Musings on The Cleft
January 1st, 2009
I just finished reading this Doris Lessing novel called The Cleft. The story is told from the perspective of this Roman historian trying to make sense of a sheaf of scrolls that depict the lives of the first human beings. There is a recent scientific study that inspired Lessing that revealed that the basic human stock may have begun as female only. Males may actually be some kind of cosmic afterthought. She even has this interesting quote from Robert Graves “Man does. Woman is.”

So, she spins the tale and we see these women, sort of seal-like creatures living by the ocean, laying around on the rocks with not much going on, nothing of note to mark the time or the ages until one day a male is born. Or a monster as they initially consider it. The story continues and eventually, after some of the males get to grow up, two tribes start up. The women by the ocean, the men in the forest. The women lose the ability to procreate on their own after a while and need the men. The men learn women are fun, seem able to satisfy their curiously intense urges and the women find themselves drawn to visiting the male tribe and even find their wombs get filled after some time. Of course the usual problems begin. The males are messy, they spend endless hours at seemingly useless games and are not very good about keeping track of the little boys. The females find themselves criticizing, berating and in an incredulous state of wondering if any thought for others occurs in the males at all. The males find they prefer not being around the squalling kids, complaining women and go on long journeys to discover the world around them.

The wild thing about reading this book and observing a number of married couples raising children around me was how the complaints of the first tribal women and women now are the same. He doesn’t clean up, think of the children, spend enough time with us etc. And men still seem fascinated with games, even though they clearly seem to serve no real evolutionary purpose. Though I guess throwing and hitting things with some competitiveness can make more skilled and better hunters.

It’s amazing to me how mysterious men and women are still to each other. Thousands of years and the battles and quandaries continue. We try to think yes, men are just like women, a few different parts but mostly the same, right? Wrong. I think we are totally exotic creatures to each other not built the same at all, especially in how men and women think. I don’t think we are meant to be the same either. Contrasting skill sets are part of the master plan. Too much the same and we are all doomed. The think tank stagnates with only one approach to surviving and thriving. We need each other and I would bet we’d find more harmony if we got more curious about the differences. Heck, we may even learn to respect and appreciate the differences if we can just hold on to the idea that the cosmic comedy has not played out enough yet for us to see the perfection in it.

Laura Doyle and Passionfish Live Concert DVD is Done!
June 26th, 2008
The Live at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre DVD is done. Using my film contacts, we hired 4 cameras last summer to capture the "Dark Horse" CD release concert and, after many months of editing, we have this wonderul live concert footage available for purchase.

The DVD features 13 songs and bonus materials including footage of Laura and Passionfish making the record in the studio. Also included on the DVD, is a brand new track, "This Day Goes On" not yet released but recorded live for the DVD.

If you've never experienced one of our live shows, you may want to pick it up and enjoy the bold dynamics of this 7 piece band at its expressive best.

We will offer the DVD for sale at the July 6th DVD release concert on Granville Island for only $10 and, if you purchase a ticket and the DVD, the cost is only $20. If you can't make it to Vancouver because you live in Denmark or Palm Springs or somewhere like that, then you can buy the DVD from Bruhaha Records at:

http://bruha.com/Music_Store/music_store.html

Wild Horse Benefit Concert in Victoria
November 28th, 2007
We're starting the New Year right with a Wild Horse Benefit Concert at the Solstice Cafe on January 15, 2008 in Victoria, BC. Friends of Nemaiah Valley and Laura Doyle will be hosting an evening of music with special musical guests and a stunning slide show of BC's beautiful wild horses. All proceeds will go to fund www.fonv.ca and their horse ranger program that protects the wild horses and their habitat in the Chilcotin.

Tickets will be available at the Solstice Cafe for $15. The place only holds about 100 people so buy them early.

Contact laura@lauradoyle.com if you'd like to volunteer and help the wild horse team with the event.

