Louise Mosrie Coombe

“  Louise Mosrie may well be the brightest young folk-oriented artist to emerge from Nashville in many a year. On her second release her pure, expressive voice delivers the songs with the perfect balance of expressiveness and direction. Better still, the exquisite, very low key production keeps Mosrie's voice out front and shining. This is Mosrie with a few well chosen, subtle accompanists. A pleasing aspect of this CD is its ideal mix of personal songs and songs outside of Mosrie's own life, such as song set in the Civil War and one about a young girl leaving home for the larger world in 1920 and coming to grief. In my book, Mosrie's song "Singing My Heart Out" alone is worth buying this CD.” - Rich Warren

“Balancing personal landscapes with historical reflections At the dawn of the 21st Century, Mosrie released a couple of acoustic pop recordings, then in 2004 relocated to Nashville and set about refocusing her approach to songwriting. Between 2009 and 2011, success came her way in festival song contests at Kerrville, Wildflower, Telluride, and Falcon Ridge. Early 2010 witnessed the release of Mosrie's rootsy collection Home. Peaking at #1 on the Folk DJ chart, the album consolidated her standing as a touring acoustic folk/country musician on the rise. Mosrie’s life journey has, however, been somewhat rocky of late with fifteen years of marriage ending and her English-born mother succumbing to a brain tumour. Maybe the maxim is, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.   Where Home was a band production featuring a coterie of well-known Nashville studio musicians, Lay It Down is, relatively speaking, sonically stripped bare. Produced by singer-songwriter Cliff Eberhardt and recorded in his Williamsburg, MA home, the gatefold card liner credits him with playing numerous instruments – acoustic guitar, dobro, steel guitar, high string guitar, classical guitar, bass, piano, organ, drums, midi string, and percussion. In truth, the foregoing are subtly embedded way in the backdrop of this 10-song collection, such that they don’t intrude but certainly enhance. Concurrently, located centre stage throughout, Mosrie’s voice and acoustic guitar deliver the songs exactly in the form they arrived in this world. While not a unique approach, here it works extremely well. Over the past couple of years, the pair have regularly toured together, and Eberhart's exposure to Mosrie's songs in a live situation goes a long way to explaining how he evolved his production approach. A love song, album opener “I’ll Take You In” delivers an unconditional invitation. The uplifting “Singing My Heart Out” bids the listener to rise above life’s many tribulations. Founded on a similar premise, “Lay It Down” proposes that we bury our problems rather than wrestle with them interminably. Narrated by a farmer’s daughter, “Leave Your Gun” is set in what she describes as “the valley of death.” After the American Civil War encroaches upon her parent’s Tennessee land, the family dig a shallow grave, say a prayer, erect a wooden cross, and bury a dead Union soldier. Reflecting further upon the futility of war, the narrator closes with the repeated and heartfelt lyric: "go on to heaven.” It recals a young brother who “fought alongside those Southern men / Caught a bullet in the gut / Laid up three days in my bed / And mamma cried out loud when he shivered hard at the end.” Co-written with Eberhard, “Wish” is a love ode propelled by an undercurrent of desire. “Baker Hotel 1929” recalls the opening, in November that year, of a luxury hotel that catered for the rich clientele who came to Mineral Wells, TX, to take "the healing waters." The ghost of “young Virginia,” the farm girl who took a job cleaning rooms and dreamt of “dancing in the courtyard at dusk,” still paces the corridors looking for the love she lost. Set in Tennessee, “Daffodils” is a bittersweet love song to Mosrie’s late mother. The historically-based “When Cotton Was King” namechecks Eli Whitney (b. 1765 d. 1825), inventor of the cotton gin. For the already rich plantation owners, the economic impact of the gin in the American South was that it made them even richer, and sustained their argument for retaining large numbers of slaves. The penultimate selection “Holding My Breath” is a cold winter tale as well as a reflection upon lost love. Exploring another facet of the events referenced in “Daffodil,” it’s followed by the achingly heartfelt “Land of the Living.”” - "Folk Villager"

“Louise Mosrie grew up in a small town near Nashville, Tennessee. Being in spitting distance of a spot where music is king gave Louise her muse, which she heard as the call of folk music, calling her sound Southern Soulful Folk. She uses her most recent album release, Lay It Down, to deliver it to the world. Louise opens Lay It Down with a shout, putting claim to her abilities to keep love in place, remove darkness in your soul and welcome you into the warmth of her four walls of sound on “I’ll Take You In”.  Louise penned the tunes onLay It Down, sharing a co-write on “Wish” with album producer, Cliff Eberhardt. The album was recorded in western Mass in Cliff’s home studio and floats soft Folk strums over a voice that shares the heart of every story it touches. Louise sings a goodbye as she visits a winter gravesite, planning to spend the cold months inside until she can see “Daffodils”,  hears music from outside the winter windows at home in “Singing My Heart Out”, remembers times when “Cotton Was King”, and looks around at the war-torn fields of home in “Leave the Gun”. Louise Mosrie takes a step into the past and opens the doors to let in the scent of North Texas mineral wells in “Baker Hotel 1929”.” - Danny McCloskey

