Sound Guitar Workshop Panel Concert.

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