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Laura Nyro
More Than A New Discovery
Label: Rev-Ola Records (UK)
Catalog No: PID 826356



1. Goodbye Joe
2. Billy's Blues
3. And When I Die
4. Stoney End
5. Lazy Susan
6. Hands Off The Man (Flim Flam Man)
7. Wedding Bell Blues
8. Buy And Sell
9. He's A Runner
10. Blowin' Away
11. I Never Meant To Hurt You
12. California Shoeshine Boys


Rev-Ola proudly re-presents the album which introduced to the world the wonderful talent of Laura Nyro!

More Than A New Discovery (aka The First Songs) is openly informed by the styles of Laura's youth. She had just turned 19 when she recorded the album in early 1966, and the songs retain a youthful exuberance and glisten with beautiful pop melodies and then-fashionable, sturdy 1960s New York arrangements. Laura's lyrics are already as poetically-charged and mature as at her peak, from the wise "And When I Die" to the observational approach of "Buy and Sell." Musically, the album was obviously tailored to fit the prevailing landscape of 1960s female pop singers and it often has the same soulful atmosphere of Dusty Springfield and Evie Sands or the brash, bravura pop of Barbra Streisand, who was to take "Stoney End" to the charts three years later.

Although Laura's albums would become more and more influential and adventurous, this, her first outing, features the majority of her most famous and revered compositions. Due to production decisions she did mot agree with, Laura Nyro more or less disowned her debut for many years, until the music fan in her began to appreciate the set forms as one might a Motown hit of the period, no matter how overexposed and hackneyed. With new manager David Geffen, a slew of covers of her material hitting the charts, and a controversial showing at the Monterey Pop Festival, Laura Nyro signed a favourable new deal with Columbia Records, making some of the most essential albums of the late 1960s and 1970s...but that is another, quite wonderful story. Listen now to where it all began. Fantastic album by one of our very favourite artists!


From: www.independent.co.uk
Andy Gill
Friday, 7 March 2008


TodayΓÇÖs young female singer-songwriters will have to go some to equal the precocious talent of Laura Nyro on this debut album, recorded in 1965 when she was still just 19.

NyroΓÇÖs reputation, and financial security, would be secured through hit versions (by Barbra Streisand, The Fifth Dimension and Blood, Sweat & Tears, respectively) of ΓÇ£Stoney EndΓÇ¥, ΓÇ£Wedding Bell BluesΓÇ¥ and ΓÇ£And When I DieΓÇ¥, all included here.

However, she regarded some of Herb BernsteinΓÇÖs arrangements as underplaying the songsΓÇÖ potential. In particular, she disowned this version of ΓÇ£Wedding Bell BluesΓÇ¥.

But her handsome contralto conveys unalloyed joy. Likewise, her ΓÇ£Stoney EndΓÇ¥ has an exuberant charm, while ΓÇ£And When I DieΓÇ¥ has an unusual blend of jazz and country flavours.