Solstice Cafe 529 Pandora Street Victoria, BC, Canada (250) 475-0477

Great Wild Horse News
November 26th, 2007
An amazing thing happened on Wed., November 21st, 2007. The BC Supreme Court and Judge Vickers declared that the Xeni Gwet’in people (pronounced something like... honey guht teen) really do have title to their land up in the Chilcotin. They set up the Wild Horse Preserve and now they will be able to continue to protect the 200,000 hectares that so many wild animals share with the horses. I was over in Victoria this past weekend for a fundraiser and information session about a proposed open pit mine and, instead of worrying about the toxic tailings pool the mine wanted to put in the area, we got to celebrate. Leading his people to Victory was Chief Roger William. He is young, passionate and loves his people, the land they live on and their own cultural heritage.

All of us (pale-faced) helpers to the cause have been really moved by the Xeni people who are very brave, graceful and free. My friend David Williams who runs Friends of Nemaiah Valley (www.fonv.ca) and has raised funds to continue to protect the land, the people and the horses up there said, “I am among giants here”. We all marveled at the land claim news as well because it seems that Chief Roger’s 339 day battle in court may be paving the way for other First Nations people to reach similar settlements in their own court cases. We couldn’t help comparing him to Martin Luther King Jr. because of the way he is inspiring his people to remain free and culturally intact.

David Suzuki was also at the event. He didn’t speak this time but last time he talked about how we will all be turning to the aboriginal people of the earth to learn how to “progress” in to sustainable living. They must know something about this since they've managed to live for thousands of years without creating the kind of ruin we've seen in the last 60 years.

Thank you to all of you who have helped me in the past few years raise money to protect the wild horses. Like African Elephants the wild creatures in the Chilcotin only flourish with protection of their habitat. We’ve raised money in the past to help fund one horse ranger at the Wild Horse Benefit concerts. 200,000 hectares is a lot of land for one man on a horse so perhaps this year we can help fund two horse rangers. Watch the calendar for the next Wild Horse Benefit Concert. We’re looking at doing one in Victoria in January and one in Vancouver in October 2008. In the mean time, join up as a member at www.fonv.ca and get regular Wild Horse news from the source. Your $25 will go a long way.

Live Concert Video
November 15th, 2007
We are just about finished a live DVD of the Dark Horse CD release concert we had at the Van East Cultch back in June. It was a four camera shoot so there is some good production value and lots of coverage. We uploaded some sneak previews of a few songs on www.myspace.com/lauradoyle. This live DVD will be available for purchase and has a live recording of a brand new song "This Day Goes On" as well as Laura's haunting version of "Horse With No Name". The live performance video features many great Vancouver musicians including Graeme Coleman on keys, Andreas Schuld on guitar, Miles Hill on bass, Randall Stoll on drums, David Sinclair on guitar and bg vocals and Camille Henderson on back up vocals. Check it out!

Book Laura Doyle
November 15th, 2007
Laura has been enjoying the intimacy and fun of performing at private functions in the past few months. A number of really great retirement party gigs have me hoping to do plenty more. If you have a special event, contact me through the bookings email on this website and we'll see what we can do.

NEW Laura Doyle video(s)!
September 21st, 2007
Check out the new Laura Doyle video Press Kit on the Video page of this site, or on Laura's myspace page http://www.myspace.com/lauradoyle

Directed by Katherine DiMarino, the video gives a behind the scenes look at the making of the "Dark Horse" CD, and features some clips of Laura and Passionfish in performance. Full length performance videos of Laura and the band will be coming soon, so stay tuned!

Stephen Shinn Signs on for Management and Promotion
June 15th, 2007
Stephen Shinn of Stephen A.C. Shinn Productions and Artist Management in Toronto has signed on to work with Laura Doyle as artist management and to tackle promotion of the new "Dark Horse" record. Stephen has an extensive resume that includes producing the Vagina Monologues shows, promoting Dreamworks DVD releases in Canada and is a passionate believer that people "need" Laura's music. Laura is thrilled with the new partnership and says, "Stephen is a true artist champion and exudes a refreshing optimism you don't often find in the music biz these days. " To Contact: Stephen A.C. Shinn Productions & Artist Management Suite 119 - 40 Merchant Lane Toronto, Ontario M6P 4J6 T: 416-487-9064 C: 416-230-4513 E:stephenshinn@rogers.com

June 17th CD RELEASE CONCERT at Vancouver East Cultural Centre
May 29th, 2007
Laura Doyle celebrates the release of her new CD “Dark Horse” with a live performance with her band Passionfish at Vancouver's venerable East Cultural Centre (1895 Venables Street).

