Laura Cantrell

Laura Cantrell is a country singer, songwriter and sometime disc jockey who was born in Nashville, Tennessee but lives in New York. Although her involvement with music began in her home town, it was not until she moved to New York to study at Columbia University that her career as a performer and DJ began. After university, she continued working in a day job (for a Wall Street investment firm) until the acclaim gained by her records (especially her first album, Not the Tremblin' Kind) made it possible for her to pursue a full-time career in music. Two more albums followed, When the Roses Bloom Again (2002) and Humming By The Flowered Vine (2005), but then motherhood obliged Cantrell to take a break from recording and performing. She returned with a download-only album, Trains and Boats and Planes (2008) and in 2011 made a tribute album to the first female star of modern country music, Kitty Wells Dresses.
Despite her Nashville origins, Laura Cantrell is closer to the alternative country and back-to-the-roots movements in country music than to the commercially dominant pop-country style. She has many prominent admirers from outside the country music world; among them was John Peel, in the final years of his life.
== Links to Peel ==
When Peel obtained a copy of Not The Tremblin' Kind in 2000 he was highly impressed, calling it "my favourite record of the last ten years and possibly my life" (although his initial reaction was less unequivocal: "She does look, I have to say, not like my idea of a country singer. Kind of thin-lipped and stroppy really, and not like a Playboy bunny" ). He went on to play tracks from the album regularly and eventually invited Cantrell to do a session for his programme. As she was not simply a performer but a DJ with her own show on a New Jersey radio station, The Radio Thrift Shop, concentrating on older styles of country music, she and Peel found they had musical tastes in common and she visited (and recorded at) Peel Acres. In the end she did five sessions for Peel's show. When Peel and his wife Sheila went to New York they stayed with Laura Cantrell and her husband Jeremy Tepper (also a musician).
When 9/11 occurred in New York, Peel said on air that his first thought was for Laura Cantrell's safety, because she worked in the financial district worst affected by the explosions. After Peel's death, Laura Cantrell paid warm tributes to him on radio and in the press. She also dedicated her 2005 album Humming By The Flowered Vine to his memory.
== Festive Fifty Entries ==
*2000 Festive Fifty (yearly chart): 'Queen Of The Coast' #42
*2000 Festive Fifty (yearly chart):'Two Seconds' #27
*2000 Festive Fifty (yearly chart):'Somewhere Some Night' (#21)
All the above from LP 'Not The Tremblin' Kind' (Spit & Polish)
*2002 Festive Fifty: 'Too Late For Tonight (LP-When The Roses Bloom Again)' (Spit & Polish) #07
*2004 Festive Fifty: 'I Lost You, But I Found Country Music' (with ballboy) (#17). B side of 'Past Lovers' (SL) #17 Originally broadcast on 23 December 2003 as part of a Peel session.
Post Peel
*2005 Festive Fifty: 'Bees (LP-Humming By The Flowered Vine)' (Matador) #10
== Sessions ==
*Five sessions, including three from Peel Acres. The session duet with ballboy of 'I Lost You (But I Found Country Music)' was released on the b-side of the band's Past Lovers single. Selections from all five sessions are on her 2016 album "At The BBC: On Air Performances and Recordings 2000-2005": 'When The Roses Bloom Again' from session #1; 'The Whiskey Makes You Sweeter' and 'Legend In My Time' from session #2; "Hong Kong Blues' and 'Christmas Letter Home" from #3; 'Wait' and 'Rain Boy' from session #4; 'New Year's Resolution', 'Oh So Many Years', and 'I Lost You But I Found Country Music' from session #5. These titles are from the album sleeve and are not identical to the session track titles below.
1. Recorded: 2000-06-04. First broadcast: 06 July 2000. Repeated: 16 November 2000
*Not The Tremblin' Kind / When The Roses Bloom / Queen Of The Coast / Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain / Somewhere Some Night
2. Broadcast: 01 February 2001 (live at Peel Acres)
*Two Seconds / Too Late For Tonight / The Whiskey Makes You Stronger / Churches Off The Interstate / Legend In My Time
thumb|330x330px
3. Recorded: 2002-10-01. First Broadcast: 05 November 2002. No repeats.
*Broken Again / Hong Kong Blues / Cellar Door / Christmas Letter Home
4. Broadcast: 08 May 2003 (live at Peel Acres)
*Early Years / Rain Boy / Wait / Indoor Fireworks / Lee Harvey Was A Friend Of Mine
5. Broadcast: 23 December 2003 (live at Peel Acres)
*Pretty Paper / New Year's Resolution / Oh So Many Years / I Still Miss Someone (with ballboy) / I Lost You, But I Found Country Music (with ballboy)
(Please correct mistakes and add any missing info)
== Other Shows Played ==
(The following list is compiled only from the database of this site and Lorcan's Tracklistings Archive via Phil's Mighty Database and may be incomplete. Please add further information if known.)
