Événement

Shout Out Saugerties presents: Laura Stevenson

Laura Stevenson is a Saugerties-based songwriter who has released five full-length albums over her decade-long career. She cut her teeth in the Brooklyn and Long Island DIY punk and indie rock scenes, performing as keyboardist and vocalist of Jeff Rosenstocks band Bomb The Music Industry! in the mid to late 2000s. She has toured internationally on her own, as a headliner, and alongside the likes of The Go-Gos, Against Me!, The Hold Steady, and The Gaslight Anthem. Despite this rather punk-leaning-pedigree, her musical aesthetic leans decidedly on the side of serene. Influences ranging from Leonard Cohen, Judee Sill, Elliott Smith and Dolly Parton place Stevenson more musically aligned with the Great American Songbook than her resume may indicate. Her most recent work, The Big Freeze, arrived in spring 2019 via independent Don Giovanni Records and has been met with praise from NPR, Pitchfork, VICE, and Rolling Stone. The album peaked at #11 on the Billboard Alternative Album Charts upon its release. Recorded in her childhood home during the dead of winter, the record named for the universe-chilling inverse of The Big Bang is anchored in her voice, and embellished with sparse guitar and lush orchestral string arrangements.

Laura has been a Hudson Valley resident for five years, though rarely performs in the area and this concert marks her Saugerties debut. The setting of the Saugerties Reformed Church is a space that lends itself immensely to the live translation of the beauty of Stevensons recorded output. She will be accompanied in part by violinist Aidan Kohler, also a resident of the Hudson Valley, who has performed on almost all of Stevensons albums, though rarely has performed with her live. This will be a unique and one of a kind performance for the songwriter. laurastevenson.net

This concert is produced by Shout Out Saugerties, a month-long festival of arts, ideas and community including theater, literature, film, dance, music, carnival, art exhibits and music more. shoutoutsaugerties.org

Heres what the press has said about Laura:

While her peers will gladly shout her praises from the rooftops, the singer is content to quietly make art on her own terms, which she has done on her stunning fifth album, 'The Big Freeze.' Noisey

...perpetually ahead of the curve Stereogum

This tension between the personal and the artistic has spanned her career.
Hudson Valley Magazine

Stevenson has found her sweet spot as a singer-songwriter. Pitchfork