Daze of Laur is the project of Los Angeles-based artist Laura Esgro. Raised by parents who grew up in the 1960s LA music scene and Tennessean grandparents, Californian folk-rock and American country music run in her bloodline. Long family road trips in California and the American Southwest, as a girl, were spent writing and listening to artists like Johnny Cash, Karen Dalton, the Kinks, Tom Waits, Link Wray, and the Carter Family. After studying to become an ecologist and a filmmaker, Esgro focused her passion for the nature of life and storytelling into her first love, music.
“Valley of the Clouds” is the second single from Esgro’s new musical outing, and for such a young artist, it would appear she has already found her footing in the burgeoning folk scene. The wistful single is a hypnotic take on modern folk as Esgro’s acrobatic harmonies scale a blissful, warm acoustic arrangement, creating the hazy feeling that washes over the listener. “Valley of the Clouds” is the sonic equivalent of stepping through the threshold of a childhood home for the first time in years, familiar and welcoming yet haunted by the past. The gentle vocals act as the posters of youthful heroes plastered on your wall, while the lyrics represent that new crack in the kitchen wall or the site of your old clothes in a donation box. Lyrically, she writes from a personal place yet still maintains a level of empathy that makes deeply vulnerable songs like “Valley of the Clouds” feel relatable and present. Esgro is on the fast track to be one of the most exciting additions to modern folk, and her new single is the refreshing drink of honest folk we could all use more of.
“I wrote ‘Valley of the Clouds’ at a time in my life when I couldn’t see a clear way forward, and I felt alone and hopeless on my path. As always, it was Earth that brought me back to the ultimate truth. From a high vantage point one day, I watched the shadows of clouds move over a valley below,” explains Esgro when asked about her new single. “From that perspective, I could see the physical lows and highs, and the beauty within each part and within the whole. I really wanted to keep a spirit of traditional American country music alive in the song; I find so much inspiration and magic in high-lonesome sound where a simple expression of sadness becomes transcendent. At the same time, I have a strong desire to bring something new into the music I make – I think there’s a spaciousness and strangeness that comes into my sound based on the time I’m living in and the uncertain new frontier of the present era.”
