Cherry Pick - Laura A and The Bad Grades

by Frank Gualtier -- 08/21/07

This is a bluesy rock music with a lot of soul and a spat of jazz that combines with Laura Azzarello's lush and somewhat deep voice to form an almost familiar 70's sound but with a 'less pedal busy' contemporary feel.

There's a character to her songs and her soulful voice that commands the music like someone who's been belting it out on stage a decade or two longer than this girl in her mid twenties. I was very surprised when I found out how young she is.


The ensemble is rock solid. The guitar work is nearly edible -- electric liquid blue to light shades of fuzz. I'm easily drawn to rhythm and it was the well thought out snappy percussion of "Case of Daniel" that first sucked me in. Plenty infectious from the outset and then I got the knockout punch from Laura's killer voice -- I was hooked.

Album Artwork by Cherie Langford
Yesterday I got the album 'Laura A and The Bad Grades' in my mailbox. I'm almost jealous of myself.

It's an album of wonderfully catchy songs featuring a singer that could make any band sound good and a band that could make any singer sound good.

From the album - the songs "Case of Daniel', "Can't Please 'Em All", "Senselessness", "Manhattan", "Marlboro Man", "Dixie" and "Outro for MJ" were written by Laura Azzarello who also plays keys. The Bad Grades are Andy Ellis, Mark Azzarello and Caleb Dolister.

The Laura A and The Bad Grades myspace profile adds Pia Paulamaki to the crew and says "and you if you want".

I want.



Links for Laura A and The Bad Grades:

• Website
• MySpace