There will be two shows; one at 7:15PM and a second show at 9:15PM.

Admission will be $20 ($15 for students) Tickets are available at Ticketmaster (www.ticketmaster.ca) and will also be sold at the door, starting one hour before the performances.

Audience members attending the first show who wish to catch the second show will be re-seated at no additional charge, according to seat availability. Laura's band Passionfish, is made up of some of Vancouver’s best musicians: Graeme Coleman on keyboards, Miles Hill on bass, Andreas Schuld on guitar, and Randall Stoll on drums. Joining the group for this special performance are guitarist David Sinclair and vocalist Camille Henderson. There may be other surprise guests as well.

This event will be videotaped, so audience members are asked to bring their special smiling faces to the event..

WELCOME to the NEW WEBSITE!
April 20th, 2007
This site was designed and implemented by Suzanne Stromotich (designer) and Stacey Friesan (tech guru). Many thanks to Suzanne and Stacey for their great work! If you have comments, kudos, or questions about this site, please send them to info@lauradoyle.com (see the Contact page for more contact information)

New partnerships
April 13th, 2007
The first single from Laura’s new CD, “Dark Horse”, will be released to AC radio on May 15th, 2007.

Laura is pleased to announce the creation of two new partnerships that will help shepherd her music onto radio and into sales outlets:

Mike Peters and the good people at Pacific Music Marketing will be distributing “Dark Horse” in Canada through Warner Canada’s distribution network, and also making use of Pacific Music’s niche marketing expertise to cover specialty markets.

Hipjoint Productions (shout out to Oscar Furtado and Mike James) will be promoting the first single “Glass Hill” to AC radio.

Laura will be traveling this late spring, doing radio promotions for the album and the single, and a tour is in the works for late summer and fall of this year.

To learn more about the song “Glass Hill”, read on...

"Glass Hill" Press release
April 12th, 2007
Glass Hill

From the inviting opening of chime-y acoustic guitars, Glass Hill announces itself as the perfect AC track; smooth, buoyant and optimistic. Singer/songwriter Laura Doyle’s husky sweet voice enters, floating effortlessly over the guitar bed, and it is only as we become caught up in her performance that we realize she is singing about something apparently at odds with the effervescent backing track.

Welcome to the world of Laura Doyle; a place where lyrics with real meaning, dealing with the experiences of heartbreak, hope, loss, humour, and redemption, are carried along by catchy and melodic songs and delivered by an outstanding voice. To the close listener, Glass Hill isn’t just another guitar driven pop song, it is a signal fire from the emotional outskirts to remind us of the perils of isolation – to everybody else, it’s just a great song that they find themselves humming along to.

Like many Doyle tracks, contained within the 3:42 running time, there is a bit of a dramatic arc; at 2:08 the bridge arrives with a feeling of grandeur, lifted by spacious piano chords and backing vocals – followed by a surprise return to the intimacy of the song’s opening and a then a building chorus that takes us to the song’s conclusion, in this case a real conclusion, not just a fade-out.

Glass Hill is an ideal radio introduction to Laura Doyle’s “Dark Horse”, a new nine song CD that showcases the rich musical growth of this exciting West Coast artist.

Notes on Glass Hill from Laura
April 11th, 2007
I was doing some writing for our radio launch of Glass HIll and found myself discovering more of what the song is about. I often don't really know the deeper meaning in a song until I've lived with it for some time. I do believe when a song lands with a listener that it is more about whatever that person interprets it to be, but, here are some of my own impressions:

I use the metaphor of a glass hill to describe our often obsessive compulsion to stay in painful circumstances. The guitar hook and lilting melody offer a spirited optimism to the quandry, how the heck do you get out of a rock and a hard place?

I've noticed in my own life, that when we have suffered some blows we sometimes start heaping the broken things up one after the other. Before you know it we can get stuck on top of it all, alone and afraid to move because every direction seems to offer pain. Then, we may even start protecting that heap like it’s some kind of castle, and fool ourselves that we like our lofty status of being on top of our own pile of disappointments.

The bridge in the song offers hope and the way through suggesting that if we can regain the feeling of connection (to the planet we live on and each other) then we return to a sense of home and ultimately love.