Laura Marling at the Commodore Ballroom, June 27 2012. Christine Redmond photo
Photos – Laura Marling at the Commodore Ballroom, June 27 2012
- photos by Christine Redmond
Snipe photographer Christine Redmond caught Laura Marling on a post-Bonnaroo West Coast tour.
The British singer-songwriter, who is faced with another Joni Mitchell comparison every time she picks up a guitar, started out in the London folk scene. Her debut album Alas, I Cannot Swim and her second I Speak Because I Can were both nominated for the Mercury Music Prize in 2008, and 2010 respectively. She also won Best Female Solo Artist at the 2011 Brit Awards and was nominated for the same award the following year.
In an 8/10 review of Marling’s third album, 2011′s A Creature I Don’t Know in NME, Priya Elan writes: “If I Speak Because I Can was a towering musical achievement, A Creature I Don’t Know is an emotional triumph. This real-life fairytale is made up of myriad difficult home truths but Marling’s hejira, her flight to freedom, makes for absolutely compelling listening. Oh, and there’s a happy, redemptive ending to boot.”
In a review of the album in Paste, Stephen M. Deusner wrote: “A Creature I Don’t Know is her best album yet – definitely her most musically and lyrically ambitious. She injects her songs with evocative turns of phrase and carefully chosen concrete details, making each sound lived in and immediate.”
Marling was born in Hampshire, England. The youngest of three daughters of a music teacher, she learned guitar at an early age. Her father introduced her to folk music and helped shape her musical taste.
At 16, Laura Marling moved to London, where she soon became part of a cluster of bands including Noah and the Whale and The Rakes, as well as Mystery Jets. She has apparently been involved with Noah and the Whale’s Charlie Fink and Mumford & Sons‘ Marcus Mumford.
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