Note: Laurie Morvan was the Critic's Pick on the front page of the Arts & Entertainment section!

"Laurie Morvan Band. Morvan is a rising blues guitarist-singer who attacks her instrument as hard as any male coutnerpart. The Californian is known for soaring leads reminiscent of the late Stevie Ray Vaughan and emotional vocals. Samper her videos at myspace.com/lauriemorvanband, then get ready to rock in person. "

Perhaps it is her background as a mathematics teacher ( a way to "pay the bills" while woodshedding on the guitar!) that fuels her analytical approach to blues guitar. Her lines are distinct and fluid, with no wasted notes. This CD is full of good-rockin' blues, too. The leadoff "Kickin' Down Doors" blasts off with all the swagger of a roadhouse on a Saturday night, and features a killer solo at the bridge. "A Long Time Ago" is a cool tale about the maturity process, and "Keep On Believin" has a positive message set to a slow-blues background.

We had two favorites, too. A shout-out to Wynonna accompanies the "chicken-pickin'" lead lines of "Where Are The Girls With Guitars." And, self-reflection is at the fore of the poignant ballad of a woman with no offspring who faces the reality that she is, indeed, the end of her "Family Line." This one features fine piano from legendary George Duke as well.

This CD has reached the judges' Top Ten of those submitted to the IBC for the Best Self-Produced CD award in February. It's easy to see why--"Cures What Ails Ya," from a girl with a smokin' guitar and a honey-sweet voice, is just what the doctor ordered! Until next time....Sheryl and Don Crow."

"I wanted to develop my own style, and I spent a lot of time working on my strengths, and the things that would make me different,” she says. “Stevie was my gateway to this style of music, but I never wanted the same amp and guitar he had, or to try to sound like him.”

This is abundantly clear on the 12-bar Texas shuffle instrumental, “Wiggle Room,” where Morvan quotes classic Texas and Chicago riffs in the head, but then struts her own stuff in improvised solos with pugnacious double-stops and tightly coiled serpentine runs.

Adding to Morvan’s freshness is her tone, which tends to be far less distorted, and more refined than most of her contemporaries.

“To play cleaner requires more technical proficiency, because you don’t have the overdrive of the amp to sustain notes,” she explains. “I practice a lot with my ’56 reissue Fender Strat unplugged in order to just hear the strings on the guitar acoustically.”

Morvan also uses a hybrid picking style with a flatpick held between her thumb and index finger, in conjunction with her middle and ring fingers.

“Chicken pickin’ feels really natural to me with the coordination I have between my fingers,” she says. “Maybe that’s because playing both drums and flute in high school helped me develop the rhythmic interplay between my hands. If I break a nail on the middle finger of my picking hand, however, I can do the chicken pickin’ just with the flatpick, because I always practice both ways.”

Morvan’s skill at this technique—as pioneered by early hot country pickers such as James Burton in the ’50s—makes an appearance on “Where Are the Girls with Guitars” via fleet Southern-fried licks the late Danny Gatton would have admired.

“I do play with a combination of down and up strokes,” she says, “but I don’t just play rapid-fire, alternate-picked notes. It depends on what you’re trying to get, because sometimes you just need three or four down strokes in a row for a heavier sound.”

When reminded that the late Jerry Garcia once said he practiced so that his up strokes were equal in volume and sound to his down strokes, Morvan replies, “Well, everyone strives for a certain evenness, but the flipside of that is I don’t necessarily want every single note to sound exactly the same. If I did, I’d probably just program some synthesizer to play the part [laughs].” Morvan also worked on improving her left-hand fretting technique, although not by doing mindless finger calisthenics.

“I think I really got stronger from just playing. For instance, I’ll barre a Bb chord where my index finger is on the 1st fret of the fifth string, and play a Chuck Berry rhythm [strums 5ths and 6ths on the fifth and fourth strings], as it’s a bit of a stretch for me to reach the 5th fret on the fourth string with my pinky. It’s always more fun for me to play a song—or part of a song—rather than some arbitrary exercise.”

With so much emphasis on chops these days, however, Morvan cautions against losing sight of the importance of playing with taste, and telling a story within a solo.

“When you go to an action movie, you don’t have machine guns firing non-stop throughout the whole thing,” she says. “A listener does not want to be assaulted, per se. In the hard rock bands I like—such as AC/DC and Guns N’ Roses—there is an ebb and flow to the solos. It’s very important to step outside yourself, and listen to what you’re playing. Record or videotape your shows, and determine if what you’re playing is interesting or not. Because if you’re bored, that’s a terrible sign!”

