Laura Veirs

“Veirs' songs qualify as poems: careful, word-conscious, narrative, neither foggy nor overwritten, and tend to give you a take on regular life experience that you don't quite expect.” —The New York Times

I finally stopped dragging my feet and got an album of Laura Veirs' on Amazon (currently only $5). I've shared her music here once before, and since then have developed an even more persistent affinity for her measured, elegant style.

Her songs share a spirit with the powerfully aware poets and observers of nature that I love -- Robert Frost, Mary Oliver, Wendell Berry -- so they feel succinct, yet nourishing and exploratory. Here's a song that especially captures the resonant simplicity of her songwriting. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

"When You Give Your Heart" - Laura Veirs

Since you lay my burdens

Since you lay my burdens

Since you lay my burdens down

All the troubles I been

Dragging down this trail

Seep into the thirsty ground

Since you turned your light

Upon my darkened dale

The pollinators flex their wings

And take into the air

Spin their emeraldine

Webs across the swales and prairies

And my stampeding buffalo

Stops in her tracks and watches the snow

Falling through the old oak tree

When you give your heart to me

This is my song of love

Gathered from stuff above

The wires, feathers and clouds

This is a song for you

A spring comes bubbling through

The place whenever you're around

And my stampeding buffalo

Stops in her tracks and watches the snow

Falling through the old oak tree

When you give your heart to me