Introducing... Seattle singer-songwriter Laura Veirs.

Her career is movin' along, even if Laura Veirs is re-tracing her steps this week by reissuing her 2001 album The Triumphs And Travails Of Orphan Mae. Previously available only at her gigs and through her website, it gives an early insight to her talent for deadpan folk blues with sparse, hypnotic arrangements and Pacific Northwest flavours. On Wednesday Laura plays Fibbers in York, her first North Yorkshire gig since singing next to a field of sheep at The Band Room, Low Mill, Farndale, in July 2003. CHARLES HUTCHINSON reports.

Why are you re-releasing the Orphan Mae album?

"It just seemed a natural time to introduce the record to the UK as people seemed to really like the last album 2004's Carbon Glacier. I've played a lot of those Orphan Mae songs on tour in the last two years, and I'll have to learn a couple of them again for this tour because at least one third of the show will be devoted to that album."

Have you re-recorded any of the album for the re-issue?

"No, none of it. I would never change anything; to go back to the record after the fact isn't something I'd do. I'll wait until the songs have dried up before doing a compilation...and I've still got plenty to write."

The Carbon Glacier album took you to new heights. You must have been delighted that it made the Album of the Year lists in plenty of British music publications?

"We felt great about how well Carbon Glacier was received. Bella Union promoted it really well in Britain, and I tapped into something new in myself. I've been asked a lot why Europeans like my music, and I don't know...maybe it's because there's a lot of space in my music, a lot of nature, solitude and contemplation, and you don't get that space, that wilderness, in Europe, whereas we're all used to open spaces in America. I'm really glad that people are responding to that.

"There's a real response right now to music that's more contemplative and literary, like Joanna Newsom, who's an amazing lyricist, and Adem."

You say you tapped into something new when making Carbon Glacier. How did you feel when you first heard the finished album?

"I'm not really a good judge of my own music. I was being professional, and I saw a lack of depth in certain places, as I'm probably my harshest critic. I was on a train in Barcelona crying about it and thinking 'I'm just not happy with myself', but now I have space from it and I'm doing another record, and I really do like Carbon Glacier. I was very focused in my approach to that record and exercised it easily in the studio and learnt how to bring a record to fruition."

Is it right that Carbon Glacier was released in Britain first?

"Yes, the Nonesuch label brought it out in America last August, six months behind the British release but the good news is that I've got a deal with Nonesuch for the next album to be released globally at the same time. We're almost done with recording it now and it should be out late summer or early fall.

"The direction is more electric, a little more noise, with weird noises in there, but there's still a lot of natural sounds."

Why are you so drawn to writing about nature?

"I don't sit down and consciously say I'll write about the wind today, but if I hear the wind and it inspires a thought... this thought process may stop at some time but right now there's a well of material in me about nature. For me, I'm trying to write about universal things, so it's not about trees but about two people and how we relate to each other, though the image might be two trees talking to each other."

Is there a theme to the new album?

"There is, but I'll leave that for later. We'll play three or four new songs in each show on this tour but we don't want to do too many as we're saving them for the autumn, when we'll do a longer tour if all goes to schedule."

Laura Veirs plays Fibbers, York, on March 2, supported by Gina Villalobos and GT Turbo.

Updated: 16:22 Thursday, February 24, 2005