“Hear My Song: The Collection 1966-1995” is a comprehensive remastered 19 CD limited edition deluxe box set collected the output of the prodigiously talented Laura Nyro.
Nyro was 18 years old when she signed her first recording contract and wrote the songs for which she is likely to be best remembered. By the time she was 22, she had become one of the most successful composers in American popular music. But at the age of just 24, she drew back from her creativity and fame, battered and drained by the sheer energy and nerve required to sustain her career. Fortunately for those of us who loved her music, that was not the end of the story. She returned briefly to the fray for three turbulent years in the mid-to-late 1970s, and then enjoyed a final decade of artistic achievement and public acclaim, before illness took her from us at the tragically early age of 49 in 1997.
The deepest dive yet into the phenomenal creativity of an idiosyncratic, unmistakable musical force.
“She wrote songs that had no kind of fixed compass point. They remain as unique and absolutely spellbinding to this day as when I first heard them in the 1960s.” – Sir Elton John, 2024
Nyro found her early fame challenging yet despite living under an unrelenting spotlight, she was able to create this series of utterly beautiful and stunningly unique albums.
Contains 10 original studio albums, 6 live albums (including 2 previously unreleased live concerts), Laura’s original demo tape from 1966 and a bonus disc of rarities including mono versions, alternative versions and live tracks.
Includes a Coffee-table book with in-depth liner notes by Vivien Goldman, foreword from Sir Elton John and testimonials from Charlie Calello, Will Lee, John Sebastian, Jackson Browne, Clive Davis, Lou Adler, Randy Brecker, Bernard Purdie, Scott Billington, John Sebastian and Gary Burden
Rare, previously unseen photographs including intimate family shots illuminate the book
Included within this set are all of Laura’s ten studio albums: More Than A New Discovery (1967), Eli And The Thirteenth Confession (1968), New York Tendaberry (1969), Christmas And The Beads Of Sweat (1970), Gonna Take A Miracle (1971), Smile (1976), Nested (1978), Mother’s Spiritual (1984), Walk The Dog & Light The Light (1993) and her posthumously released masterwork Angel In The Dark (2001). Six live albums: Spread Your Wings And Fly: Live At The Fillmore East (1971), Season Of Lights… Laura Nyro In Concert (1977), Live / The Loom’s Desire (1993 & 1994), and two previously unreleased concert recordings from San Francisco (1994). Rounding off this complete collection is Laura’s first ever demo tape Go Find The Moon (1966) and a collection of Rarities. All remastered and housed in individual sleeves with original artwork.
During the singer/songwriter movement in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, Laura Nyro was one of the most celebrated artists of her day. She penned soulful, literate songs that took the folky introspection of her peers and infused it with elements of soul, R&B, jazz, and gospel, giving them an emotional heat that set her apart. Nyro was a hugely respected recording artist, whose confident piano work and rich, expressive vocals made other sonic trailblazers such as Miles Davis and Alice Coltrane navigate towards her. She has influenced the greatest of songwriters – Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Elton John, Neil Young, Carole King, Kate Bush and Elvis Costello among them.
That influence continues today being heard in the works of Alicia Keys, Tori Amos, Suzanne Vega, Jenny Lewis and more. Nyro’s wonderfully expressive and poetic songs – of which many became major hits by other artists, most notably The 5th Dimension, Three Dog Night and Barbra Streisand – remain hallmarks of outstanding quality. ‘Eli’s Comin’, ‘Gibsom Street’, ‘Wedding Bell Blues’, ‘And When I Die’, ‘Stoned Soul Picnic’, ‘Map To The Treasure’, ‘Sweet Blindness’ and ‘Stoney End’ are magnificent examples.
“Eli And The Thirteenth Confession” was Featured in Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and Uncut’s 100 Greatest Albums of All Time as well as being deemed by New York Times as, “one of the 1960’s most influential pop recordings”.
“An optimist might suggest that 1968’s “Eli And The Thirteenth Confession” lives on in martyrdom, its influence apparent on everyone from Kate Bush and Tori Amos to St. Vincent and Joanna Newsom. But Laura Nyro’s effervescent second album deserves more explicit canonization…..Forty-six years after “Thirteenth Confession“, and thanks in large measure to it, we’ve come to accept and nurture strident, talented, slightly idiosyncratic female artists.” – Rolling Stone
