Filled with emotive & reflective songs of heartbreak and challenge (as
important Country artists worth their salt manage to do), Laurie also makes
a unique departure on her latest CD, teaming up with Donny Brown from The
Verve Pipe, who co-wrote one track with Laurie on the CD, and also performs
on a refreshing & propulsive version of The Verve Pipe track, Happiness Is.

Recorded in Nashville with solid musical firepower provided by Jeff
Walikangas, Cliff Thompson, Danny Parks and the wonderful steel guitar
playing of Jim Vest, the evolution of Laurie's melodic ability is also
framed by the maturing nature of her lyrical prowess.
Having confronted the personal turmoil of going through a recent divorce,
the challenges crack through the surface lyrically in such songs as The
Same Man, The Damage is Done, and You're Out of Love.

Yet if great art is borne from the process of channeling anguish and
aspiration into promise and faith in the future, Laurie has created a
musical watershed.
Recently we sat down with Laurie for an in-depth interview and found her to
be in good spirits, fresh from picking up her children at school, and
obviously happy to be a Michigan cowgirl raising children, horses,
chocolate labs, and working to make her dreams come true.

Review: When approaching this project did you have any ideas about the
things you wanted to see happen in terms of sound and direction?

Laurie: Well, it's been four years since the last CD was released. I had
three songs written shortly after the last album came out, but ended up
going through a divorce, so never finished the project.  When my divorce
was final I picked up the project again, only didn't have any money, even
though I felt I had a lot of songs with great potential.

Then when interest rates went down last year I refinanced my house and got
some cash and decided I'd better do this CD while I can, otherwise it would
never happen.

Review: So how did the partnership with Donny Brown come about?

Laurie:  I met Donny through my boyfriend, Joe Christensen. Joe grew up
with Donny and always talked about him.

I didn't really know the music of The Verve Pipe that well, but once I met
Donny and listened to him, I wanted to him involved.  It was hard to talk
him into it because he's so busy and has so many irons in the fire, but I
convinced him that it would only take a few days, and he was glad to
contribute.

Donny was used to musicians in the Rock industry and Nashville is very
different. They don't do things the same as they do in L.A. or New York.

The track that we wrote together, The Same Man, had the bridge all messed
up. Donny said, 'This is what you should do'. He changed the bridge and
added harmony vocals and I think it ended up being the best song I've ever
written.

Donny did me a big favor. He's worked with big people in the business and
I'm just a local Saginaw girl. Even though I have learned a lot about the
music business.  I still have a lot to learn because I tend to get mad
easily.

People will walk on you and I've been walked on, stomped on, stood on, and
still come back fighting. I don't quit. In fact, I'm already working on my

fourth CD and have 2 songs started. They aren't produced, but the lyrics
and melody are there.

Review: When you listen to your first CD and your current work, do you hear

much of a difference?

Laurie: Sometimes when I listen to it I smile and ask myself what I was
thinking, because you get smarter after you get your first CD back from the

plant.

I'll listen to it and think I wish I would have done that guitar part
differently, for example, but it's too late. So the next time you write a
song you don't rush right down to Nashville and record it. That's why this
album took three trips to finish and I feel it is three times better, just
because I wasn't in a big hurry and rush to get it out.

On some tracks we had it mixed four different ways, so if you change your
mind you can revert to a different copy during the mixing. It's more
expensive to record that way, but I think you get a better product.

Review: What type of values do you strive for thematically in your work?

Laurie: I'm old-fashioned in the sense that I have a six-year old daughter
and when I'm flipping through the radio I hear some stuff, not the style of
music, but the language of the lyrics that bothers me.

Everybody has opinions but as an artist I try to pay more attention to what
I say and how it affects people.

When you sing a song for an audience, you don't know which side of the song
they're on. Some people will like it and others, no matter how good you
are, won't like you. So I focus on writing for the people that do like me
and don't worry about the rest, because you'll never make everybody happy.

It's like with the Internet.  We have a website now at
www.lauriemiddlebrook.com where people can order the new CD, and it's a
wonderful thing because of all you can do. But on the other hand,
technology can be our downfall and it also has a lot of bad problems.

