WERS Artist of the Week

“Singer-songwriters, especially with the veritable flock of them hovering around the Greater Boston area and the Northeast, don't usually get recognized all that quickly. Fan bases develop slowly. Respectability takes time.

Don't tell that to Laura Bullock, though. And don't ask the people who line up at Club Passim to see her, or anyone who has had a listen of her debut Points North. If they're any sort of barometer, respectability comes remarkably quickly.

After all, she's really only been at this for two years. Points North is a follow-up to her debut EP In The Everyday and, a couple years of touring later, fans connected to her introspective lyrics.

Those fans couldn't feel any closer to Bullock after hearing "Jupiter Spinning," when she speaks to them. Literally. In the second person, she sings, "You're a smile, present but fleeting. A wound, always healing, yet bleeding. A prayer, always hopeful, yet pleading for more."

The ultimately folksy "Elements of Change" applies the perfect mix of strings to the album's catchiest track. It has all the elements of a jig, but it's dynamic and accessible enough to please any fan yearning for relatability.

Those same strings are applied seamlessly into the final track, the somber Water is Wide. She even explores her musical prowess in the alternately-tuned "I'm Not," that still has its unique draw.

Bullock knows balance, too. In a track that is led just as much by its lyrical contents as its composition, "In The Sand," Bullock pines, "I'm writing my heart out in the sand. Wash it away, wash it away, wash it away," over a fittingly descending set of strings.

So, in Layman's terms, this Boston-area songwriter knows how to write some pretty impressive folk-pop.

Just ask her building legion of fans. See her in Chelmsford at the Java Room on the 15th. Because, in the Northeast folk scene, this possible prodigy has been hitting the right notes from the start.

-Ben Collins
WERS

“Artist of the Week, December 9^th, 2006”