Artist: Laurelyn Dossett
Hometown: Birmingham, Alabama
Latest Album: How Many Moons?
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): My family calls me Lolly
Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?
Gillian Welch. For the simplicity in her writing, the foundation in traditional song styles and elemental language, for sure. But at the most basic level, I am not sure I would have ever even gotten into this work if it had not been for her first record. I was in my thirties, I had three kids, I was going to grad school. But I really wanted to be able to play guitar, just so I could sing to my daughters, play music with friends. A dear friend sent me the Revival record. The chords were simple, the songs were slow, and the arrangements were sparse enough that I could hear what was going on. I could sing them and play them at the same time, a miracle! I went to school on that record, my K-12.
What other art forms – literature, film, dance, painting, etc. – inform your music?
Easily literature and theater, because I love a good story and I love heightened language. But honestly I think crafts like pottery and woodwork and weaving may have more impact on how I write, how I build a song, weave a pattern, see if the thing will hold water, so to speak. I want my songs to do the job.
Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do they impact your work?
I live in the middle of 40 acres of woods, so I get most of the elements most of the time. Flora and fauna, rocks and rivers, beasts and birds are so ubiquitous in my songs that I hardly even notice how unusual that might be! I get to spend a lot of time with the moon. I listen to a lot of birds. I watch the storms roll in and out.
What is a genre, album, artist, musician, or song that you adore that would surprise people?
I love the Wild Shoats. They are an amazing group of young musicians – they come out of old-time music but they write great songs and have this fusion of old-time with drums and groove that is wildly compelling. Go listen to them.
If you didn’t work in music, what would you do instead?
I would be a farmer or a riverkeeper and be outside all the time. I remember thinking when I was younger that I should have been a farmer’s wife – because I was raised in a time when farming was a man’s work. I know better now. A riverkeeper because rivers are magnificent, overlooked and devalued, the work is essential and the job is on the water.
Photo Credit: Matthew Chenet
