LAUREN LUCAS

On With the Show

laurenlucas.com

The cover portrait for Nashville-based Lauren Lucas’ first new music since 2007 (illustrated by noted comic-book artist Jim Starlin) finds the South Carolina native cutting herself free of puppet strings. While it’s a not-so-subtle metaphor for Lucas’ frustration with her wranglings with Music City’s oft-maddening business machine, it’s also representative of the broader and more organic musical scope demonstrated on the six tracks of this independent EP. Never before has Lucas allowed the natural streak of R&B and soul always implied in her rich voice to the fore as it does here, supported by a steady thrum of B-3 organ and (on the clever music-biz deconstruction “Follow the Leader”) a proudly blaring horn section.