Saturday 17th August

Laura Nyro was an American songwriter, singer and pianist, who achieved critical acclaim in the mid to late sixties.  She sang mostly with just her piano, and her songs were a mixture of blues soul and a bit of folk.  She had a beautiful voice which could soar with great passion.  She predated the great singer-songwriter boom of the early seventies, and consequently missed out on fame, though she remained an inspiration for many artists including Joni, Elton, and Todd Rundgren.  She was the great lost white soul-singer of the sixties.  She also had a troubled personal life and suffered from depression and ended up living with a painter Maria Desiderio until she, Laura, died prematurely of cancer in 1996.

She had problems with fame, and refused to become a celebrity, and her recording career stumbled as a result with several attempts at reviving a flagging career.

Truth is she wasn’t that good anymore; she had lost her youthful creative spark.  But her early albums still shine with joy and brilliance.  My favourite song of hers is Stoney End, and her version is even better than the hit which Barbara Streisand had with it.