Laura Cantrell returns after a 9 year hiatus with new album ‘Just Like A Rose’ and a UK tour

After a nine-year hiatus, Laura Cantrell, a long-beloved presence in the U.S. and international Americana & Roots music scene, is back with a new studio album ‘Just Like A Rose: The Anniversary Sessions.’ Set to be released on June 9, 2023 the album features turns from Laura’s longtime friends Steve Earle, Buddy Miller, Rosie Flores and Paul Burch.

Although the album was originally intended to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Cantrell’s debut album in 2020, recording was delayed due to covid restrictions. The new collection was completed in studios located in both the New York City area and Nashville. 

“I thought I had figured it all out!” Cantrell muses, as she describes her initial puzzlement in 2019 at how to acknowledge the approaching 20th anniversary of her first album. “I wanted to salute different aspects of my music life for the last two decades, to create more of a celebration than a traditional album. The idea of recording and releasing a series of singles in real time was intriguing, so I started a crowd funding campaign and launched it on March 1, 2020.” Within days the world was a very different place, and Cantrell placed her plans on hold while the pandemic raged. “Having come through the gauntlet of the pandemic, I felt so much joy in the process, I hope people hear and feel that in the tracks themselves.”

The material spans Cantrell’s most recent songwriting and songs she’s been humming to herself since before she’d had her own band or played her own shows. “It is interesting maturing into your musical worldview, you still have songs that hit you like you’re a teenager with your first crush, and others that reflect more experience and nuance, or frustration with tough realities, and then those you just love purely as music – there’s a bit of it all on this album.” 

Since 2000, Cantrell has released a number of powerful albums. She has toured extensively in the US, UK and Ireland, and was a favourite of pioneering British DJ John Peel, who called her first album, ‘Not the Tremblin’ Kind,’ “my favourite record of the last ten years, and possibly my life.” Cantrell recorded several Peel Sessions for the BBC from 2000-2004 and appeared on the first Peel Day program on Radio One commemorating the first anniversary of Peel’s death.

Laura will also be playing the following shows in the UK with Doug Levitt as support. We recently reviewed Doug’s new album ‘Edge of Everywhere’ and you can read that review right here.