Track by Singer/Songwriter Laura Veirs ’97 Featured in NPR’s “Heavy Rotation”

The September edition of NPR Music’s “Heavy Rotation” includes a track by Laura Veirs ’97. ‘That Alice’ from the 2013 album Warp & Weft is one of “Ten Songs Public Radio Can’t Stop Playing.”

Kevin Cole, program director at KEXP in Seattle writes, “There’s a seeming effortlessness to the way the songs on Laura Veirs’ new album Warp and Weft flow together — an ease, like water cascading over river rocks or gravity working its magic. Veirs’ friends (Neko Case, Jim James, Brian Blade) and longtime collaborators (Carl Broemel, Karl Blau, Rob Burger, producer Tucker Martine) provide a rich musical tapestry for her graceful folk-pop songs, whether the subject matter is nature’s majesty or nuclear annihilation. In “That Alice,” a reverent and rocking ode to jazz harpist, composer and spiritual seeker Alice Coltrane, you’ll learn that Coltrane was born in Detroit, studied in France, played jazz harp, and was married to John Coltrane; then, the insanely hooky chorus joyously exclaims that she made a palace for our ears. It’s a charming moment from one of the year’s best albums.“

Veirs, a member of the Class of 1997 with a BA in geology, was featured in a cover story in the Spring 2007 edition of The Voice, which also included Josh Grier ’02 and Charlie Gokey ’08.