Laura Veirs could have easily canceled the show — and if she were feeling less confident, she would have.
But she didn’t.
The 36-year-old singer-songwriter had just returned from a European tour without her bandmates, who were stuck in Munich, Germany, but she chose to play to the Burlington, Vt., crowd anyway. It didn’t hurt that on the recent European tour she had played to unexpectedly large, rapt audiences in cities such as London and Berlin.
“It’s tough out there in the music world, and it’s expensive to bring a band on the road, so from a practical standpoint it’s nice to know I can do (shows) solo,” Veirs said. “But of course I feel grateful to have the band right now.”
The full-band setup at most of Veirs’ concerts belies the stripped-down nature of her new album, “July Flame,” Veirs’ seventh overall and the first on her own Raven Marching Band Records. It’s a shift away from recent releases on bigger labels Bella Union and Nonesuch Records, considering that Veirs’ melody- drenched voice carries most songs instead of relying on thick arrangements or production tricks.
Recorded and produced at home in Portland, Ore., by partner Tucker Martine, “July Flame” goes out of its way to highlight Veirs’ delicate, dexterous guitar picking and wistful lyrics. With her vocals front-and-center, songs like “I Can See Your Tracks” chuck layers of instrumentation for naked, affecting sentiment, while the gorgeous title song and “Wide-Eyed, Legless” employ undulating rhythms to deliver evocative narratives.
“We decided we wanted to get back to the bare bones of a singer picking guitar and vocals,” said Veirs, a Colorado Springs native who plays Denver’s Larimer Lounge tonight. “Also an important thing for us on this record was group harmonies, which it wasn’t really on other records. We didn’t want to have a lot of drums or synthesizers, though they ended up on there a tiny bit.”
The approach worked. Veirs has been a critical favorite for years, but “July Flame” snagged the strongest reviews of her decade-long solo career when it was released Jan. 12. Rolling Stone, The New York Times, NPR and others gushed as the disc debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Heatseekers and Folk charts. And on her January-February overseas tour, Veirs found the new approach was also paying off live.
“In London we played at Union Chapel and all 800 seats were filled,” she said. “It was this really big place with reverberant, tall ceilings. The quiet songs did really well there. The vocals you could sort of hear soaring off into the heavens.”
“Veirs’ live performance illustrates the strength and tenderness of her voice,” reviewer Gideon Brody wrote of the London show. “At times it soothes, at others its shrill pierces.”
That sonic diversity is a result of “July Flame’s” sophisticated songwriting, which benefits from guests appearances from Jim James (My Morning Jacket) and Chris Funk (The Decemberists). Standout track “Summer Is the Champion” stomps along a path of manicured, Beatlesesque horn work, whereas “Little Deschutes” and “Sleeper in the Valley” find a more somber tone that hews closer to Pacific Northwestern peers Band of Horses and the late Elliott Smith.
“Everybody’s jumping between instruments like banjo, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, keyboards and bass, and we’re all singing,” Veirs said of her live setup. “But it’s certainly not a rock sound.”
John Wenzel: 303-954-1642 or jwenzel@denverpost.com
“LAURA VEIRS.”
Indie folk. Larimer Lounge, 2721 Larimer St., with Cataldo and Old Believers. Today. 7 p.m. $12. 303-291-1007 or
