Laura Chavez - My Voice

Laura Chavez - "My Voice" - Ruf Records 2026

Produced by Laura Chavez and Thomas Ruf                        

Ruf Records – When The Blues Crosses Over

Bob Margolin has stated the following about her abilities: “Laura always finds clever, fiery and lyrical guitar fills and solos in any song.  When I listen, I can’t wait to hear what she’ll play next!”

                                Laura Chavez is an acclaimed blues, soul, rhythm, and blues guitarist, songwriter, and producer whose impassioned playing is spellbinding. With her powerful stage presence and fiery fretwork, Laura Chavez has been the foundation of countless stage performances for a "who's who" of the music world for decades. She has recorded and produced recordings for artists like Deborah Coleman, Candye Kane, The Mannish Boys, Monster Mike Welch, Vanessa Collier, Chickenbone Slim, Whitney Shay, Dani Wilde, Mitch Ryder, Nikki Hill, and many others. Laura won the 2023 Blues Music Award for Instrumentalist-Guitar, the only woman to receive that honor. The world is celebrating the debut solo recording from Laura Chavez, "My Voice," on the prestigious Ruf label, capturing her raw energy, remarkable passion, incredible versatility, and fiery fretwork. This collection features originals and reimagined classics that reflect her Texas and Chicago blues roots, California upbringing, and Mexican heritage.

Before we take a deep dive and plunge right into the new recording, let's look at some fascinating aspects of Laura's remarkable life that few may be aware of. 

  * Laura was granted but then decided to defer admission to the University of California-Berkeley and had planned to be a pre-med student. However, Laura realized that her music career was skyrocketing, so she abandoned that plan. Despite this switch Laura volunteered at Stanford Children's Hospital for 10 years,managing to fit this in despite having an extremely busy music calendar.  

                                    * During the pandemic,when touring ceased,stages were darkened,and venues shuttered their doors,Laura Chavez turned to Busking,something totally unfamiliar to her-  

“The pandemic was hard for most of us.  It made me doubt the future and caused an identity crisis of sorts.  What am I if I’m not a guitar player? Up until that point I had not made a single dollar doing any other kind of job other than playing guitar. For two months I didn’t play at all, and I even lost my callouses, but then tried busking and it was actually pretty cool.  You didn’t want to be partly responsible for causing people to gather or enticing people to be irresponsible, so I went to an area of San Diego called Little Italy where there are just pedestrians, no cars.  So, people can distance while walking and restaurants had outdoor seating.  I started playing with Chickenbone Slim and at first, I thought I’d just come with an acoustic guitar, but soon I was bringing battery-powered amps and a whole drum set.  We started playing every Friday and we drew a regular crowd.  The whole busking thing, along with grants from the Blues Foundation and some generous bandleaders, saved me during the pandemic.  And Chickenbone Slim and I recorded an album together with Kid Anderson at Greaseland, which should be out on Vizztone Records in the Spring.”(interview done in 2023)

Featured Interview – Laura Chavez – Blues Blast Magazine

                                              During the pandemic, Laura also spent a lot of time reading recipes and cooking, a talent most don't know she possesses.She is particularly fond of recipes that honor her father's.Mexican heritage 

“People are surprised to hear that I am an aspiring cook.  I really got into making different dishes with mole sauces during the pandemic.  I would take all the peppers, grind them down and make everything from scratch.”

Interview with Laura Chavez on Blues, Guitar Style and New Album My Voice

                                                 The new album is titled "My Voice," referring to the fact that the guitar IS her voice. Laura communicates "through true songs with hooks, melodies, and most importantly, my own voice and personality" (Beautiful and Extensive CD liner notes). Every song on "My Voice" reflects her inner world, dipping into her cultural melting pot,expressing Laura's unique personality and style through her music, which creates a deep emotional connection between herself and listeners everywhere. Each and every song has "a personal style and emotional attachments," and Laura dug deep "in the hopes of sharing it all" with listeners throughout the globe. Through it all Laura hopes, "...I hope I convey humor and fun, a lot of emotion and angst, maybe a bit of grit and irreverence... through my voice, my guitar."

