Seattle singer/songwriter Laura Veirs sings personal songs of romantic intoxication, everyday vignettes, and occasional social commentary that are often heavy on introspection and intense character scrutiny. Her vocals and melodies rapidly shift and veer, up and down her wide vocal range. She put out her own self-titled CD, recorded live and featuring just her and guitar, in 1999. Though she went to the studio for her next album, The Triumphs & Travails of Orphan Mae, it too was self-released (though it saw greater distribution after British label Bella Union decided to reissue it in 2005). 2003 brought the release of Troubled by the Fire, a full-band effort that found the artist sharing the studio with such luminaries as Bill Frisell, Amy Denio, and Fred Chalenor. She signed to Nonesuch the following year and recorded the atmospheric Carbon Glacier, followed by Year of Meteors in August of 2005 and Saltbreakers in 2007. Veirs returned to her folk-leaning roots with 2010's July Flame and switched gears again the following year with Tumble Bee, drawing on the American songbook to create her first-ever children's record. In the summer of 2013, she released Warp & Weft, a collection of primarily original material, produced by her husband, Tucker Martine.

Richie Unterberger
AllMusic.com