Artist description Loretta Hagen' s music is the cement and her lyrics are the steel that so completely make her the bridge between folk, county, rock, blues and Americana. One critic wrote of a Hagen live performance, "She has the smooth vocal strength of Emmylou Harris and the performance prowess of Bonnie Raitt on steroids." The road to this point for Loretta has been marked with many successes due to a combination of incredible talent and a lot of hard work. Hagen, a New Jersey native, cut her teeth in NYC's Greenwich Village, NJ's Hoboken and the Tri-State area with as many as 25 performances a month both acoustically and with her band "Down to the Wire". After a five year stint in Nashville, TN, Hagen has relocated to rural CT. Loretta frequently performed at many Nashville venues including The Bluebird, Exit/In, Boardwalk Cafe' and Douglas Corner, and is now enjoying the thriving folk scene in New England with some college concerts coming up in the fall. These performances and her CD have landed Hagen many opening act slots for national artists (Richie Havens, Johnny Winter, David Allan Coe to name a few) as well as unsolicited rave reviews of her shows and her works. One such review in Sweden's Aftonbladet recommended Loretta's CD to be one of ten purchases for summer's listening. Through the wonders of the Web, she has been "discovered" all over the globe by radio programmers whose stations allow them to operate outside the confines of traditional top 40 playlists, which are typically orchestrated by major labels. These music industry mavericks have given Loretta a share of voice by airing her work on college, AAA and Americana radio stations. In addition to Sweden, Australia and the UK have also embraced Hagen. One DJ cites, "I found her on the internet, downloaded some sound samples and had one question - Why haven't I heard her before?" Loretta's most recent product is an 13 song CD entitled "Something More" which started as a 4 song demo produced by Pat McInerney (Nanci Griffith). Hagen added 9 new tunes to round out this cross-genre folk / rock /country /blues release. This captivating CD is filled with lush lyrics that are as real and honest as the artist herself and are accompanied by a mosaic of rich heart-tugging and memorable melodies. Old friend, Bob Delevante, of The Delevante's, guests on vocals on the song "I'm Coming Up". 2002- Release of Something More - 13 song CD!!!!!!!!!! In keeping with the times, Hagen is also seeing considerable success on MP3.com, with her songs rising as high as number 1 on the Americana chart(and remained there for a week!) and in the top 50 of all of the charts and receiving thousands of plays by individual site visitors, Business Music Plays and internet radio stations. As a result of this exposure, after thousands of hours of research by the authors, Loretta's music has been chosen to be included in the first volume of "The God's Have Spoken (the Best Indie Music on the Net)" to be released this year by Quiet Storm Publishing, and which will be made available to every bookstore in the United States and internationally via Amazon.com. Loretta has also received the 2002 ASCAP "Popular Award" for alternative market exposure. Loretta Hagen' s music is the cement and her lyrics are the steel that so completely make her the bridge between folk, county, rock, blues and Americana. One critic wrote of a Hagen live performance, "She has the smooth vocal strength of Emmylou Harris and the performance prowess of Bonnie Raitt on steroids." The road to this point for Loretta has been marked with many successes due to a combination of incredible talent and a lot of hard work. Hagen, a New Jersey native, cut her teeth in NYC's Greenwich Village, NJ's Hoboken and the Tri-State area with as many as 25 performances a month both acoustically and with her band "Down to the Wire". After a five year stint in Nashville, TN, Hagen has relocated to rural CT. Loretta frequently performed at many Nashville venues including The Bluebird, Exit/In, Boardwalk Cafe' and Douglas Corner, and is now enjoying the thriving folk scene in New England with some college concerts coming up in the fall.These performances and her CD have landed Hagen many opening act slots for national artists (Richie Havens, Johnny Winter, David Allan Coe to name a few) as well as unsolicited rave reviews of her shows and her works. One such review in Sweden's Aftonbladet recommended Loretta's CD to be one of ten purchases for summer's listening.Through the wonders of the Web, she has been "discovered" all over the globe by radio programmers whose stations allow them to operate outside the confines of traditional top 40 playlists, which are typically orchestrated by major labels. These music industry mavericks have given Loretta a share of voice by airing her work on college, AAA and Americana radio stations.In addition to Sweden, Australia and the UK have also embraced Hagen. One DJ cites, "I found her on the internet, downloaded some sound samples and had one question - Why haven't I heard her before?" Loretta's most recent product is an 13 song CD entitled "Something More" which started as a 4 song demo produced by Pat McInerney (Nanci Griffith). Hagen added 9 new tunes to round out this cross-genre folk / rock /country /blues release. This captivating CD is filled with lush lyrics that are as real and honest as the artist herself and are accompanied by a mosaic of rich heart-tugging and memorable melodies. Old friend, Bob Delevante, of The Delevante's, guests on vocals on the song "I'm Coming Up". In keeping with the times, Hagen is also seeing considerable success on MP3.com, with her songs rising as high as number 1 on the Americana chart(and remained there for a week!) and in the top 50 of all of the charts and receiving thousands of plays by individual site visitors, Business Music Plays and internet radio stations. As a result of this exposure, after thousands of hours of research by the authors, Loretta's music has been chosen to be included in the first volume of "The God's Have Spoken (the Best Indie Music on the Net)" to be released this year by Quiet Storm Publishing, and which will be made available to every bookstore in the United States and internationally via Amazon.com. Loretta has also received the 2002 ASCAP "Popular Award" for alternative market exposure.Loretta is a self contained singer/songwriter that even has her own recording studio. She performs a variety of ways from solo with just her and her guitar to a striped down 3 piece with percussion, to a full band.

Music Style Country,folk, americana, roots

Musical Influences Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, The Pretenders

Similar Artists Chrissie Hynde, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Nanci Griffith

Instruments acoustic guitar, bass

Albums Something More

Press Reviews Review from 9/13/00 You know we loved Winter at the Exit/In. But, let me say that having only heard of Loretta Hagen from the Winter web site, she was a pleasant surprise. I just drove in to the Exit in time to see her kick off the show. I'll look for her music. She has the smooth vocal strength of Emmylou Harris and the performance prowess of Bonnie Raitt on steroids. Like I said, I'll be looking for them again in and around Nashville. Her act made a surprisingly good warm up for Johnny and his magic. G Ellis

Location Hartford, CT - USA

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