Laura Love (born 1960) is an American singer and bass guitar player.
Love was born Laura Jones in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1960. She is of African American, Native American, and Caucasian descent.[2][3] Love had a difficult childhood, raised by a mother with schizophrenia and in foster homes. Her father, who had little involvement in her life, was the jazz musician Preston Love who played sax with Count Basie, Lucky Millander and Johnny Otis and formed his own band in the 1950s. Love's mother, Wini, had been a singer in Preston's jazz band.
Love began her performing career at age 16, singing for the prisoners at the Nebraska State Penitentiary. Love relocated to Seattle, Washington, where she was a member of the late 1980s rock group Boom Boom G.I. She was also a member of an all-female band, Venus Envy.
After Love released three albums on her own label, Octoroon Biography, Putumayo released a collection of her songs. Her album Welcome to Pagan Place included the controversial song "I Want You Gone", about George W. Bush. She published an autobiography, You Ain't Got No Easter Clothes, with an accompanying album of the same name, in 2004. Her style has been described as "Afro-Celtic" and has also been influenced by bluegrass.
Discography Z Therapy (1990) Pangaea (1992) Helvetica Bold (1994) The Laura Love Collection (1995) Jo Miller and Laura Love Sing Bluegrass and Old Time Music (1995) Octoroon (1997) Shum Ticky (1998) Fourteen Days (2000) Welcome to Pagan Place (2003) You Ain't Got No Easter Clothes (2004) NÄ“Grass (2007) The Sweeter the Juice (2009)