b. Colorado, USA. Raised in Colorado Springs, art-country singer-songwriter Veirs attended college in rural Minnesota where she studied geology and Chinese and began playing guitar in local punk bands. She moved to Seattle in 1997 after completing college, where she began to explore her renewed passion for folk and country music. Veirs found work as an ESL teacher and a gardener to support her music career, which she launched in the late 90s with a DIY approach brought about by the difficulty in securing record company interest. Two self-released albums followed in 1999 and 2001 respectively, with Veirs' adept guitar and banjo playing prominent on songs that blended folk, blues, and bluegrass to hypnotic effect. The latter release, The Triumphs & Travails Of Orphan Mae, was of particular note for the way Veirs skilfully wove together stories about women of all ages pushed to and sometimes over the limits of their endurance
The rising swell of acclaim around the singer-songwriter led to her signing a recording contract with the UK-based independent Bella Union. Veirs recorded her third album with help from celebrated guitarist Bill Frisell and her live touring band, the Tortured Souls, featuring Karl Blau (guitar/vocals), Steve Moore (keyboards/vocals) and Tucker Martine (drums
Troubled By The Fire was more expansive than the earlier recordings, utilising strings, brass and Frisell's jazzy guitar licks to augment Veirs' enchanting nouveau folk melodies. During the same year Veirs launched the Raven Marching Band Records label.
Source: http://www.free-albums.net/mp3/artists/biography/364164
