Laura Bell Bundy, the
Tony and Drama Desk nominated actress of Legally
Blonde, celebrates the release of her debut country album entitled "Longing
for a Place Already Gone" with concerts at the legendary Birdland on Mondays July 23 & 30 and August 20 at 7PM.
BroadwayWorld.com's
own Eugene Lovendusky, based in San Francisco, had the opportunity to chat with
Bundy between shows this Saturday, to discuss her original music, her new
record label (The Lab) and to recount some of her Broadway experience…
Eugene Lovendusky:
Thanks for taking a moment out of your busy Saturday schedule to chat with
BroadwayWorld.com and congratulations on your debut album! You'll be at
Birdland Monday night celebrating your CD release. What can the concert audiences expect to hear?
Laura Bell Bundy:
They can expect to hear country music! [laughs] It's my first time ever
performing my music live, so it's going to be a virginal experience
for me as well as for everybody there.
It's going to be really fun.
There's tunes for fun and crazy and rocky and it's probably
not what Charlie Parker intended for Birdland! [laughs] It's probably a little
crazier and wilder in terms of the country edge. And there's some sort of
really sad, sweet ballads. I'm hoping
that people will be entertained and feel moved at some point and think that
they want to go hang out in the South for a while. [southern accent] It's "southern" without the
prejudice, lemme tell you! I'm an open-minded southern girl.
Eugene: [laughs] I know you are! Your
childhood music inspirations included country singers like Dolly Parton, Patsy
Cline, Johnny Cash… how do you tribute these legends in "Longing For A Place
Already Gone"?
Laura Bell: Even
in the title itself; it's longing for music already gone or longing for a place
in my past already gone or memories. The
album is very much a "throw-back," influenced by Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline,
Elvis, Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard.
Every decade from the 1940s and up is somehow represented on the album. "Just Me" is Merle Haggard, deep south. "I'll Make The Money" is essentially a really
rockabilly tune, which is very Elvis. All the songs are original tunes.
I wrote or co-wrote most of them. A few my producer wrote; and the ones he wrote were from almost 25 years
ago! It was what was appealing to me, the old stuff. "Dancing With Myself,"
which is the Billy Idol tune, is the only song I covered on the album.
Eugene: I was just going to ask about him
(your co-producer), Larson Paine. How
did he come into the picture?
Laura Bell: I actually met Larson on Larchmont in Los
Angeles. He was eating and he stopped me because I
was massaging my larynx. I was doing a show and trying to loosen up my throat. He had sort of this southern vibe about
eating alone and talking to people. And it was funny because I had just having
eaten with Larry O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin. I had just eaten Greek with them
and we were talking about Legally Blonde…
but it wasn't official, this was before I did the workshop. Then I walk out onto the street and that's
where I met Larson. I ended up sitting
down and talking with him… and he came to see the show I was doing and he said:
"Oh my god! I want to write for you!" Then we started writing together and we totally
hit it off. We had the same sense… I said: "I don't want to do commercial
country. I don't want to do that pop country.
I want to do more of a throw-back because that's what I like to write
and that's what I feel connected to." If
it happens to get on the radio? Great. But I'm not going play to making it a
hit. If it is, it is. I just want the
songs to be appealing and fun and heart-wrenching. 