“Where Are the Girls With Guitars” tells the story of her bringing home Wynonna Judd’s “Girls With Guitars,” ripping the plastic wrap off, anxiously waiting to hear string bending by females. As the song tells, the record left her a bit disappointed.

“That song is a true story,” she said. “It happened to me just like the song says. I really, really thought there were going to be girls playing guitars on that song.” Instead, she saw the names of some of Nashville’s finest studio players. All males. Laurie says that sort of disappointment and the lack of opportunity for women guitarists helped fuel her drive to start her own band.

“For me it just seemed like the most natural thing in the world to pick up the guitar and play it. There have been times in my career where it’s been challenging to get gigs. I called one ad and the guy on the other end said, ‘You sound like girl.’ I thought, ‘Very good, you’re one–for-one.’ And then – and I’ll never forget his quote – he said to me, ‘Girls have innies, boys have outties, and it just doesn’t work.’

“How do you answer that? After that, I thought, ‘The only way I’m going to be successful, it appears, is if I grab the tiger by the tail and put myself in charge.’”

Morvan has done just that with the new CD chock full of great songs and lead guitar that might even grab the attention of ol’ Mr. Innie.

“I was real focused on making a record that would introduce me to the world as a songwriter, a guitar player, and a singer,” she said. “I feel really, really good about it. We chose the high road; when you’re making a record, you have a lot of choices to make, a lot of expenses, and decisions to deal with. I can genuinely say we took the high road on every turn and just said ‘What’s going to make this a better record?’.”

Her music days started back in Plainfield, Illinois, when she was a teenager playing flute in the school band and drums in the marching band… And then a buddy showed her his guitar. “I just went, ‘Oh, my God! This is way better than a flute!’” Time in the marching band helped develop her guitar style, she says, “I think it was good for me, rhythmically.”

Growing up, Morvan’s philosophy toward music was the same as it is now. “I listened to everything I heard, and I still do. I’m a very, very open listener. I always say I’m a sucker for a good song, regardless of genre.”

Asked her about influential guitarists, and her answer is a bit surprising to those who hear her clean percussive solos.

“Stevie Ray Vaughan was my gateway,” she said. “Me and about 800 million other players! I don’t try to emulate him, but his music just sort of opened that whole door to the blues.”

While her music is firmly entrenched in rock and blues, country players also have influenced her playing. “Guys like Danny Gatton. I like that clean, chicken pickin’ sound. Guys who I don’t even necessarily know their names. I don’t always learn the music, but because it’s bouncing around in my head, I go after that technique.”

The guitar Morvan used on Cures What Ails Ya – a Fender Custom Shop ’56 reissue Stratocaster – came to her as a result of a search up and down the West Coast.

“My friend, John Vestman, who is the mastering engineer on the record, has a ’55 Strat. It’s a beautiful guitar that just sings. So, we took it shopping with us all over Southern California, trying to find a guitar that sounded like it. I tried tons of Strats and even several other ’56 reissues from the Custom Shop. Finally, we were in a store, and there was one nobody had been able to play because of a broken piece on the bridge. The guy says, ‘We just got the piece in for that one. You want to try it?’ I played the ’55 first, because that’s how we would do it, so our ears would be tuned up. When I plugged in the ’56 reissue… it was the one! And I was beginning to think I’d never find one. The guitar means a lot to me because I went through a lot to find it.”

For acoustic work, she uses a ’72 Martin D-28. “I bought it in about 1981. I had to live on rice cakes and peanut butter to afford it, but it’s one of the greatest investments I’ve ever made. It stays pretty much at home and in the studio these days. I don’t take it to live shows.”

Her amp of choice is a Tone King Meteor II combo, a 40-watt head with a separate cabinet. The reissue Strat and the Tone King have given her the sound she’s always wanted. “I love my tone and have been getting a lot of comments at gigs lately about the sound,” she noted.

Morvan and her band have been gigging up and down the West Coast, and hope to expand that with the release of Cures and the word it’s spreading.

And as far as the gender issue goes, she says it’s nowhere near as big as it was in the past. “The audiences don’t care at all. They’re happy as a clam I’m female. It doesn’t bother them. I can’t get mad about that stuff. My job is just to go out and be undeniably good. I just have to do my thing and try to write great songs and go out and play great every night.”

Blues-rock songs dominate; “Kickin’ Down Doors” has a great lyric and opens with a lick that grabs. “Where Are the Girls With Guitars” has an extremely clever lyric and playing to match the message. Morvan has a surprising and pleasing grasp of chromatic licks, even on a good ol’ shuffle like “My Baby Says,” where she throws in a unique solo.

