Monday, January 18, 2010

Audra Mae


One of the things I splurge on the most is buying music, more so than new cloths and I love new cloths. Thankfully I get a lot of free/discounted music from work and have discovered several great ways to get good music at a good price. Of course Brite Revolution is one DSP that gives you access to tons of amazing new artists where you can download everything you want for only $4.99 a month. Plus, part of it goes to charity! My other favorite place to get a good music deal is on Amazon. Everyday they have a whole album to download that is a part of their Daily Deals and is priced from $1.99 to $3.99. The albums available range from unknown to mainstream and I have discovered some great new music. Now for our featured artist, Audra Mae, who I found after Amazon had her track “The River” as their free song of the day. The first time I heard this track I knew right away that Audra was going to be a favorite and would make her way to a feature here.


Audra Mae is a native of Oklahoma who has music and performing in her blood being the grand niece of Judy Garland. She grew up with one grandmother teaching her about country and folk music and the other grandmother teaching her about Jazz music. As you listen to Audra’s music you can hear how much that early education in music affected her style and craft today. Her voice has that old sound to it and reminds me of several great female vocalists of the 50s and 60s. After flunking out of college, because she was focused on music and parties, Audra moved to California in 2004 and began to make her way around the Los Angeles music scene playing in clubs until she got a publishing deal and later signed with an independent record label best known for the Irish rock band, Flogging Molly.


After signing with her new label Audra released her second EP of 2009, titled Haunt, and will be releasing her full-length album later this month. Haunt is the perfect title for Audra’s new release since haunting is one of the first words I would use to describe her music. I’m a very happy, easy going person but for some reason I absolutely love music that is haunting and tragically beautiful. Her track, “Sullivan’s Letter” is a great example of that style. Audra is a songwriter and found inspiration for this track after reading a love letter written by a civil war soldier on the back of some music she received. The soldier wrote a love letter to his wife and soon after died in the first battle of Bull Run. It is a sad and beautiful song that truly showcases Audra’s songwriting talent.

I’m very excited to see what awaits with the release of her full length album and I hope you all are too after hearing her music and learning a little bit about her.

Let me know what you think of this artist and look into her links below if you want to learn more.


If you are as curious as I was to learn more about Sullivan and his letter to his wife you can read the full text here Sullivan Ballou Letter It could quite possibly be one of the most beautiful and tragic things I have ever read.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I love her sound! Thanks for sharing!

Beth said...

I love her!! Thanks for doing all the work and finding these great artists!!

You're awesome!