Island Connections in Laura Veirs Concert August 30

Laura Viers will perform this Saturday at SJCT – Contributed photo

When Portland’s Laura Veirs brings her eclectic range of music to San Juan Community Theatre on August 30 at 7:30 p.m., she’ll have some extra friendly faces in the audience.

Veirs mom and dad, Leslie and Val Veirs, have lived on San Juan Island for 15 years and have been involved in several organizations in the community including volunteering at the San Juan Sailing Foundation, the Nature Institute and the San Juan County Land Bank. This will be Laura’s first time performing in Friday Harbor.

“It’s exciting for us to have her here,” said mom Leslie. “To me, her songwriting especially stands out—it’s poetry put to music.”

Raised in Colorado, Veirs got her start in an all-girl punk band there and then moved more into indie-folk and songwriting; and has been featured several times on NPR. She toured on the East Coast earlier this summer with international indie-rock artist Neko Case and will tour solo in England this fall.

After a previous European tour, London’s daily newspaper, The Independent,, called Veirs lyrics beguiling “…notably her continuing meditations on nature, the more sun-kissed and salt-sprayed the better” and proclaimed: “from acoustic ballads to squalling guitar solos, this working mother has it all.”

Veirs has recorded several albums (her first in a studio on Orcas) featuring a variety of melodies and messages: from her 2003 album, Troubled by the Fire, with jazz guitarist Bill Frissell; to her 2011, Tumble Bee: Laura Veirs sings Folk for Children, to her most recent and ninth album, the sometimes deeply dark, Warp and West. The latter— recorded when Veirs was pregnant with her second child—captures the intensity of motherhood, love and violence.

The Business Partner for the Laura Veirs is Kings Market. Concert tickets are $20 for adults, $10 for student reserved and $5 student RUSH at the door. The SJCT box office is open Tuesdays through Fridays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. www.sjctheatre.org or 378-3210.

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