I'm old fashioned and should have been born a hundred years ago. It doesn't
bother me to carry water, build a fire, and work hard for my comforts
rather than just push a button and have them pop up.

Review: With so much 'crossover' going on in Country music have your
impressions about what Country music is changed?  Do you still view
yourself as a country artist?

Laurie: Yeah, I always will consider myself Country. I was raised in the
country and if you hear pop tones in my work it's more the influence from
other musicians.

I've received a lot of different opinions, but certain things don't work
for me. I've tried singing Shania Twain and can't do it. When I sang 'Man,
I feel like a woman,' it felt so unreal to me that I had to drop the song
from my list.

I can bend and am learning to bend, but I'm also almost 39 years old now so
while I can bend, I can't fake it.  It's the difference between wearing a
low-cut shirt to be attractive, or just having it all hang out.  You can
have flavor without going overboard, but that's just me. Some people are
into that kind of thing.

I guess I'm just getting older. Morals and values are important to me, so
when I write music and perform it, I look at that a lot more. It's more
important than it used to be.

Review: What songs do you like best on the new CD?

Laurie:  The song 'Good Luck' is one of my favorites. I wrote that song
about a girl having bad luck. The producers heard it and said 'Drop the
song'. I asked why and they said you call 'Good Luck' but its about bad
luck so doesn't make sense.  If you're going to write about good luck,
write about something lucky that happened to you.

So I changed the setting of the song to a casino, where people usually run
into good luck, and just recorded it.

Later we went to a casino and I played a slot machine and sang, 'Good Lord,
just a little good luck!' and wound up winning $5,000 dollars!  That's the
honest to God' truth. I have the IRS sheet to prove it.

So now I really like that song. Had I written about bad luck, who knows
what would have happened, because I haven't had any bad luck lately.

Review:  So do you feel the personal experiences you went through between
the second and third album altered the way your new release evolved?

Laurie:  Sure it did. When your life changes dramatically you look at
things in a different perspective. You get your eyes opened. That's where
the song The Same Man came from. And it's also why I recorded Happiness Is.

A lot of people value money and spending a million dollars on a big house,
but other people are very happy with very little. You find out how short
life is and what you really need to get by.

Do an experiment. Just look in your closet at the 35 shirts you have
hanging and ask if you're really wearing them all or if you only need four
or five to get by. It makes you want to clean out your closet.

Review: You've opened for artists such as Neil McCoy, Diamond Rio and Steve
Warner. Do you still have aspirations for signing a major record deal?

Laurie:  No, not really. My goal is focused more on becoming a professional
songwriter and hearing my own songs on the radio. If I'm the one singing
them that would be OK, but I'd prefer to hear Martina McBride or Patti
Loveless singing them.

Honestly, I feel I'm too old for an artist deal. Labels want young people
that can get up and go, which I would do if offered, but I've written
enough songs and demos that I could send to publishing companies and say,
'Here's 25 of my best songs'.

Hopefully that will happen in the future.  I'm happy staying home, raising
my family, writing songs, and still being in the music business.
There's a whole different flavor to this new CD. There are three excellent
guys doing vocal harmonies on it, so it isn't just me singing all the time,
and everything seems to be growing.

Review: You've been singing the National Anthem at a few of the Saginaw
Spirit games recently. Coupled with your touring and live performances and
now this new CD, do you feel like a local star of sorts?

Laurie: (laughter). No, no.  I'm just a Mom and the lunch lady at school.
I've been in this business for 18 years and won't mention names, but I've
seen a lot of big heads in this business.  Some people don't like me and my
music because I'm 'set in my ways', but you learn when you have kids that
no matter how big you think you are, you're still somebody's Mom and gotta
do the dishes.  We're all human and we all put our pants on one leg at a
time.

Laurie Middlebrook's new CD 'Volume III' is available for purchase at The
Twilight Gallery, Strobel's in Shields, White's Bar and Rodeitchers.  Watch
the Review for future dates and times of live performances.