;2000
*thumb|330x330px24 February 2000: Queen Of The Coast (CD - Not the Tremblin' Kind) Spit & Polish
*29 February 2000: 'Churches Off The Interstate' (LP 'Not The Tremblin' Kind) Spit & Polish
*02 March 2000 (Radio Eins): Churches Off The Interstate (LP 'Not The Tremblin' Kind) Spit & Polish
*09 March 2000 (Radio Eins): Two Seconds
*16 March 2000: Somewhere Some Night (LP - Not the Tremblin' Kind) Spit & Polish
*30 March 2000: Churches Off The Interstate (CD - Not The Tremblin' Kind) Spit & Polish
*04 April 2000: 'Somewhere Some Night (CD-Not The Tremblin' Kind)' (Spit & Polish)
*06 April 2000: 'Somewhere Some Night (CD-Not The Tremblin' Kind)' (Spit & Polish)
*13 April 2000: 'Somewhere Some Night (CD-Not The Tremblin' Kind)' (Spit & Polish)
*13 April 2000 (Radio Eins): Somewhere, Some Night (LP - Not the Tremblin' Kind) Spit & Polish
*27 April 2000 (Radio Eins): Somewhere, Some Night (LP - Not the Tremblin' Kind) Spit & Polish
*03 May 2000 (Radio Eins): 'Queen Of The Coast (CD-Not The Tremblin' Kind)' (Spit & Polish)
*11 May 2000: 'Somewhere Some Night (CD-Not The Tremblin' Kind)' (Spit & Polish)
*18 May 2000 (Radio Eins): 'Somewhere Some Night (CD-Not The Tremblin' Kind)' (Spit & Polish)
*30 May 2000: Churches Off The Interstate (LP - Not The Tremblin' Kind) Spit & Polish
*01 June 2000 (Radio Eins): The Way It Is (album - Not The Tremblin' Kind) Spit & Polish
*08 June 2000: No Place For Me (EP: Hello Recording Club) white label
*13 June 2000: Lee Harvey Was A Friend Of Mine (mp3)
*14 June 2000: Somewhere Some Night (CD-Not The Tremblin' Kind) Spit & Polish
*15 June 2000 (Radio Eins): Lee Harvey Was A Friend Of Mine (mp3)
*28 June 2000: No Place For Me (EP: Hello Recording Club) white label
*05 July 2000: Do You Ever Think Of Me (CD-Not The Tremblin' Kind) Spit & Polish
*20 July 2000: The Guitar (CD maxi-single, 1992) Elektra (with They Might Be Giants)
*23 August 2000: Somewhere Some Night' (LP 'Not The Trembling Kind') Spit & Polish
*22 November 2000: The Way It Is (CD: Not The Trembling Kind) Spit & Polish
*26 December 2000: 'Queen Of The Coast (CD-Not The Tremblin' Kind)' (Spit & Polish) (FF#42)
*27 December 2000: 'Two Seconds (CD-Not The Tremblin' Kind)' (Spit & Polish) (FF#27)
*27 December 2000: 'Somewhere, Some Night (CD-Not The Tremblin' Kind)' (Spit & Polish) (FF#21)
;2001
*04 January 2001 (Radio Eins): Queen Of The Coast / The Way It Is (LP - Not The Tremblin' Kind) Spit and Polish
*24 January 2001: Two Seconds (CD: Not The Tremblin’ Kind) Shoeshine
*31 January 2001: Churches Off The Interstate (LP - Not The Tremblin' Kind) Spit & Polish
*08 March 2001: You Were Made To Break My Heart (LP: Too Many Movies) Shoeshine (with Michael Shelley)
*05 July 2001: Queen Of The Coast (LP - Not The Tremblin' Kind) Spit and Polish
*23 August 2001: 'Queen Of The Coast' (LP 'Not The Tremblin' Kind') Spit & Polish
*18 September 2001: The Way It Is (LP - Not The Tremblin' Kind) Spit & Polish
*25 December 2001: 'Not The Tremblin' Kind (CD-Not The Tremblin' Kind)' (Spit & Polish)
*26 December 2001: Little Bit Of You (CD-Not The Tremblin' Kind)' (Spit & Polish)
*27 December 2001: 'Queen Of The Coast (CD-Not The Tremblin' Kind)' (Spit & Polish)
;2002
*21 February 2002: The Way It Is (LP – Not The Tremblin’ Kind) Spit & Polish
*22 August 2002: 'Too Late For Tonight (LP - When The Roses Bloom Again)' (Spit And Polish)
*29 August 2002: 'All The Same To You' (Spit And Polish)
*29 August 2002 (Radio Eins): Too Late For Tonight (album - When The Roses Bloom Again) Spit and Polish