“One Little Thing” is a quiet minor-key tune that shows off her lyrical smarts and soulful playing. Lyrically, the same can be said for the piano ballad “Family Line,” while the instrumental “Wiggle Room” opens with wah and offers a relentless solo that show the true strength of her chops.

There’s a lot of talk in guitar circles about how women just don’t seem to cut it when it come to guitar playing. But Morvan’s work is fearless. Check it out, and you’ll see – the debate is over.

Laurie Morvan's "Cures What Ails Ya" is the triumph of one young lady's years of work and dedication to the blues. She grew up outside Chicago in a rural town called Plainfield where she played in the school band. "My best buddy had an acoustic guitar. I gave it a try. Oh my heavens, it was absolutely wonderful!"

After graduating from the University of Illinois with a degree in Electrical Engineering as well as a commercial pilot's license, she took a job in aerospace and moved to Los Angeles. Driven to play music she joined a rock & roll cover bnad as rhythm guitarist and vocalist.

"It was then that I got my first Stratocaster, it was read and shiny and sexy, and I was home baby! I quit my engineering job, never to return," she says. After years of playing on the road practicing her craft and experiencing much frustration and some disrespect, "I decided to start my own band and make the boys audition for me. I've been a band leader calling the shots ever since."

Like many it was the music of Stevie Ray Vaughan that turned her around and brought blues front and center. "I realized quickly that this was what I was born to do." To get the music out to the masses, this can-do girl and former engineer avoided record companies and found a way to do it herself. She got a Master's Degree in Applied Mathematics from California State University in Long Beach and taught math classes to raise recording money. "Cures What Ails Ya" is Laurie's third CD. She says "For the very first time, I believe we've captured the raw power, dynamics, versatility and passion of a Laurie Morvan Band live performance."

That power jumps right out with the first song "Kickin' Down Doors". Its opening line is "This song is for the honest folks, who do the honest work" and Laurie has a right to be proud of what she has been able to produce.

With the song "Where are the Girls with Guitars" she writes one for all the female guitar players. This shouldn't be something we're still talking about; it's been decades since Debbie Davies, Joanna Conner and Bonnie Raitt started kickin' at the boys club of guitar heroes. But it ain't the talking it's the playing that puts a stop to that. Laurie and a few other young ladies are putting it on the line and playing every night. She's also written all the songs on the CD. Her singing voice is strong enough she can pull off an acappella number in "Way Down with a few lady friends.

Like any smart person who's singing, playing guitar, writing and producing, she's gotten a host of Grammy winners in her corner. They include bassist Hutch Hutchinsonb and drummer Tony Braunagel sitting in from Bonnie Raitt's band, George Duke adding piano and some award winning engineers at the controls. "Family Line" shows a softer very personal side of this woman, and the lyrics will bring a tear to your eyes. The only way to kick off blues like that is a hot instrumental and "Wiggle Room" is the only one on this disc. This girls has to "Keep on Believin'" and on "Don't Give It Up" pull out some slide on a resonator.

This is a very strong recording from a woman who's made her records the good old American way, she did it herself. Laurie has been an electrical engineer, commercial pilot, and a mathematician but music fulfills one's heart and soul and "Cures What Ails Ya."

Laurie Morvan is a Stevie Ray Vaughan devotee based in Southern California. When she isn’t performing, she works as a college math instructor. For her third album, a self-produced collection of 12 blues-rock originals with pop and folk flourishes, Morvan dispersed her regular touring band (exept for bassist Pat Morvan and backing vocalists Lisa Grubbs and Carolyn Kelley) in favor os seasoned players with connections: B-3 organist Sammy Avila (Walter Trout), drummer Tony Braunagel (Taj Mahal), bassist James “Hutch” Hutchinson (Bonnie Raitt), and well-traveled pianists Doña Oxford and George Duke.

This polished set offers few surprises for those familiar with the work of artists such as Debbie Davies, Deborah Coleman, Michelle Malone, and Ana Popovic. But Morvan’s lyrics deserve scrutiny – especially the poignant “Family Line,” which includes lines such as “I’ve got my mother’s eyes/They’re my little piece of home/I always thought I would give them/To a child of my own.” The strikingly autobiographical dirge is Morvan’s mea culpa to her mother for not producing grandchildren.

