Laura Allan — Laura Allan 1978 (USA, West Coast/Folk Rock)

She started to sing and make up songs while learning how to walk and talk and it wasn’t long before it was time to find this little girl an instrument she could express herself on. Mother, Nadine, bought her a guitar for her seventh birthday and I guess the rest is history.

She played in some of the folk clubs in So. California as early as age nine & ten, accompanied by teacher and folk recording artist, Joyce James, and by the time she was in her early teens, Laura found herself singing lead in in a Motown soul band all the way over in Heidelberg, Germany, where she attended school for a year.

Shortly after returning to the states, with her new individual sense of the world, she had the oportunity to meet up with the likes of Joni Mitchell, David Crosby & Jackson Browne. She began to make musical instruments at this time with early mentor, Joellen Lapidus and was allowed by her parents to travel to the Big Sur Folk festival where Lapidus sold Joni Mitchell her first dulcimer.
A little later on she was invited to play on David Crosby’s first solo album … Allan’s picture appears on this classic. Her Zither playing on “Traction on the Rain” is the first thumbprint in vinyl for this bright young talent who would spend the next two and a half decades dedicating her life to the pursuit of creativity through her music, song writing and artistic achievements.

With a debut album of original songs released on Elektra/ Asylum in 1978, backed by a “who’s who” of the best musicians from that era (Jeff Porcaro, Leland Sklar, Jim Keltner, Billy Payne, Chuck Rainy and so on) she moved to New York City and followed with a prolific run at writing songs for other artists that were covered by the likes of Kenny Rogers (“Dream Dancing”), Lynne Anderson (“Come As You Are”) and Bill Champlin (“Hold On”). She even had artists as far away as China singing her songs in Mandarin and Cantonese. Allan sang back-up vocals on abums by Bette Midler, Bonnie Raitt and Eric Carmen, and even reappears on a couple Crosby & Nash LPs with some more Zither playing. Another vinyl album to this woman’s credit is a New Age first , entitled “Reflections” (1980), which features Paul Horn on flute and Allan on vocals and multiple stringed instruments.