Artist description Fiorentino has been compared to Enya-meets-AniDifranco-meets-Odetta-meets-Georgia O'Keefe. She "plays her guitar atonce like a drum, a bass and a bell ... she creates multi-layered rhythms with her music...her songs are concerned with driving forces...she sings with a broad, deep voice which at times sounds rough and ready, at others, soft and lush like a long velvet dress." (The Taos News)

Music Style Her past experience includes R&B bands, solo blues and even a musical comedy troupe. But according to her, she has found her true niche in the music world only recently, and it's a niche that defies easy catagorizing. - Matt Donovan, the Santa Fe Reporter

Similar Artists Ani Difranco, Janice Joplin, Joan Baez

Artist History AS of February 2001 After a second invitation to NXNE early 2000, June through Septembersaw Fiorentino touring and living in Ireland based out of Waterford. She Musicially Directed an abstract Russian play for Waterford’s Youth Drama project. Three cuts off of Laurianne's instrumental CD Windhorse Rising were featured. It was a wonderful international exchange and recieved rave reviews from local press. She also performed in the dramatic Waterford Spraoi festival and attended several traditional Irish festivals in between her own gigs soaking up the vibes and jamming with some of the country's finest traditional musicians. A few other highlights of the trip were her visit to Innish Bofin Island, swimming and hanging out with the locals in Tramore, shows at the Lobby and the Pine Lodge in Cork, a fabulous concert at the Ardhowen Theater in Enniskillen, a magical visit to Colfer's in Carrick on Bannow, and supporting John Spillane (with Declan Sinnot) at the Cobblestone in Dublin.There's a LIVE IN IRELAND CD in the works and a new studio CD to be out this summer. 1999 was a big year for Laurianne with the release of her bamboo flute CD in February and a "round-the-world-tour" which had its beginnings at the Albuquerque Folk Alliance Convention. Australian guitar magician Jeff Lang's manager invited LaF to tour OZ after she was a featured headliner and critic's pick for Toronto's NXNE. It was off to Vancouver BC to do a few dates with Lang before flying into New Zealand for a couple of shows. The first 3 months in OZ were so amazing and positive (over40 shows in all) that Fiorentino was invited back to tour another 6 months after her first successful tour of Ireland in November. Back in Australia, LaF met up and supported a few nationally acclaimed artists like the legendary blues band CHAIN, hip folk-rocker iOTA, and wonderful songwriter/lead singer from the socially conscious band GOANNNA, Shane Howard. Fiorentino headlined several sold out festivals including Queensland's Woodford Festival, New South Wales' Glenworth Valley Festival, Victoria's internationally famous Port Fairy Folk Festival, Tasmania's First Southern Roots and Blues Festival and ACT's National Folk Festival. She was received with excitement, a few standing ovations, and requests for encores! Fiorentino and Chris Smither were THE big surprise successes in Hobart too! Between festivals saw Laurianne playing pubs and universities up and down Australia's east coast and New Zealand through April. Here's more of the story: In May 1998, singer-songwriter Laurianne Fiorentino was chosen as a semi-finalist in the nation-wide LILITH FAIR/LEVI-STRAUSS EMERGING ACOUSTIC MUSIC TALENT SEARCH. 1996 ACOUSTIC ARTIST OF THE YEAR NOMINEE (NAS) Fiorentino has been dubbed a "traditional original". Her 1997 solo concert CD 'THE MATCH' nominated BEST OF 1998 by the New Mexico Music Industry Coalition. Laurianne was also selected to participate in the 1998 FOLKRAWL concert series in Memphis, playing to a full house at B.B. King's Blues Club. Radio programmers (folk, alternative, rock and world music) in Vermont, New Jersey, Ohio, Texas, Louisiana, and New Mexico are playing LAF's music. Lately, she's been heard on the air in Australia and Ireland too. Before re-locating to New Mexico and digging into her solo work, Fiorentino was based out of Northampton, MA for many years. Raised on Boston's North Shore, second-youngest of seven and the only girl of the bunch, Laurianne was playing the organ by age four and was self-taught on guitar and harmonica by age eleven. From touring Europe in a classical choir, earning a BA from UMASS (including three years of classical music and jazz studies), and hitting the road as a professional blues/R&B/comic musician playing electric bass, LAF has integrated several musical genres into her current work. Shortly after her father's death (1989) and after months of playing in pubs and wandering the country-sides and coastlines of England, LAF settled into a world apart from her familiar provincial New England - the high deserts and expansive vistas of southwestern US. From her front door at 7500 ft altitude, Fiorentino watches the distant "Atomic City", Los Alamos twinkling in the west, the Hispanic town of Espanola nestled next to the San Ildefonso Pueblo to the north, the towering Sangre de Christo mountains to the east, yet is just over the hill from art center/tourist destination/alternative Santa Fe. Fiorentino adores the multi-cultured and historical elements of New Mexico..."It's SO BIG out here!", she says. A startling and dynamic (seasoned) live performer, Laurianne is also an accomplished, multi-instrumentalist studio musician. She plays bass on folk-legend ERIK DARLING's latest Folk Era CD, and has several film soundtrack credits playing bass, harmonica, Mexican ocarina, and Native American bamboo flute. On the Paul Davids production of "Timothy Leary's Dead", Fiorentino's harmonica playing can be heard behind a scene of naked people dancing in the streets of Berkeley. FUN! FUN! Fiorentino has been compared to Enya-meets-Ani Difranco-meets-Odetta-meets-Georgia O'Keefe. She "plays her guitar at once like a drum, a bass and a bell...she creates multi-layered rhythms with her music...her songs are concerned with driving forces...she sings with a broad, deep voice which at times sounds rough and ready, at others, soft and lush like a long velvet dress." (The Taos News) In the NE USA, Laurianne has appeared on stages with Louise Taylor, Susan Werner, Barbara Kessler, and Richard Shindell, Don Conoscenti, Jeff Lang, Shane Howard, Greg Brown and Tish Hinajosa. In addition to her skills as a musician, Laurianne Fiorentino has been a professional immunotherapist, potter, graphic-artist-designer/photographer, Alaskan salmon fisherperson, leather-tooling artist and teacher. She is also a published journalist ( see the "press" section of this site) and has been a volunteer children's teaching/tour guide for the Audubon Society.***The Latest (Right from the horse's mouth):Hi Everyone, It’s been a while since I checked in….been on the road constantly for 2 years now and I’m looking to settle in somewhere and cough up a few new cds. I’ve got a “live in Ireland” project in the works from my January 2001 tour. I may even throw in some live stuff from my show with Don Conoscenti in Princeton NJ....and there's a recording of a house concert I did in Albuquerque that I haven't heard yet...so I've got to get busy. At press time, April 19, I'm packing off to NM for a much needed re-grouping. I'm so excited about the new cd...or cds...and hope to have them on hand for an East Coast US tour in the fall! see you out there! LaF