                                Looking at some tracks from this exciting new release we find:

                                * "Born On The Bayou" - Yes, the classic Creedence track, reinvented in Laura's uniquely creative way: uptempo and driving, a far cry from the expected. Dedicated by Laura to her father, a huge CCR fan.

                                * "Chinese Checkers" -  Booker T and the MGs totally reimagined, turned upside down; a fun track to perform.Here the Booker T parts are played on the guitar, freeing up the keys to do something else entirely. Laura used a tiny mini Marshall amp to record one of the guitars, making it stand out—nasty sounding stuff indeed!!

                               * "El Cascabel" is a traditional folk piece often associated with mariachi, embodying themes of love,longing,and joy. Drawing influence from the band "Los Lobos," Laura reimagined this cultural nugget as an instrumental, proudly spotlighting her Mexican heritage. You can actually feel the heat of the Mexican sun as this track unwinds. The "Mexican Sun" represents a fierce, unrelenting energy, burning away the old to allow a new,stronger self to emerge.

                               * "So Long Baby,Goodbye" - Here we have plenty of spit, grit, and defiance, a track from the influential band "The Blasters," who epitomized the California music melting pot, where blues, honky-tonk, punk rock, and highly charged R&B-infused rock and roll crashed into one another with a thunderous cosmic shift. This is Laura's tribute to her home state of California and its one-of-a-kind Roots/Rock and Roll scene.

                               * "La Llorona" - Thomas Ruf insisted on a slow blues track for the album,so Laura turned once again to her Mexican heritage, taking this popular song and conjuring the spirit of Peter Green. As Laura tells us, "I thought long about actually recording this one.I hope I captured the spirit here."

                               * " Shot-Zee" - A fun party song. A fascinating bit of trivia frames this irresistible track: Michael Murauer, who mixed and mastered the recordings, found his house cleaner unexpectedly part of the recording, singing as one of the voices on the shout line "Shot-Zee." If you listen closely you\ll hear the shaking and dropping of sugar cubes falling from a cup,bringing to life the dice game that Laura and her friends enjoy playing together. 

                               * "Mind Your Step" swings with an uncontrollable soul-shaking intensity—another track that spotlights Laura's remarkable versatility. She certainly makes every note memorable, bringing fresh elements to this track,and to every song on the album.

                               * "Check out the tracks "Mamba Negra," "Wanderer," and "Napa Street," which are all distinctively unique, offering beautifully expressive guitar work. Every song has something special, telling a story and offering not just a sound but an experience that moves people.

                             "My Voice" was recorded at Studio St. Annan in Bad Sooden-Allendorf, Germany, using the same musicians Laura tours with in the Blues Caravan and with Mitch Ryder. As Laura tells us, "My style is direct, rock-driven, fiery, full of soul, rhythm, and blues.Groove is really important to me - but it always has to stay melodic." Laura has created an album that sweeps people up into its sound. She entertains people, creating limitless possibilities with a strikingly original imagination, making every listener feel the music as she feels it. With a full palette of colours at her disposal, Laura Chavez creates a mesmerizing array of melodies, rhythms, moods, and instruments. "My Voice" is an unforgettable musical experience. A very cool listen that should be played over and over again. A master class in guitar artistry from start to finish!

       Many Thanks and Deafening Applause to:

Laura Chavez - All guitars,electric nylon string / Lea Worms - organ and piano / Tomek Germann - bass / Dennis Palatin and Marty Dodson - drums / Additional Percussion on the song "El Cascabel" was played by Antonio Econom,recorded at Bulbancha Ya Ya Studios in Chula Vista,California

Review written by - John Muller - Blue Notes and Conversations - raymondmuller567.wixsite.com/blue-notes-and-con-1