Artist description "As a working singer, composer and lyricist, I am always studying the history and craft, the art of songs, songwriting and singers, with a special interest in World Jewish and American Music. After a concert one day, Eric Robbins of the Educational Alliance in NYC came up and said, 'Laura, you seem to know a lot about this music-would you consider doing a 5 part lecture series for me?' So I did. Since then, I've put together theme concerts, multi-media lecture demonstrations and hands-on workshops about music and musicians that inspire me in different ways. I try not to make a concert a lecture or a lecture a concert. I share my own excitement in exploring the musical artistry, history, craft and context and hope others enjoy it too. I include some of my favorites in my concert of original songs Songwriter's Notebook as well. I love to sing, write music and lyrics and study. I believe in 'honoring the ancestors'. Sharing it all is great fun." Laura

Music Style Contemporary Folk / World Folk

Artist History Award-winning singer-songwriter LAURA WETZLER tours in over 150 concerts and lectures each year, singing critically-acclaimed Contemporary Folk/Americana originals, World Jewish Roots Music in Hebrew, Yiddish and Ladino(Judeo-Spanish) and the great classics of American songwriting. Her debut CD of original songs, Songwriter's Notebook receives airplay on over 300 radio stations around the world and has garnered great reviews for both her "impressive poetic gifts"-Bob Sherman, NY Times and her voice, "which grabs a listener and won't let go"-Seth Rogovoy, WAMC/Public Radio. In addition to her extensive Songwriter's Notebook concert tour, she created and performs in more than 20 different theme or tribute concerts/ lectures, among them a unique duo show with gospel singer Janiece Thompson called "Jewels of the Diaspora-A Concert Celebration of African-American and Jewish Song." The restless daughter of a truck driver and a choir director raised in North Babylon, New York with a voracious musical curiosity, Laura seemed destined to hit the road singing. As a kid, she was alternately wailing Beatles and Motown into a spoon mic, helping to select and time cuts for a Sunday morning Jewish music folk show her mother hosted on a local radio station and singing in her mom's choir. Teaching herself to play her $14 guitar by singing her way through Joni Mitchell and Judy Collins songbooks, she also counts Billie Holiday, the Child Ballads, Bessie Smith, sacred chant, Odetta, Bernstein, Sondheim, Carole King, Seeger and Shawn Colvin among her diverse musical influences. Laura began singing professionally at age 15, singing and teaching the traditional songs in Hebrew, Judeo-Spanish and Yiddish from the Mid-east, Europe, Africa, and the Americas heard in her childhood. She began writing and singing her own songs, studied music, graduating from Hofstra University on a full, 4 year vocal scholarship as the Dorothea B. Hoag Scholar in Music.All the while, Laura was working in synagogues and singing folk-rock and blues covers in L.I. and NYC clubs at night. Along the way, she also studied at the HB Studio in NYC. Combining these many musical interests, she learned her craft at a hundred NYC café's, colleges, community centers, concert halls and street festivals, sometimes sharing her music for civil rights and anti-censorship causes. Although her career has been focused on live shows, Laura's indie single, Jesse Helms Has Made A Radical Out of Me, received nationwide airplay, becoming sound track for the film, State of the Art: Art of the State, an anti-censorship documentary screened on PBS and at the Whitney Museum. Today, Singout Magazine's Vic Heyman calls Laura "a road warrior…who can belt out a song with the best singers on the circuit", playing concert halls, arts festivals, clubs, colleges, museums, and on national TV and radio, having appeared with such artists as Richie Havens, The Klezmatics, Odetta, Disappear Fear, David Amram, Vance Gilbert, Laurie Anderson and many others.She is featured on The Best of American Independent Music compilation CD from Songs.com, and the legendary Pete Seeger has presented her song B'makom-In A Place, in concert. When not on tour, Laura divides her time between NYC and Cummington, MA.

Instruments Guitar, Vocals

Albums Songwriter's Notebook

Press Reviews "Laura is one of the very best…" Pete Seeger"impressive poetic gifts" Bob Sherman, NEW YORK TIMES/WFUV PUBLIC RADIO"Airwaves Top 10" The Phoenix"A rich resonant voice weaving traditional, ethnic and contemporary threads into intelligent, literate songs." Richard Fox, WCUW"Laura can belt out a song with the best singers on the circuit… 'Hold On' is the kind of conversation that is rarely heard except around a kitchen table late at night." Vic Heyman,SINGOUT! Magazine"Whether it's an ode to the infamous Gowanus Canal or to the fabulous adventures of a retarded woman named Annie, Laura Wetzler paints portrait like nobody else." WORTV/UPN Network"…folk music is alive and well…[her} ode to anti-censorship will have you running out to contribute money to the nearest NEA-banned artist." Martha Southgate, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS" a consumate performer with a powerful, yet refined voice. She brings a wealth of knowledge of traditional styles to her own finely crafted songs. A terrific evening." Richard Cuccaro FAST FOLK/Acoustic Live NYC"In a time of renewed interest in traditional music there are only a handful of singers who can really perform the enormously sophisticated and varied styles from around the world. Laura is one who is keeping the flame alive-an amazingly gifted singer, songwriter and ethnic folklorist." David Amram, Composer/Conductor"Almost the entire singer/songwriter definition can be found here with examples of each. She can project folk, folk-rock, blues world music and Americana. But even more than the breadth of style, which she cavorts around with smooth transitions, is the warm feeling she brings to every genre touched upon. Those whose view of folk music is a single musician on a stage with an acoustic guitar will really have their sense broadened with this disc." FACE THE MUSIC"From the rousing soul-folk opener 'Hold On' singer-songwriter Laura Wetzler grabs a listener and won't let go. Her songs veer from state of the art acoustic-pop to jazz shuffle to country driven two steps to world beat influenced originals… intimate portraits and song poems, including one with lyrics by Maya Angelou. Best of all is Wetzler's voice, which boasts a colorful expressive range from pretty, whispery smooth to jazzy, sexy rasp." Seth Rogovoy Berkshire Eagle/WAMC PUBLIC RADIO"riveting talent" John Stifler, Daily Hamphire Gazette"superb concert" Provincetown Magazine"hauntingly beautiful" Radio Montreal"beautiful voice, wonderful songs" Johnny Memphis, WRSI"Laura's songwritng is superb and her words continue to come back to you when you least expect it. With each new play it reaches me from a different level; I hear new sounds and end up with a new favorite song." Howard Stern, Uptown Concerts NYC"In a world populated with love songs [her} work stands alone…" Sheryl Hunter The Recorder "Laura Wetzler was a real find for me-a clear soaring voice, exceptionally compelling." New Directions, NYC

Location New York, NY - USA

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