Pamela Laws

Music-News is excited to share our interview with singer/songwriter Pamela Laws. She just released her brand new EP, "High West." Filled with fantastic vocals, moving lyrics, and catchy melodies, Music-News learned about the process and inspiration that went into writing & recording the 4-song EP.



Tell us more about who Pamela Laws is as a musician and your overall sound!

I have been compelled to tell stories through writing music and singing since the age of two. My grandparents on both sides told stories through song and music. My grandfather in South Texas was a farmer and would sing to my grandmother when they came home from the fields. So, music was really my first language. The guitars and mandolins and all the other stringed instruments on my current recordings come from that heritage - the sounds of my roots I guess. I started out professionally in an acoustic duo turned rock duo called Seven Day Diary. We made records for Warner Brothers. The sounds of the drums are influenced by the contemporary artists that I listen to and the first recorded rock albums I made but the writing has always harkened back to the roots I am now exposing with the release of my HIGH WEST EP and my upcoming 2023 album, THE ONES I LOVE.

Who and what are your musical inspirations?

Johnny Cash is one of my heroes. He was my dad's hero. He was a voice for the people and his records that were often played in my childhood home opened my eyes to social justice and to the fact that things aren't always what they seem. He was a country artist who stood for something. Nothing beats that. In my song, Man In Black, I pay tribute to Johnny Cash. But I am riveted by artists in other genres too. I love Kendrick Lamar. I love Amanda Shires. I love Margot Price. I am inspired by songwriters who open doors through their writing to places we've all experienced but haven't had the words to express.

You recently released your EP 'High West.' Congrats! What's the inspiration behind this EP? Where was it recorded and with what team of musicians and producer?

Awe, I'm so glad you asked. These songs from HIGH WEST EP came from the heart of the 2020 lockdown. Till the Morning, Jail Quilt, Dry My Tears, and Man In Black all contain threads of the lockdown experience. With all that uncertainty and aloneness, the stories began to emerge. The stories range from being about leaving a relationship gone on too long, a hummingbird who mistakenly flies through a window into a house, and a Folsom Prison inmate reflecting on his crimes while watching Johnny Cash perform. My team includes Jack Petruzzelli, producer and multi-instrumentalist and co-writer who has worked with Patti Smith, Rufus Wainwright and Joan Osborne, Larry Campbell, who worked with Bob Dylan, Levon Helm and many other greats, is playing mandolin, pedal steel and electric guitar, Justin Guip, who engineered the last three Levon Helm records, also engineered these songs - we worked at his studio in the Hudson Valley in New York - Milan Hill Studio. Justin also played drums on these songs. Adam Bernstein played bass and lended a hand in the writing too.

We hear your song 'Till The Morning’ is getting a worldwide marketing push starting September 9th. Very exciting! What's the story behind this song?

Till the Morning is a song about that moment you know it's time to leave, it's been time to leave for a while and you are finally gonna do it. When the love that at one time felt like your forever love is over, it's hard to let go. Till The Morning is about that moment of realization. You wait till just before sunrise and walk out the door for the last time, get in your car and drive down the highway. It's a bitter-sweet kind of "free".

What's in store for the remainder of 2022 and going into 2023?

We released Man In Black and Dry My Tears before HIGH WEST EP became available. Till the Morning will now get its time to shine when we release the video on September 9th and start the push. In the meantime, I have finished writing and recording a full-length album. We are in the studio mixing these songs and, in 2023, my album, THE ONES I LOVE, will be released.

One hobby you love to do outside of music?

I love to hike in the coastal mountains in West Marin, California! The landscape is my happy place.

How can our readers keep up with you and your career?

Please subscribe to me on YouTube and follow me on Instagram and Twitter for the most up-to-date news. I also have a newsletter that goes out too - I'd love to have you join that at www.pamelalaws.com.