Soul Picnic: The Music and Passion of Laura Nyro

Rating:
Summary: Very easy to read, though not perfectly detailed
Review: "Soul Picnic" was, in the words of author Michele Kort, written in an effort to keep the legacy of Laura Nyro alive after she succumbed to ovarian cancer at the age of 49. Nyro was an extremely private person, and Michele Kort is very careful about describing her intentions in writing "Soul Picnic".

Nonetheless (or perhaps because of Nyro's privacy), "Soul Picnic" is by no means a difficult read at almost any point. The book is structured in a very clear chronological way, from Laura's beginnings to her last recordings in 1995. We see very clearly that Nyro was the child of some strongly left-wing immigrants and that this gave her an impressive social vision on her recordings, and later the example of her maternal grandfather Isidore Mirsky in avoiding meat. We then learn how Nyro grew up singing to the sounds of doo-wop and Motown in the early 1960s, beginning to write songs at a very young age before being discovered in the middle 1960s.

In the following years, Laura Nyro developed incredibly with her music through the use of extremely complex chord shapes that were actually her own devising. However, though we see how her songs were altered by such artists as Three Dog Night and the Fifth Dimension to make them palatable to mass audiences, Nyro herself was determined, once a seemingly "edited" single version of "Save The Country" failed to chart, never to compromise again. Here, we see, though, many descriptions that cannot fit my impression of her work - I find Michele may not have what I would call an accurate perspective on it. The book is not as good in describing Nyro's actual recorded output as it is in giving a good impression of her life.

[Actually, her post-"Christmas And The Beads Of Sweat" recordings were much more conventional than her seminal early albums, but the later albums were so ideologically stringent that she could never attract more than a tiny cult audience for them].

We see in detail the significance of her influence on generations of singer/songwriters beginning with the mystical "Sophia", Kate Bush and the enigmatic confessional Rickie Lee Jones, and there is a good discussion of how singer/songwriters eveolved while Nyro herself was out of the spotlight during her failed marriage. We also see a reasonable description of Nyro's romantic life, including several failed romances with men in the music business (including Jackson Browne) and an unsuccessful marriage to carpenter David Bianchini and a romance with "gypsy" Gregory Bennett before she returned to make "Smile" and "Nested" in the late 1970s.

After this untimely comeback, we see that most of the rest of Laura Nyro's life was lived with her son (fathered by an Indian man whom she refused to marry) and painter Maria Desiderio. She recorded only occasionally during this time, but Kort very clearly shows how she was not a reclusive woman, frequently moving away from her quiet cottage in Danbury, Connecticut to more urban environs in Massachussetts and Ithaca (upstate New York). She even would stay for a month in places as far afloat as Florida, and we learn about her very sweet tooth and love of fancy food - even though she managed to become a vegan and quit smoking, she always has problems with her weight.

We see that she became a working musician - though not recording much - before she was diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer after Patti DiLauria had noticed she was not well in early 1995. In these days, she was not interested in much more than her "tribe", yet she got a few quite respectable reviews for "Walk The Dog And Light The Light" - after having moved away from Columbia due to its demand of a studio album back in 1988 when she toured for the first time in ten years. We also see how she created "Mother's Spiritual" while at home rearing Gil, her son, and how she devloped the material of her later albums.

Michele Kort concludes with an impressive finale about the originality and importance of Laura Nyro, and the way in which her music has retained its relevance six years after she died. Yet, she does admit that her enduring originality as "the mother of all earth mothers" (the inventor of intensely feminine popular music) is not fully appreciated.

On the whole, very easy reading even if you are not familiar with Nyro, but could do with more accurate song descriptions.

Rating:
Summary: An ace job.
Review: Considering the lengths Laura Nyro went to to keep her private life out of the public eye, it's amazing that we have this book at all, let alone that it's as well put-together as it is. Michele Kort does a first-rate job in showing the evolution of Nyro, her music and her outlook on life, which was always key to how her muse took hold. What you end up with is a portrait of a woman steadfastly true to herself, no matter the cost to her career. I'm left with admiration for her, admittedly tempered by a feeling that not every choice she made was a good one. No matter; this is a well-drawn biography of an interesting and uniquely talented person who made some unforgettable music.

Rating:
Summary: A must-read!
Review: I was very impressed by this thoughtful, detailed book about one of the most wonderful, influential songwriters of our time. Michele Kort presents Laura's "story" in a way that shares insights about the significant people in her life, and the way she (and they) viewed her life and career, in a tasteful way which does not seem to violate the very privacy she so coveted. The book is very detailed about each of the tracks on each of her albums; in fact, the detail about each recording is so scrupulous that it can at times become tiresome. But here, too, Ms. Kort perhaps mirrors some of the perfectionism she describes in Laura Nyro herself. Reading this book made me miss Laura Nyro and her music all the more, made me hope that her young son is faring well without his mother, and brought back much of the sadness and shock of her untimely death at just 49 from ovarian cancer five years ago.

Rating:
Summary: A fitting tribute to Nyro
Review: Laura Nyro is one of the most underrated artists in music. As each new generation of female musician knowingly or unknowingly carries on her legacy, Ms. Nyro's story is long overdue. Michelle Kort has done a superb job of bringing alive Nyro's music, as well as providing a perspective on her life and times in the music industry over 3 decades. It is fascinating to consider that at one time, Nyro was thought to be the "it" girl of the music industry. Though superstardom never came her way, her influence continues to be felt (something that undoubtedly would please Nyro). Ms. Kort does an incredible job of collating previous reviews and articles into a coherent narrative.

While I would have loved to read a lengthier biography, Ms. Kort is to be commended for being the first to attempt to tell Ms. Nyro's story. I believe any other authors who will follow in her footsteps and try to present a more definitive biography, will use this as a template. Though Laura would perhaps initially be less than thrilled with a biographer's invasion of her privacy, I think ultimately she would approve of this book, which focuses largely on her music, and provides anecdotes from family, colleagues and friends, without resorting to gossip or heresay.

Listen to Laura's music as the soundtrack to this book. Then thank our gods and goddesses that we were blessed with the talent that is Laura Nyro.

Rating:
Summary: A Fitting Tribute for an Artist Who Never Sought Tributes
Review: Yes I'm biased, but Laura Nyro was THE greatest singer/songwriter of her generation. She remains unrecognized,underrated,and unappreciated by the general public. Ask anyone over the age of 40 if they've heard of Nyro and chances are they haven't. Then start listing the songs she's written that others have had hits with,and a recognition begins. Michele Kort has written a thoughtful book that reveals why Ms. Nyro was never meant for superstardom. She was uncompromising, and unwavering when it came to the production of her music. It was the vision she had for her music and her refusal to cave in to the commerciality of the music industry, which gives her a cult, rather than household name status. For example, listen to the single version of "Save the Country" (on the remastered "New York Tendaberry"), and then listen to the superior album cut.
Kort paints a portrait of a woman who did things her way, without overglorifying this artist. I'm sure if Ms. Nyro was alive she would not want a biography to be written. However, Kort has done a masterful job of describing recording sessions, the mixed reviews of Nyro's work, and an overall sense of the humaness of Ms. Nyro. This is not easily done, considering Ms.Nyro's need for privacy. Read this book and if you've never heard her music you will want to, and if you're a fan, you will want to listen to Laura's compositions and her angelic voice, over and over.