Laura Love (born 1960) is an American singer-songwriter and bass guitar player. Her style has been described as "Afro-Celtic" and has also been influenced by bluegrass.

Personal life

Love was born Laura Jones in

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the 16th president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincoln (na ...

, Nebraska, in 1960. She is of African American, Native American, and

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

descent. Love had a difficult childhood, raised by a mother with

schizophrenia Schizophrenia () is a mental disorder characterized variously by hallucinations (typically, Auditory hallucination#Schizophrenia, hearing voices), delusions, thought disorder, disorganized thinking and behavior, and Reduced affect display, f ...

and in

foster homes Foster care is a system in which a minor has been placed into a ward, group home (residential child care community or treatment centre), or private home of a state-certified caregiver, referred to as a "foster parent", or with a family member ...

. Her father, who had little involvement in her life, was the jazz musician

Preston Love Preston Haynes Love (April 26, 1921 – February 12, 2004) was an American saxophonist, bandleader, and songwriter from Omaha, Nebraska, United States, best known as a sideman for jazz and rhythm and blues artists like Count Basie and Ray Char ...

who played the saxophone with

Count Basie William James "Count" Basie (; August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. In 1935, he formed the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and the ...

Lucky Millinder Lucius Venable "Lucky" Millinder (August 8, 1910 – September 28, 1966) was an American swing music, swing and rhythm and blues, rhythm-and-blues bandleader. Although he could not read or write music, did not play an instrument and rarely sang ...

and

Johnny Otis Johnny Otis (born Ioannis Alexandres Veliotes (Greek language, Greek: Ιωάννης Αλέξανδρος Βελιώτης)); December 28, 1921 – January 17, 2012) was a Greek American singer, musician, composer, bandleader, record producer, ...

and formed his own band in the 1950s. Love's mother, Wini, had been a singer in Preston's jazz band. Preston Love Jr., her older half-brother, is a Nebraska politician.

Career

Love began her performing career at age 16, singing for the prisoners at the

Nebraska State Penitentiary The Nebraska State Penitentiary (NSP) is a state correctional facility for the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services. Located in Lincoln, it is the oldest state correctional facility in Nebraska, opening in 1869. Until after World War I ...

. Love relocated to

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

, where she was a member of the 1980s rock group Boom Boom G.I. She was also a member of an

all-female band An all-female band is a musical ensemble, musical group in popular music that is exclusively composed of female musicians. This is distinct from a girl group, in which the female members are solely vocalists, though this terminology is not universa ...

, Venus Envy. After Love released three albums on her own label,

Octoroon In the colonial societies of the Americas and Australia, a quadroon or quarteron (in the United Kingdom, the term quarter-caste is used) was a person with one-quarter African/ Aboriginal and three-quarters European ancestry. Similar classifica ...

Biography, Putumayo released a collection of her songs in 1995. Her 2003 album ''Welcome to Pagan Place'' included the controversial song "I Want You Gone", about

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...

. In 2004 she published an autobiography titled ''You Ain't Got No Easter Clothes'', with an accompanying album of the same name.

Discography

*''Z Therapy'' (1990) *''Pangaea '' (1992) *''Helvetica Bold'' (1994) *''The Laura Love Collection'' (1995) *''Jo Miller and Laura Love Sing Bluegrass and Old Time Music'' (1995) *''Octoroon'' (1997) *''Shum Ticky'' (1998) *''Fourteen Days'' (2000) *''Welcome to Pagan Place'' (2003) *''You Ain't Got No Easter Clothes'' (2004) *''NēGrass'' (2007) *''The Sweeter the Juice'' (2009) *''She Loved Red'' (2018) *''Uppity'' (2021)

Bibliography

* Love, Laura (2004). ''You Ain't Got No Easter Clothes''. New York (Hyperion Books).

References

External links

Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Love, Laura 1960 births American bluegrass musicians African-American women singer-songwriters American women singer-songwriters American folk singers American women country singers American country singer-songwriters American women bass guitarists MNRK Music Group artists Living people Musicians from Seattle Singer-songwriters from Washington (state) Zoë Records artists African-American country musicians Guitarists from Washington (state) Guitarists from Nebraska 20th-century American bass guitarists 20th-century American women guitarists African-American guitarists 20th-century African-American women singers 20th-century American women singers 20th-century American singers 21st-century African-American women singers 21st-century American women singers Singer-songwriters from Nebraska