Thursday Night Live @ The Daniel favorite singer/songwriter Lauren Crosby
is local Maine musician at heart, but a trip to Memphis drove her to get in the
studio and record her first CD. An accomplishment she will celebrate on
Saturday, Aug. 16 at 7 p.m. when she has her CD Release Party at the Coast Bar+ Bistro.
Crosby is a rising folkie
bluesy singer/songwriter from Georgetown Island, Maine, who has been compared
to legendary singers such as Janis Joplin and Edie Brickell. Fans have lauded
her music for being real, raw and poetic.
Since The Daniel
kicked off its Thursday Night Live @ The Daniel this past spring Crosby has
been back several times by popular demand to perform. She is a perfect example
of the local talent that The Daniel wants to serve as a platform for.
Sure, no cover charge for shows and the food and drink
specials for Thursday Night Live @ The Daniel are great, but getting the chance
to get up close and personal with musicians like Crosby is what has the crowds
growing and musicians excited to come and perform.
Crosby says The
Daniel has quickly become one of her favorite places to play and she could
think of no better location for her CD Release Party.
“I absolutely fell
in love with the acoustics of the Coast Bar + Bistro,” Crosby says. “It
has such pretty acoustics. I could just sing there and play all night long.”
She also says she likes the bar’s setting and feels it has a
homey touch. “The feel of the place is really good.”
The central location of Brunswick was another big bonus for
Crosby as she sought a location to launch her CD that was accessible to family,
friends and her growing region of fans.
She pointed out that for her, and other local musicians, The
Daniel has become a great addition to the growing scene in Brunswick.
“Brunswick is just thriving right now. Brunswick is a very, very cool scene,”
she says. “It is an artsy town on the coast of Maine and it is a very nice
place to have to go to as a musician.”
The 20-year-old Crosby is a student at the University of Maine, Farmington, studying to become and English teacher, but she has been
singing in music shows since she was 14 years old. When she was 17, she started
playing guitar and began to hone her singer/songwriter act. Once in college,
she used her music gigs to help pay for her schooling. Crosby is a prolific
live performer — she plays two gigs a week during the college school year and
plays four-to-five nights a week during the summer.
Last fall, Crosby put her teaching education on hold for a
semester and traveled to the University of Memphis to study blues and jazz. She
was picked up by a local band and played some of Memphis’ famous musical
hotspots. The positive reaction to her performing opened her eyes.
She says she has always received wonderful support from
audiences in Maine, but to hear from locals in Memphis that they were impressed
with her performing made her realize she might have what it takes to keep
moving forward with music.
The musicians, in particular, encouraged her to record songs
and release a CD.
“Memphis people
were telling me, ‘Wow, you have to do something.’ So it was kind of like a
really big push for me to do something,” she says. “In Memphis it was a life
changing experience. It inspired me to make this CD.”
Also while in
Memphis, Crosby found out she had won a prize in a song-writing contest. The
prize was the chance to record songs at TRI Studios in California, a state of
the art, world-class recording facility created by the legendary
Grateful Dead founding member, Bob Weir.
Once back in
Maine, Crosby launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund her first album and
raised just over $5,000 — enough to get her into Frog Hollow Studio in
Brunswick and put together a 10-song CD.
She had some doubts about the Kickstarter idea, but says it
could not gone better. “I am really, really lucky. I have tons of
people behind me who are really supportive family,” she says. “It ended up
working out really well.”
All the songs
on Crosby’s self-titled debut CD were written when she was between the ages of
16 to 19 and reflect her upbringing on coastal Maine and the fishing community
she grew up in.
She points to
“Lobsterman Hands,” as an example of one of the songs that tells the story of
the kind of townspeople she has known all her life and loves.
A personal
favorite is the first song on the album and the first song she wrote, “Sell it To The Sea.” The song was recorded with the help of a local musician on the
harmonica, someone she knew because he drove a lobster truck for her dad.
Crosby emphasizes his contribution makes the track.
“He just
played so unbelievably,” she says. “Stuff like that makes the album really
special.”
We think you will find Lauren Crosby’s debut CD really
special as well, so come celebrate it with her at The Daniel on Aug. 16!
Check out a complete track listing to “Lauren Crosby” below:
Springtime In The
Mountains
Dogfish Ale
No Worries
Lobsterman Hands
Start Time: 7 p.m.
End Time: 10 p.m.
Lauren anticipates playing a set from 9-10 p.m.
Free and open to the public.
Complimentary Hors d'oeuvres
Cash Bar
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