Post by That Skipping Rope. on Jun 26, 2007 22:45:43 GMT -5
I am obsessed with this girl at the moment. She's a really great singer/songwriter type girl from New Orleans. She's pretty popular on MySpace.
Wearing melody and heart on her sleeve, Blair writes and sings but "singer-songwriter" would be somewhat misleading. With her innate pop sensibility and an intense delivery, it would be more accurate to describe Blair’s sound as the musical meeting of Dolly Parton and Radiohead. But that is really only a vague starting point for the young New Orleanian.
At only 23 years old, Blair has been a staple of the New Orleans’ music scene for the last seven years. She began performing at local coffee houses and open mic nights when she was only 16. By 18, Blair found herself performing at some of her hometown’s most venerable rock clubs such as the Howlin Wolf and House of Blues. Opting to wait until after college to make music her full-time occupation, Blair would sneak away between classes as a philosophy major at Loyola University New Orleans to the university's music building to hone her skills at writing and performing. She was also able to open up for some of the country’s most popular indie bands stopping through New Orleans, such as Cat Power, Calexico, and Bright Eyes. With summer of 2007 approaching, Blair has established a dedicated local fan base, finished her philosophical studies, and has a four-song EP “in the can” set for summer release (produced by Keith Ferguson of World Leader Pretend). For the first time in Blair’s life, there is a freedom to go forward, without a net, and focus solely on her music with the upcoming release of Pluto.
In late 2006 scientists decided Pluto would no longer be considered a planet. To many, this declaration was the celestial equivalent of learning that Santa Claus doesn’t exist. Blair, however, saw the new classification as a metaphor for life in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
“Something is one way all your life, then all of a sudden, it totally changes.”
Just as Pluto is no longer considered a planet, Blair’s new EP, Pluto, is titled after the sudden and drastic changes she experienced in New Orleans after the hurricane. A marriage of alt-country and folk-tinged pop music - combined with a captivating falsetto voice - Pluto aims to create the same kind of intimacy between listener that she recalls from her first experiences listening to rock and pop radio. A personal expression during Blair’s transformation from youth to adulthood, Pluto is a personal snapshot of a place in time. And hopefully, indication of what the future holds.
At only 23 years old, Blair has been a staple of the New Orleans’ music scene for the last seven years. She began performing at local coffee houses and open mic nights when she was only 16. By 18, Blair found herself performing at some of her hometown’s most venerable rock clubs such as the Howlin Wolf and House of Blues. Opting to wait until after college to make music her full-time occupation, Blair would sneak away between classes as a philosophy major at Loyola University New Orleans to the university's music building to hone her skills at writing and performing. She was also able to open up for some of the country’s most popular indie bands stopping through New Orleans, such as Cat Power, Calexico, and Bright Eyes. With summer of 2007 approaching, Blair has established a dedicated local fan base, finished her philosophical studies, and has a four-song EP “in the can” set for summer release (produced by Keith Ferguson of World Leader Pretend). For the first time in Blair’s life, there is a freedom to go forward, without a net, and focus solely on her music with the upcoming release of Pluto.
In late 2006 scientists decided Pluto would no longer be considered a planet. To many, this declaration was the celestial equivalent of learning that Santa Claus doesn’t exist. Blair, however, saw the new classification as a metaphor for life in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
“Something is one way all your life, then all of a sudden, it totally changes.”
Just as Pluto is no longer considered a planet, Blair’s new EP, Pluto, is titled after the sudden and drastic changes she experienced in New Orleans after the hurricane. A marriage of alt-country and folk-tinged pop music - combined with a captivating falsetto voice - Pluto aims to create the same kind of intimacy between listener that she recalls from her first experiences listening to rock and pop radio. A personal expression during Blair’s transformation from youth to adulthood, Pluto is a personal snapshot of a place in time. And hopefully, indication of what the future holds.
She has an EP out, but I don't think it's available at most stores. It features all the songs on her MySpace page.
www.myspace.com/musicblair