“Louise Mosrie HOME Zoe Cat Music ****/out of 5 Award-winning Tennessee-based and bred writer scores a HOME run Louise Mosrie was among the annual half-dozen winners of the 2009 Kerrville Folk Festival’s New Folk Songwriting Contest. Released at the beginning of the year, HOME, which she co-produced, is this Nashville-based musician’s latest recording. A finalist in the (folk oriented) Song Contest on the Singer-Songwriter Stage at this year’s Wildflower! Arts & Music Festival, Louise scored one of the award winning top four places. The familial themed album title song opens this collection of thirteen Mosrie originals and co-writes. The funky sounding backdrop to God Lives In Arkansas, a song inspired by an Ozark Mountain detour that Louise and her husband undertook on the way home from a wedding in Oklahoma, will doubtless remind long-in-the-tooth readers of Bobbie Gentry’s 1967 crossover hit Ode To Billie Joe. Mosrie’s southern gothic portrait is energetically supported by the raunchy harmonica and vocal chords of Stepchild’s Emil Justian. Scott Neubert (acoustic guitar, Dobro), Byron House (bass) and Butch Simmons (drums) furnish the rhythmic backbone to most of the selections, others pickers who contributed to the recording sessions include album co-producer Jon Young (electric bass), Matt Combs (fiddle) and Donna Ulisse (vocals), one of Louise’s co-writers. One of three songs co-written with Mike Richardson, The Battle Of Blair Mountain recalls the week long, organised armed uprising that involved over 10,000 West Virginia miners. This 1921 strike led to the partial recognition of labour unions by mine owners, and gave rise to the term ‘redneck’ because of the red bandana worn by the miners. Set in current times the Backroads and Fly lyrics merge themes already explored in Home and God Lives In Arkansas—the climactic line in Backroads being: ‘Daddy lived in the country till the day he died, Now I’ve come to understand why.’ The bittersweet Maybe I’m Your Angel finds this Tennessean reveal her tender side, while a failed relationship forms the focus in the ensuing Ulisse co-write Don’t Come Looking For Me. Blackberry Winter is a (Southern) term describing a short cold spell that coincides with the time blackberries are in bloom. Co-written with Mike Richardson their tuneful collaboration of the same name follows in the wake of similarly titled recent odes by David Mead (Blackberry Winters 2009) and Jud Caswell (Blackberry Time 2007). Considering Nashville’s recent trials and tribulations, an outward looking positivity pervades the I Love This World lyric that quite simply celebrates exactly what this music town is all about. The autobiographical Tennessee follows, the penultimate Sweet Relief is gospel tinged, and Louise wraps up HOME with the sensitive ballad You Have My Love. Mosrie’s compositions are thoughtful, refined creations. Given repeated listening, they will penetrate your consciousness. Spend your time thus, you’ll also be hooked.” - AW

“...this Nashville-based singer/songwriter blew us away with her in-store performance. Like listening to Patty Griffin and Susan Tedeschi at the same time. Highlight of the 30A Songwriter Festival.”