Group Members Laurianne Fiorentino

Instruments Laurianne plays vox, guitar, bass, harmonica, organ, Mexican ocarina, and Native American bamboo flute, and more ...

Albums The Match, Windhorse Rising

Press Reviews Santa Fe ReporterA Traditional OriginalBy Matt Donovan Laurianne Fiorentino is one step ahead of you. Just when you think you can pigeonhole her music, she dodges out of range of your expectations. Her past experience includes R&B bands, solo blues and even a musical comedy troupe. But according to her, she has found her true niche in the music world only recently, and it's a niche that defies easy catagorizing. There is a strong folk element in her work, but it's an unorthodox folk comprised of qualities rarely found in the cafe music scene. Fiorentino is attuned to every nuance of her music, down to the silence between the beats. She has a raw energy onstage, an original sense of how song works, and, most importantly, a stunningly strong voice. Many folk singers wallow in their own comfortable voice range. Not Fiorentino, who leaps from a low growl to a high-pitched wail and back to a whisper in a single tune. When she sets aside her many instruments (ranging from guitar, to bamboo flute to a pair of rocks) her a cappella moments are haunting and evoke the spiritual tradition. Recently, Firoentino was nominated Artist of the Year by the National Academy of Songwriters, and her soon-to-be-released album affirms the honor. Most of "The Match" was recorded live last spring at the Santuario de Guadalupe, and the atmosphere and acoustics of the church are a good match for Fiorentino's style (It sounds alot like Cowboy Junkies' "Trinity Sessions, recorded in a Toronto church. It has that eerie bare-bones feel and Fiorentino sounds a bit like Junkies' Margo Timmins). Although her lyrics are in the basic framework of the folk/blues traditions, they also part decisively from the listener's expectations. A typical line swerves from the conventional - "I woke up one morning" - into a surreality - "and the world was white/and every color knew it was winning." The album's best songs match a lyrical originality with a rhythmically complex delivery. Listen to the end of "Simple As the Sun", as she breaks down the chorus into her own brand of scat singing, interspersing words with bursts of silence. Fiorentino refuses to take herself too seriously. She is not about mere showmanship or self-importance and you need only to hear her "one note song" to know that. She is more concerned with crafting songs and offering up music that is honest and authentic.

Additional Info http://www.lauriannef.com/workshops.html

Location Tesuque, New Mexico - USA

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