*04 September 2002: 'Early Years (LP- When The Roses Bloom Again)' (Spit and Polish)
*04 September 2002 (Radio Eins): Early Years (album - When The Roses Bloom Again) Spit and Polish
*10 September 2002: 'Don't Break The Heart (LP - When The Roses Bloom Again')' (Spit)
*18 September 2002: 'Wait (LP - When the Roses Bloom Again)' (Spit )
*19 September 2002 (Radio Mafia): Don't Break The Heart (Spit & Polish)
*19 September 2002 (Radio Eins): Don't Break The Heart (album - When The Roses Bloom Again) Spit & Polish
*24 September 2002: 'Mountain Fern (LP - When the Roses Bloom Again)' (Spit and Polish)
*26 September 2002 (Radio Eins): Wait (album - When The Roses Bloom Again) Spit & Polish
*26 September 2002 (Radio Eins): When The Roses Bloom Again (album - When The Roses Bloom Again) Spit & Polish
*27 September 2002 (BBC World Service): 'Early Years (LP- When The Roses Bloom Again)' (Spit and Polish)
*October 2002 (FSK): Mountain Fern (CD - When The Roses Bloom Again) Spit & Polish
*01 October 2002: 'Vaguest Idea (LP- When The Roses Bloom Again)' (Spit & Polish
*10 October 2002 (Radio Eins): Oh So Many Years (album - When The Roses Bloom Again) Spit & Polish
*11 October 2002 (BBC World Service): 'Wait (LP - When the Roses Bloom Again)' (Spit)
*15 October 2002: 'Vaguest Idea (LP - When The Roses Bloom Again)' (Spit & Polish)
*16 October 2002: 'When The Roses Bloom Again (LP - When The Roses Bloom Again)' (Spit and Polish)
*22 October 2002: Conqueror's Song (LP - When the Roses Bloom Again) Spit and Polish
*24 October 2002: Oh So Many Years (album - When The Roses Bloom Again) Spit & Polish
*31 October 2002 (Radio Eins): Conqueror's Song (album - When The Roses Bloom Again) Spit & Polish
*02 November 2002 (BBC World Service): 'Vaguest Idea (LP - When The Roses Bloom Again)' (Spit & Polish)
*07 November 2002: 'High On A Hill Top (CD Single - All The Same To You)' (Spit And Polish)
*December 2002 (FSK): Conqueror's Song (CD - When The Roses Bloom Again) Spit & Polish
*26 December 2002: Mountain Fern (LP-When The Roses Bloom Again)' (Spit & Polish)
*26 December 2002: Too Late For Tonight (LP-When The Roses Bloom Again)' (Spit & Polish) (FF#7)
;2003
*07 May 2003: Queen of the Coast (LP- Not The Tremblin' Kind)' (Spit )
*21 August 2003: Somewhere Some Night (CD - Not The Tremblin' Kind) Spit & Polish
*25 September 2003: 'No Place For Me' (EP - The Hello Sessions 1996) (Hello)
;2004
*24 March 2004: 'Two Seconds' (LP - 'Not The Tremblin' Kind') Diesel Only
*24 March 2004: 'I Lost You, But I Found Country Music' (Single b-side 'Past Lovers') SL (with ballboy)
*13 October 2004: 'Wasted' (LP - 'Hard Headed Woman') Bloodshot
*05 November 2004 (BBC World Service): Wasted (LP- Hard Headed Woman: A Celebration of Wanda Jackson) – (Bloodshot Records)
;Post-Peel
*04 November 2004 (Rob Da Bank): ‘Wasted’ (LP- Hard Headed Woman: A Celebration of Wanda Jackson) – (Bloodshot Records)
*25 November 2004 (Rob Da Bank): 'Not The Tremblin' Kind' (LP - Not The Tremblin' Kind) (Spit & Polish)
*30 December 2004 (Rob Da Bank): 'I Lost You, But I Found Country Music'
*Pop Depresija (Pop Depression): Two Seconds (Peel Session)
== See Also ==
* March 2000 (Peel's Record Box)
*January 2001 (Peel's Record Box)
*December 2001 (Peel's Record Box)
*August 2002 (Peel's Record Box)
*September 2002 (Peel's Record Box)
== External Links ==
*Wikipedia
*Official site
*The Radio Thrift Shop site
*Interview in The Times
*DL Pedia entries for Not The Tremblin' Kind and When The Roses Bloom Again
;Footnotes
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