Laura Gibson

Laura Gibson

Laura Gibson is an American folk singer and songwriter from Coquille, Oregon, and she is based in the Portland area. Her work draws on the Pacific Northwest, and she writes songs on a nylon-string guitar.

Early releases

In November 2004, she self-releases the EP Amends, which is produced and engineered by Drew Grow. It is made on a laptop in a house in Newberg, Oregon. Her debut full-length, If You Come to Greet Me, follows in November 2006 on Hush Records. Adam Selzer engineers the album, and it is recorded entirely on analogue tape.

Recording style and themes

If You Come to Greet Me ranges from sparse guitar-and-voice songs to arrangements using trumpet, piano, vibraphone, saw, violin, cello, banjo and found sounds. Her songs are described as portraits of nostalgia, intimacy, loneliness and hope.

Later albums

Her fifth album is La Grande, titled after a small town in the forests of the Pacific Northwest. She parks her trailer there and writes and records the ten tracks that make up the record. La Grande is released in January 2012. Her album Empire Builder is released in 2016 on Barsuk Records and City Slang.