Lauren Shera

Lauren Shera once noted that a listener had summed up her sound as “California folk,” an assessment she found spot on. Although born in New York in 1988, the songwriter’s work evokes the spare, emotionally direct folk tradition alongside the mellow Laurel Canyon soft-rock atmosphere of the 1970s. Her New York upbringing included a father who played drums and introduced her to the songs of Bob Dylan, Townes Van Zandt, Joni Mitchell, and John Prine. Early attempts to play guitar faltered because of her small hands, yet after the family moved to Monterey, California, when she turned thirteen, Shera discovered poetry and won several local contests. She soon returned to the instrument, began composing songs, and played the coffeehouse and acoustic circuit around Monterey. A handful of recordings made as a Father’s Day present for her dad were later pressed into an EP that circulated locally and caught the ear of KQED-TV, resulting in a San Francisco profile. Major-label A&R staff expressed interest, but Shera elected to remain independent and issued her first album, In My Bones, on her own in 2006. Strong word-of-mouth led to an invitation to sing at a Bob Dylan tribute concert in New York City alongside Rosanne Cash, Patti Smith, and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott. Shera then moved to Chicago to attend the Old Town School of Folk Music, an experience that solidified her decision to pursue music professionally. Back in California by 2010, she released Once I Was a Bird, which included contributions from Abigail Washburn and Kristin Hersh. Continued critical approval brought extensive touring in the company of Shawn Colvin, Nanci Griffith, Billy Bragg, and Ray LaMontagne, as well as admiration from Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh, who declared, “Her voice is going to define the next generation of folk music.” After the 2014 DigSin digital single pairing “Hell’s Bells” with “Sweetgrass,” Shera issued her third album, Gold and Rust, in 2015, shortly after relocating from California to Nashville, Tennessee.