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Laura Reed & Deep Pocket - Press Article
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Groove to Zulu Blues with Laura Reed
by Amy Jones | take5 correspondent
published April 27, 2007 12:15 am
Boone singer Laura Reed has roots halfway around the world and a heart that beats to the rhythms of Detroit soul. With Friday night’s show at Stella Blue, Reed and her band Deep Pocket fuse the sounds of her South African youth with the inspiration of Aretha Franklin. Here’s what Reed told us by phone.
Question: So who are you guys?
Answer: We’re friends from Boone who really wanted to make some funky soul music. That plus some Afro rhythms like what I remember from where I grew up.
Q: You mean South Africa right? I don’t think most of us know the musicians who have come from there, much less what the native music is actually like.
A: Yeah I agree. Where I grew up was very close to a lot of the Zulu tribes. Those women took care of me. As a very little girl, I was strapped to their backs as they worked and I would hear the township music.
(For the record, not only is Dave Matthews a South African native but the great vocal group Ladysmith Black Mambazo — best known for their Grammy winning turn on Paul Simon’s “Graceland” — is also from South Africa.)
Q: Where does the Motown sound fit into the picture?
A: When I got here, I fell in love with American music, specifically old blues. But these are originals and while I love that old sound, I also wanted to write about more modern ideas so it’s really more contemporary music.
(Reed’s band Deep Pocket includes Ryan Burns on piano, synthesizer, and Hammond organ; Ben Didelot on bass; and Barrett Helms on drums. According to Reed, the melody for their songs is mostly the work of Ryan Burns while she writes the lyrics.)
Q: Did you all just finish recording a new disc?
A: We’re not quite finished, but the experience has been incredible.
Q: You’ve been working on that here at Echo Mountain Studios. How did that go?
A: It was great. That’s the first time we’ve worked with each other like that. The actual studio provided a lot of inspiration too. We wrote one of our best songs there. Ryan had the melody and he sat down at the piano, and I came up with words, and we had a song in about 30 minutes.
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