Late start but success for Gibson

Singer/songwriter Laura Gibson started playing music later than most.

"I never played any music growing up," Gibson said during a phone interview from Columbus, Ohio. "I started playing music when I was in college.

"I didn't know that making music was even an option for me."

Still, Gibson, considers herself a music lover, but she is selective about what she listens to.

"I like a lot of Appalachian music and stuff like Elizabeth Cotton and Mississippi John Hurt," she said. "I like a lot of jazz singers, although I don't try to emulate them. I like how they use their voices as instruments, and I try to do that. But I think my main songwriting influence is Leonard Cohen.

"Unfortunately, when he was touring in America a few weeks ago, I was on my own tour on the other side of the continent and missed him."

When Gibson finally realized that she could write songs and perform, she moved to Portland, Ore., but didn't start playing music clubs for a couple of years.

"I didn't think about that," she said. "I actually began playing live in assisted-living homes.

"My father had cancer from the time I was 10 to the time I was 14," she said. "And I got close to the hospice and assisted-living world. So I would play at a place every Thursday. It was a natural place for me to play."

After playing a friend's home show, she was encouraged by the reaction to start playing clubs.

"I started playing shows in clubs three years ago and started thinking of recording an album."

That album was called "If You Come to Greet Me."

"I had met M. Ward's bassist Adam (Selzer), and he introduced me to a lot of Portland's musicians who helped me on the album."

When it came time to record her new CD, "Beast of Seasons," Gibson said she had done a lot of songwriting.

"I didn't start off wanting to write a concept album," she said. "But all the songs that fit together had to do with ends, death and dying, and our perspective on mortality."

Selzer returned to help Gibson, as did Bright Eyes' Rachel Blumberg, the Decemberists' Nate Query and Menomena's Danny Seim, to name a few.

The CD was produced by the Decemberists' Tucker Martine.

"Having Tucker produce the album was great," said Gibson. "He was so honest. After a take, he'd say, 'I think you have one more in you,' or 'You can do better.'

"He really pushed me, and I'm proud of the CD."

If you go...

What: Laura Gibson, Musee Mechanique and Kelly Moyle

Where: Urban Lounge, 241 S. 500 East

When: June 26, 9 p.m.

How much: $10

Web: www.24tix.com

E-mail: scott@desnews.com