In contrast to that tune’s stabbing melancholy, Morvan rocks hard on strident anthems “Kickin’ Down Doors” and “Where Are the Girls With Guitars.” She proves adept at tough shuffles on “My Baby Says” and “A Long Time Ago,” then switches to slide for the swampy pep talk of “Don’t Give It Up.” The disc’s lone instrumental, the wah-wah-infused “Wiggle Room,” directly recalls Vaughan. Morvan’s sweet, soaring voice will draw comparisons to Raitt, and her wiry, fiery solos demonstrate that she’s in full command of her Stratocaster. For fans of any of the aforementioned artists, Laurie Morvan’s most personal album to date is a fitting introduction to an artist who deserves recognintion beyond the West Coast.

This band is a ballsy, banging, top-class, blues act. Laurie’s honey-thick, sultry voice is framed by the sweet whine of her guitar. As soon as you pop in the CD you find yourself lost somewhere in the Mid-West at a prominent blues bar.

Her band is solid, playing flawlessly. It is obvious that the band has a good relationship on and off the stage. The sound is pristine, makes you feel like your feet away from the stage. All I can say is that I want to see this band live.

A tall, blue-eyed blonde walks up to the microphone, guitar in hand and confidence in her soul. Skillfully she launches into a set of hot modern blues that brings to mind a cross between Stevie Ray Vaughan and Bonnie Raitt.

"I feel blessed. I don't take any of this for granted, I take it all in, I enjoy every good thing that happens and appreciate it," Laurie Morvan said.

The Long Beach resident fronts the Laurie Morvan BAnd and has plenty to be grateful for, such as her March release, "Cures What Ails Ya" (Screaming Lizard Records). The 12-track effort features appearances by jazz pianist George Duke, Bonnie Raitt bassist James "Hutch" Hutchinson and Grammy-winning drummer Tony Braunagel and has been getting the band a lot of attention. The group spent the first weekend of July as the Blues Breaker Band on the House of Blues Radio Hour hosted by Dan Akroyd and they've also been gigging continuously throughout California.

Morvan grew up in Illinois and played flute and drums during high school. In her late teens, a friend introduced her to the guitar, which quickly led to writing songs and singing.

"I played in rock and roll cover bands, that's how I learned to play guitar. I'd go home every night, listen to whatever song we were learning for the band and learn the guitar parts, and learn how to sing it and get ready to perform," Morvan said.

The same friend turned Morvan onto the music of Stevie Ray Vaughan. She immediately realized that the blues was her calling. But before embarking full-bore on a music career, Morvan obtained a degree in electrical engineering from the Univerity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

A move to California would take her a step closer to a musical future, so Morvan landed a job in aerospace in Los Angeles, which she later quit to tour.

"Even as a young kid I knew I loved music, but I knew that to record records it took money and if some job is going to take me away from music for part of my day, then I'm going to make money. I'm not going to deliver pizzas," Morvan said. To finace her recording now, Morvan teaches math at Cypress College.

Morvan penned all the songs for "Cures What Ails Ya." "I put my guitar on and I start free-form playing and there will be a song, I feel it coming in the back of my head is the best description I can give. I can feel it coming, I'll have a mood or an idea or a concept and bam - the music and the lyrics all come together usually," Morvan said.

When she's not performing or writing, Morvan is rehearsing, working on booking and doing all the other duties that go with running a band. Her only real break is the one week she spends each summer in the Sierras backpacking with friends.

Despite her talent, Morvan still has to deal with being a woman in a male-dominated industry. She takes club snubs and being ignored in music stores in stride.

"You have to choose, as a human being, either you're going to be mad about that kind of stuff or you're just going to go, 'My job is just to work hard and when II get my opportunities and the light shines upon me I'm going to make sure the light is illuminating something worthy of people's attention.' That's the path I've chosen," Morvan said.

The Illinois-born, Long Beach-based Morvan discovered contemporary blues through Texas legend Stevie Ray Vaughan. It was by digging deeper into Vaughan’s influences that she fell in love with such classic blues musicians as Robert Johnson, Big Mama Thornton, Luther Allison and Etta James, among others. Over the years, Morvan has turned her curiosity, constant practicing and driving ambition into a self-sustaining career that has produced three albums, including her solid, brand-new Cures What Ails Ya.

Morvan cut her teeth playing numerous dive bars and clubs, putting up with sexist club owners and others who couldn’t handle a smart female leading her own blues band. (A note to the ignorant: Morvan has a B.S. degree in electrical engineering and a master’s in applied math, the latter from Cal State Long Beach.) In addition to her feeling-filled vocals and versatile guitar work—sometimes it’s burning power chords, sometimes intricate single notes—what makes this inspiring woman so special is her undeniable self-confidence and perseverance.

