Laura Cantrell

Biography

Laura Rose Cantrell (born July 16, 1967) is a country singer-songwriter and DJ from Nashville, Tennessee.

Biography

Cantrell moved to New York City from her native Nashville to study English at Columbia University. She briefly recorded songs with future Superchunk guitarist Mac McCaughan and others in a lo-fi band called Bricks and deejaying on the university's radio station, WKCR, until joining WFMU after her graduation in 1993.
Her singing career began when she was at college, performing with various local groups. She later befriended John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants, with whom she sings on the band's "The Guitar (The Lion Sleeps Tonight)×The Guitar (The Lion Sleeps Tonight)30 July 1992 · EPSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 4 tracks1The Guitar (UK single edit)3:512The Guitar (Williamsburgh extended mix)4:143Cabbagetown2:544Siftin'2:32" (1992). Flansburgh also released her first solo material: an EP on his "Hello CD of the Month Club" in June 1996, which was reissued in 2004 as The Hello Recordings.
Cantrell married Jeremy Tepper, the founder of Diesel Only Records and later programming director of Sirius XM radio station Outlaw Country, in 1997. They have one daughter. Cantrell went on to release all but one of her studio albums on Diesel Only.
Cantrell reached wider recognition in 2000 with her debut album, Not the Tremblin' Kind. The album reached the attention of legendary UK DJ John Peel, who wrote of it, "[It is] my favourite record of the last ten years and possibly my life". She went on to record five sessions for Peel and dedicated her 2005 album, Humming by the Flowered Vine×Humming by the Flowered Vine20 June 2005 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 10 tracks114th Street3:172What You Said2:533And Still3:574Khaki & Corduroy4:285Letters4:526California Rose2:527Wishful Thinking2:538Poor Ellen Smith4:009Bees4:1010Old Downtown6:13, to his memory.
In the spring of 2011, Cantrell released Kitty Wells Dresses: Songs Of the Queen of Country Music, "a recording she made in honor of one of her heroines, the great Kitty Wells", taking its title from an original song of Cantrell's written in tribute to Wells.
Her 4th album of original material, No Way There From Here×No Way There From Here23 September 2013 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracks1All the Girls Are Complicated3:022Starry Skies3:293Letter She Sent3:034No Way There from Here4:365Glass Armour3:056Beg or Borrow Days2:497Driving Down Your Street2:208When It Comes to You2:379Can't Wait3:1310Barely Said a Thing2:4011Washday Blues3:3312Someday Sparrow3:44, was released in the UK in September 2013, on Shoeshine/ Spit and Polish Records. The release preceded a tour of the UK.
Cantrell's music has been celebrated in the press including features in The New York Times. In recent years, she has been a contributor to The New York Times and VanityFair.com.
Cantrell used to present a weekly country and old-time music radio show on WFMU called The Radio Thrift Shop. Since October 2005 she has only made occasional appearances on the station. In August 2017, she began hosting Dark Horse Radio, a weekly 30-minute program on SiriusXM featuring the music of George Harrison.
In June 2024, Jeremy Tepper, Cantrell's husband of 27 years, died.

Career outside music

In the early part of her career, Cantrell combined her musical activities with a day job as a vice-president in the equity research department of Bank of America. She left this position in 2003. In 2011 she began working as a recruiter for AllianceBernstein.

Albums

Not the Tremblin' Kind (2000)
When the Roses Bloom Again (2002)
Humming by the Flowered Vine (2005)
Kitty Wells Dresses: Songs of the Queen of Country Music (2011) (UK chart peak: No. 138)
No Way There from Here (2014)
Just Like a Rose (2023)

EPs

Laura Cantrell (1996) (Hello Records 67)
All the Same to You (2002)
The Hello Recordings (2004) – Reissue of 1996 EP
Humming Songs: Acoustic Performances from the Flowered Vine (2006) (download only)
Trains and Boats and Planes (2008)

Other releases

This Is Next Year: A Brooklyn-Based Compilation (2001) – (Arena Rock Recording Co.)
Ojo (album by Vince Bell) (2018)