The COVID-19 crisis has brought an onslaught of negativity, both physically and mentally. However, one local singer-songwriter’s debut album is helping lighten our collective mood.
Just as the coronavirus began closing in on the U.S., Laurie Anne Armour was preparing to release her debut full-length, “Led by the Light.” And a pandemic was not going to stop her from bringing her positive message to the public.
Engineered and produced by Greg DeLuca, this album featured Armour’s fresh, shiny brand of folk country accented by a number of well-known local musicians ranging from Eric Erdman to Chip Herrington. As the Azalea City nestled in for self-isolation, Lagniappe’s Stephen Centanni connected with Armour to get some insight into the album as well as her feelings of releasing it when local music venues are closed and tour itineraries are empty.
Stephen Centanni: Your new album was released right on the cusp of the COVID-19 crisis. What was going through your mind as all this was happening?
Laurie Anne Armour: Well, for a couple of weeks, when things started getting serious, I noticed that other cities were shutting down and I was hopeful for an event. For a second, I was hoping that maybe the release date would fall before things got really bad, but I finally realized that the responsible thing to do was to postpone it for now. It was upsetting. I was sad, because we had gone through all the promotion and purchased promotion material that had March 27 on it. We had posters and these cute little M&M’s with the release date on it. Overall, it was not hard to accept that it needed to be postponed for the better.
Centanni: You’re the first artist who I’ve spoken to who has released an album during this time. With that said, have you been able to gauge a response to the album from the public?
Armour: Yeah! The folks who have purchased the album from the website or listened to it from a streaming site have given me really good responses. I’m very thankful for the folks who have been following the release and actually listened to the music with everything else going on. It was not as heightened as I wanted it to be, but it hasn’t been terrible.
Centanni: Looking at the lineup that you had on this album, it’s like a who’s who of the local scene. You’ve got Eric Erdman, Justin Fobes, Garrett Howell, Liz Hough and many more. How did you recruit the talent for this album? Because they did a great job.
Armour: They did amazing. So, I knew going into making the album that I wanted it to be a collaboration of my closest friends. When I look back at this album in 20 years, I want to be able to remember where I was in life, who I was hanging out with and who was an influence in my career. Everybody who touched this album in one way or another is very special to me. When I was working with Greg DeLuca, who produced and recorded this album, he introduced me to a couple of those studio musicians like Caleb Murphy, who had some sick electric guitar parts, and Justin Fobes as well. He brought them in and I trusted him completely, because Greg is a genius when it comes to production.
Centanni: “Led by the Light” is the title track. Last time we spoke, you told me it would be filled with positivity, which it definitely is. With all the negativity going on in the world, what do you think about that song now?
Armour: You know, I just want people to be able to grasp onto what help they can find nowadays. My hope for this song is that somebody will hear it and see some kind of light in their life, whether that’s spiritual light or something new to do like embracing yoga or embracing a new task that they can hold onto in these uncertain times. “Led by the Light” is inspired by my experience of embracing the goodness in life and keeping your head above the water.
Centanni: I always look for standouts on albums, and your standout is “The Color Blue.” You’ve got this old-school, mellow jazz overtone that really works with your sound. Where did this one come from?
Armour: I did that song with my dad. I was in a songwriting group, and the prompt for that particular week was the phrase “the color blue.” I just had no idea what I was going to do about it. I talked to my dad about it. He came up with the idea for the song, and we wrote it together. I wanted something simple. The song is a simple story about a girl looking for love, finding love and losing love. It also has these descriptive elements about nature that ties into the color blue.
The melody that I found fit the melody of the song. I knew that I wanted Chip Herrington to play muted trumpet, because he’s amazing. To me, he makes that song the jazz piece that it is.
Centanni: How are you going to spend the rest of lockdown? What’s next?
Armour: I’ve just been hanging out at my house. I’m still working. I work for a homeless coalition, which is a nonprofit company. I maintain the database, so I’ve been able to work from home easily. I have a feeling that on May 15 everything is going to open back up. I guess for the next two weeks I’m going to soak up this downtime, until the world goes back to its crazy normal.
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