If you go
Laura Veirs and The Hall of Flames with Old Believers and Led to Sea
Where: Iota, 2832 Wilson Blvd., Arlington
When: 8:30 p.m. Thursday
Info: $15, no advance sales; 703-522-8340; iotaclubandcafe.com
This is truly the time of new beginnings for renowned singer-songwriter Laura Veirs. The Colorado-born, Portland, Ore.-based folk/pop/new age songstress is expecting her first child and just released a liltingly beautiful and haunting album, “July Flame.”
“I feel really confident about this record,” she said by phone from Sweden, where she was completing a European tour. “My voice sounds more like my true voice and less tentative. I wanted the songs to stand up on their own with an instrument and a voice — to be really compelling on their own.”
That’s a shift from Veirs’ previous work, which often included a full-band complement. With a background steeped in folk, country, classical and pop, Veirs also delved into punk, forming an all-female punk band during her college years.
After releasing a live, self-titled album in 1999, Veirs went on to work with a full band for her next five releases and developed her folk sound.
On this tour, a full band backs Veirs, and the show includes plenty of group singing and finger-styled guitar. While Veirs and the band play about eight songs from the new album, she also includes some of her classics from her past albums — including “Carbon Glacier” and “Saltbreakers” — in each set.
“This took longer writing all of these songs than it has before,” she said of the songs on “July Flame.” “It is hard to constantly feel inspired and alive with writing.”
A major stumbling block for Veirs was feeling her new writing simply echoed a lot of what she had done in the past. But after several false starts the writing began to flow and her new album was born.
“I think it was accumulating four or five songs that did resonate with me over time,” she said. “When I had the beginning of the record, that brought back my confidence. I knew I had the framework [for the new album].”
Veirs said she felt confident enough to experiment with her music, adding bridges and time changes to the songs. She realizes that the sound will again leave some critics scrambling a bit for ways to define her work.
“I don’t honestly even see it in terms [of genres] as much as searching,” she said. “[My music] is certainly based in folk and has elements of pop and the spirit of rock and punk. I listen to a lot of different music — Brazilian or African or instrumental and soundtracks — and I draw from those. Tucker [Martine, her producer] and I don’t think of folk or rock or pop [when we create music].”
