Biography of Laura Nyro

While Laura Nyro remains best known for providing hit material for a number of late-'60s acts, it's a mystery why she never had a smash of her own. Essential college-dorm-room listening for the era, and often bagged as a sort of East Coast answer to Joni Mitchell, in reality Nyro was in a class by herself. Nyro's songs were steeped in classic R&B and framed in stark settings, her vocal gymnastics often accompanied only by her own piano work. Any doubts as to where her music came from were erased by the album Gonna Take a Miracle; a brilliant collection of soul covers recorded with the resurrected LaBelle. It was also one of the first albums of all-outside material by a major rock-era songwriter. In the '70s Nyro became more reclusive, releasing only the occasional album letting us in on a bit of her home life. Even now, the promise of new Laura Nyro material is still cause for much hope. ~ Steve Aldrich