American singer-songwriter Laura Burhenn has worked under the moniker The Mynabirds since 2010, releasing three critically acclaimed and stylistically different albums on Saddle Creek Records: What We Lose in the Fire We Gain in the Flood (2010) and Generals (2012), both produced by Richard Swift, and Lovers Know (2015). She has also toured as a member of the Postal Service (2013) and with the artist Bright Eyes (2011), helped found Omaha Girls Rock (a non-profit helping young girls find their voices), and in 2013 gave a TED talk based on her “New Revolutionists” photo project, exploring what it means to be a revolutionary woman in this day and age. Before the Mynabirds, Laura was a member of Washington DC indie band Georgie James with Q And Not U’s John Davis, and also put out two solo self-produced albums on the label she founded herself, Laboratory Records.
Through all of her transformations, there’s one thing that remains constant: her voice. She’s been compared to Cat Power, Fiona Apple And while her songs might show up dressed in new ways on each new release, they still very much embody Laura’s distinct songwriting style. “I’ve always been most inspired by the songwriter chameleons,” Laura says. “David Bowie, Harry Nilsson, PJ Harvey, Bjork. They play — with their arrangements, their tones, their personas. But when it comes down to it, every song could be strummed on guitar, or played alone at a keyboard. And at the heart of it, they’re storytellers.” Laura is setting out on a full US solo tour this fall, stripping all of her songs back to bare bones, the way they were originally conceived.
Leonard Cohen is timeless, of course. And it helps that the man himself hasn’t changed in the essential ways still our still mean. Now it looks like the music culture has swung back in his direction. The album he released last year at the age of seventy-seven, Old Ideas, despite its title, was much more vital than it needed to be or anyone expected it to be. And Laura Burhenn released a cover of one of his very best, possibly his best, song, “Chelsea Hotel #2.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DABkixvD-hQ
Leonard Cohen cover from her 2004 album Wanderlust.
The Fat Angel Sings 