This collaboration between Laura Veirs and a French school choir offers a different perspective on songs from Veirs’ back catalogue.
Don’t you just love an album with a fascinating back story? Well, this album has one and is quite different to the norm because of it. Laura Veirs will be no stranger to many of AUK’s readers – she’s a singer-songwriter, based in Portland, Oregon, but that’s by no means the full story. Veirs is also an author, writing a book; “Libba: The Magnificent Musical Life of Elizabeth Cotten“, published in 2018 it was aimed at children. It tells the story of Cotten, an influential musician, a self-taught left-handed guitar player, who played a right-handed guitar upside down, and developed a style of playing which has influenced many players since. Veirs is a long-term fan of Cotten’s work. Additionally in 2018, she launched a weekly podcast with tales of working musicians who are also parents; the podcast “Midnight Lightning” featured interviews with musicians (and mothers) such as Rosanne Cash, Rhiannon Giddens and Meshell Ndegeocello. Veirs’ records are released on her own label; Raven Marching Band, along with those of a number of other artists.
On top of all this, Veirs is a teacher. She offers songwriting training via Zoom and has also taught at Stanford University, at Reed College (Portland), Carleton College (Northfield, Minnesota), the University of Washington (Seattle) and the School of Song. Add to these a service that Veirs dubs “Creative Critique“; she describes the service: “Send me your music and I will listen to it and give you thoughtful and instructive feedback.”
The album “Laura Veirs And The Choir Who Couldn’t Say (Live In Angoulême)” is not Veirs’ first collaboration, as in 2016 she collaborated with fellow singer-songwriters Neko Case and k.d. lang on the brilliant “case/lang/veirs” record. “Laura Veirs And The Choir Who Couldn’t Say (Live In Angoulême)” sees Veirs performing (as the title suggests) alongside a choir, in fact with a French school choir. The choir is the Choir of the Collège et Lycée Saint-Paul in Angoulême, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France (Angoulême is a small city in the southwest of France; nicknamed “The balcony of the southwest” as it sits on a plateau with views over the river Charente). The choir, which is made up of 32 students (30 girls and two boys), in the age range of 12 to 18, has been steadily building a reputation for itself under the direction of musician turned teacher Patrice Cleyrat, who also arranged the songs and played keyboards. A great fan of all music, Cleyrat has also taught his choirs over the years the works of Nirvana, The Beatles and other artists and has previously worked in collaboration with French musician Cascadeur. In 2006, he also directed a different children’s choir, the Young Rapture Choir, in a concert of Veirs’ work. Although present to witness the concert, Veirs did not, on that occasion, perform. Cleyrat describes The Choir Who Couldn’t Say as a family – there is no judgement, just the desire to sing together, with one voice.
Prior to the recording of the concert, The Choir Who Couldn’t Say practiced for a period of nine months and were joined on stage by Veirs for the live performance on 24th May 2025, which took place at La Nef (or The Nave), a contemporary music venue in Angoulême. A collaboration between the venue and the school means the choir has access to an excellent rehearsal and performing space.
Given Veirs has released 13 solo long players, the repertoire featured here is fairly limited; the 14 pieces being taken from 2003’s “Troubled by the Fire”, “Carbon Glacier” (2004), “Saltbreakers” (2007), 2010’s “July Flame“, “Warp & Weft” (2013) and 2020’s “My Echo“, in addition to a track from “case/lang/veirs“. All songs written by Veirs with the exception of ‘I Want To Be Here‘, co-written with Case and Lang. There’s a mix of songs which the choir sings alone and those which Veirs sings with the choir. The record opens with a spoken introduction by Veirs, then it’s straight into ‘Shining Lamp Interlude 1‘, the first of three such interludes. This is followed by ‘Freedom Feeling‘ before the first of the songs where Veirs sings along with the choir, ‘Wide-Eyed, Legless‘.
‘I Want To Be Here‘ from the “case/lang/veir” record, another of the songs that Veirs sings with the choir, is a highlight of the record, with the mix of voices working well, especially at the end where Veirs stops playing guitar and it’s just the voices, singing “The hungry fools, Who rule the world can’t catch us, Surely they can’t ruin everything“, powerful stuff. This is followed by another highlight, ‘Shape Shifter‘ which again sees Veirs singing with the choir.
Following the final ‘Shining Lamp Interlude‘ we reach ‘Make Something Good‘ from “July Flame“, a song that also features on the soundtrack to the 2012 movie “Hello I Must be Going“, before the concert concludes with another highlight, ‘I Can See Your Tracks‘.
This is an interesting release, but will it introduce Veirs’ music to other listeners? Outside of the family and friends of the choristers, probably not. Also, depending on your tastes, you may feel that the versions of Veirs’ songs presented here are not as good as the original versions as they appear on Veirs’ previous records. Both of these details, however miss the point somewhat – what we have here is a document of a performance, a testament to much that is good in music, good songs and arrangements performed in a unique collaboration between artist and school kids. Music in its purest sense. And bringing joy and fulfilment; as Veirs herself put it, “Hearing their brave and soulful renditions of my songs and performing with them was a career highlight”.
The choristers involved in this project, having worked for nine months will see just how much effort is required to have an involvement in the music industry, but some of them will, undoubtedly, be inspired to pursue music as a career as a result. Who knows – could there be a future Laura Veirs singing in the choir?