“Louise Mosrie comes full circle with new album 'Home' By Steve Wildsmith stevew@thedailytimes.com Pencil singer-songwriter Louise Mosrie into the ranks of those who, with apologies to Thomas Wolfe, prove that you can go home again. You just have to get away for a while to truly appreciate it, Mosrie told The Daily Times this week. After growing up on a farm in Middle Tennessee, it took her several years to come back to the middle of the state, to her Southern roots and to a life she once longed so much to escape. As a kid, I couldn't wait to get the hell off the farm," she said. "I didn't like the country, and I didn't want to be a part of that world. But when I moved back, older and hopefully wiser, I found myself, when writing songs, drawing on imagery I'd grown up around. I was influenced by songwriters like Nanci Griffith and Lucinda Williams, people that I'd gotten into later on, and my songwriting started to flow naturally out of that." Ever since, Mosrie -- a Knoxville expatriate who started her music career here in East Tennessee -- has slowly built recognition as a new, vibrant voice of Southern folk and Americana. Earlier this year, she was proclaimed winner of the prestigious New Folk Competition at the annual Kerrville Folk Festival, and this weekend she's returning to East Tennessee to celebrate the release of her new CD -- appropriately titled "Home." I called it 'Home' because I'd come back to Middle Tennessee, where I'd grown up, and I came back to my roots in a way that was surprising to me," she said. "I found my voice in a type of music I never thought I'd write -- country and alt-country and bluegrass. And I love it! It feels so natural and authentic, and it's all a culmination of me moving back here." Mosrie grew up in McEwen, in middle Tennessee. Both of her parents are British, and through high school, she lived in that small town of about 2,000 people. Once she graduated, however, she came to the University of Tennessee, majoring in broadcasting and working in local media while pursuing her musical interests at the same time. As a member of the cover band Basement Zoo, she learned to harmonize; with the group She Said, she learned to play guitar and write her own songs, drawing heavily on English pop before going solo. She slowly developed a reputation on the regional tour circuit, playing Nashville's famous Bluebird Cafe regularly as well as other venues up and down East Tennessee and into North Carolina before deciding to move to Nashville several years ago. I just really wanted to improve my songwriting, and I got it in my head that I needed to go somewhere where there were more resources for me to do that," she said. She and her husband, Mark, put their house on the market, and when it sold in only 10 days, they took it as a sign and made the leap to Music City. At first, she avoided the country and roots music scenes there; however, associations with such like-minded artists as Blount County native Diana Jones (herself a Kerrville winner) and Donna Ulysses exposed her to the styles that had been a part of her for most of her life. In 2007, a writing opportunity with Ray Kennedy -- an acclaimed producer and half of the "Twangtrust" team responsible for Williams' stunning "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road" album -- opened her eyes even further. We spent six hours co-writing this song, and he just turned my head around about songwriting," she said. "I learned more in six hours than I did in 10 years before that. He taught me so much about imagery and impact, and that was a real turning point for me." Those lessons resonate across the 13 tracks that make up "Home." From the cat-loving shopper on the title cut to the woman on the run from metaphorical ghosts in "Don't Come Lookin' for Me" to memories of her father cooking breakfast in "Tennessee" -- those little slices of life and keen observations of the tiny details so many take for granted are what elevate the album to a rare work of sweet-sounding art. One other element that's been big since I moved back here is that I've become more of a spiritual person, and I don't mean that in a religious sense by any means," she said. "I'm trying to be in the present moment more, and I think that kind of awakening I've had on a spiritual level helps me in just appreciating every little thing. I do notice the details more now, because I'm in a better place that way. Those kinds of details don't escape me, and they end up in the song." Those details no doubt played a role in her Kerrville victory. She had submitted her work for years, and last spring she almost didn't -- but with the new album under way, she sent in rough tracks of "Home" and "God Lives in Arkansas." When he received notification that she'd been a finalist, it was overwhelming. I was like, coming undone!" she said. "Then I went down there, and you play with a bunch of other people and the other finalists for two days. I just went down and thought, 'I'm going to have a great time on stage, just sing my songs and that's it.' I tried to let go of everything else, and I was able to do that and have a great time." The last night of the competition, when her name was called, it was all the validation she needed that her Americana path is a true one. If she could turn back the clock, she wouldn't discourage her teen angst, and she wouldn't urge her younger self to stay put. If anything, her travels and trials have made coming back home even more satisfying, she added. I don't know that I'd do anything different, because leaving the farm made me appreciate the farm," she said. "I absolutely think that the travel and the moving away from home exposes you to as many different experiences as possible, and that's the key. You've got to get perspective, and I think one of the most immediate ways of doing things is to relocate yourself. Go do it all and then come back, because you really will come full circle.” - Steve Wildsmith

““Influenced by everyone from ‘70’s folk-rock icon Ricki Lee Jones to ‘80’s pop faves The Sundays, Louise Mosrie brings a refreshing dose of acoustic pop to the singer-songwriter realm. Listening to her latest album, Separated Like Stars, gives you the kind of emotional lift that an old Carole King or Maria Muldaur release would have 30 years ago.”” - Dan Armonaitis

“With a crystal like voice, Louise Mosrie presents to us her newest release, Separated like Stars. This is a collection of diverse tunes sprinkled with an acoustic pop sensibility. Yet the acoustic part is only an anchor for the songs, as she expands the music into lovely cinematic arrangements better than any major label could churn out. Mosrie's voice is a lot like Harriet Wheeler's from the British dream pop group The Sundays, but her music is far more grounded and gutsy. Like in “Has Been” or “Real Me,” Mosrie includes jazz and folk into her catchy sound. Or while listening to “One of the Lonely Ones” the country flare comes shining through. This recording only slows down nearly toward the end with the expressive solo, “Riverman.” In this song the strength of the entire CD is heard as her glowing voice becomes entangled with the acoustic guitar. The following tunes, though orchestrated into rock band format, are clearly guided by this intimate setting. Mosrie creates a more eclectic type of dreaminess and thus a wonderful recording.” - Monica Arrington