Morvan and her band—featuring bassist Pat Morvan and vocalists/multi-instrumentalists Carolyn Kelley and Lisa Grubbs—play with equal parts reckless abandon and skilled precision, depending upon the tone and structure of each selection. So how true-to-life do you think empowering originals like “Kickin’ Down Doors,” “When I’m Queen” and “Keep on Believin’” are? Very.

Hailing from Plainfield, Illinois, Laurie Morvan was surrounded by lots of music as her dad was into country sounds, her mom listened to pop tunes and young Laurie enjoyed rock ‘n’ roll. She got her musical start in school bands by playing the flute for concert season and the drums during marching season.

“When I was a teenager, a buddy had an acoustic guitar and I said, ‘Oh what’s that?’ And when I played it I said ‘Oh My God – the whole world changed!’ I started playing guitar and got more and more into it, and it became my life’s passion,” Laurie shares. “I figured that every musician has to earn money outside of music and I decided that I had to make sure that I could make some money.” A bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering at University of Illinois and a move to California to obtain her masters in Applied Mathematics at Cal State Long Beach (home of the Long Beach Blues Festival) assured that premise. After working as an engineer at TRW for a few years, Laurie began to play music full time. “In the 80’s I lived on rice cakes and peanut butter till I bought my acoustic Martin D28. I learned to play guitar by listening to my favorite songs and playing along. I spent hours on the guitar. Shortly after that I decided that I wanted to play lead guitar and so I got myself a Les Paul Custom, but shortly after that I decided that I was a Strat girl after playing a Stratocaster. I purchased a red Strat then which I still have.

I played top forty songs with several bands but I found out that some bands didn’t want a girl lead guitarist so I started my own band,” she shares. “Forming my own band was the greatest thing in the world. I’ve been lucky finding people who enjoy playing the music that I write and we all get along. The band consists of Kevin Murillo on drums, Pat Morvan (her ex-husband) on bass, Lisa Grubbs and Carolyn Kelley on background vocals.

“A friend of mine turned me on to Stevie Ray Vaughan and through Stevie I could see that he shone the light back upon all of the people who had influenced him. When I discovered the blues I said, ‘Oh My God – this is what I’m going to do with my life!’ My music is such an amalgam. I like a well-written song in any genre. I think that the most important thing that you can do as a musician is to write a great song. I spend as much time on my song writing as I do on my guitar playing. I want to be able to write a song that somebody wants to listen to over and over again and connect with, and then the guitar playing on top of this moves them further into the song” Laurie explains. “I spend a lot of time with my guitar in my hands. I walk around my house with my guitar in my hands and play unplugged. Practicing this way, I think that it makes you play cleaner – you can’t cheat.

Songs come in several ways: I may feel it in the back of my mind and the topic is oftentimes something I’m working through in my life. One day when I’m picking up my guitar, boom! – out it comes and I write the words into a notebook. Whatever I’m doing, if the words come to me I stop and attend to those words as they are gifts and you have to respond when you’re given that gift. Right now my cell phone is full of messages to myself singing songs,” she reveals.

“My main guitar now is a Fender ’56 Custom Shop reissue Stratocaster in black with a gold pickguard – it feels like home and it’s a joy to pick up and play. I purchased my wonderful Tone King Meteor II 40 watt twin twelve amp just before I recorded my new CD Cures What Ails Ya. My sister works at a Post Office in Cincinnati and she sold fifty CDs in one week just by letting her coworkers hear my recording! The title comes from the song “One Little Thing” as Laurie explains that you have to find that “one little thing that cures what ail ya. My belief in life is that is how we get through and for me, music is that thing. It’s what fixes anything that’s ever been wrong with me.”

Her advice for the next blues generation is for new musicians “to follow their passion. Follow where your heart takes you and then pursue it with fervor and veracity and passion and love and respect. They should go wherever they want to go with it. I would never tell anyone that ‘you need to play the blues this way.’ Work hard and practice and follow the sound that you hear in your head.”

In responding to those in the Southland who have come out to see her perform, Laurie humbly says, “I genuinely appreciate the audiences that we get to play for – they are so receptive to us. The music business can be difficult but you put us on a stage and people respond, and the outpouring that we get from the Southern Califfornia blues and blues/rock crowd means so much as they come up to us and say how the music touches them. I am really appreciative of that.”

You can catch Laurie Morvan and her band live at the Huntington Beach Hyatt on July 14th and at Steve’s BBQ in Whittier on July 28th. All three of her CDs can be obtained via her website at www.lauriemorvan.com. Her song, “Kickin’ Down Doors” has been selected as the “Blues Breaker” song of the week for the “House of Blues Radio Hour” Hosted by Dan Akroyd and will air on the weekend of July 7th and 8th.