Titus writes:
This is my final blog of 2024, as I shall be away
for New Year, and I have chosen a pioneer of the guitar on the
internet, Laura Cox, to write about. Laura has led the way for many
young guitarists, is a multi instrumentalist and is now at the
forefront of the current landscape of guitarists in France and
beyond. “France?” I hear you say, “With a name like Laura Cox?”. Let
me explain......Laura was born in France on 24 November 1990 to an
English father and a French mother. She first started playing the
guitar at the age of 14, using a cheap classical guitar that her aunt
gave to her, and her first electric guitar was a Squier Showmaster. At
the age of 16, she started her own channel on a well known site that
displays videos & music, and this built her a large audience. By
2008 she was not only posting cover versions and guitar solos, but also
uploading self penned music. Until she was able to turn professional,
she worked in a recording studio and a guitar shop.
Following
her online success of gaining several million views, she formed her
own rock band in Paris, giving her first hand experience of playing to a
live audience. Laura has used a variety of guitars, such as Gibson
Les Paul, Fender Telecaster and Fender Stratocaster. The Laura Cox
Band released its first studio album ‘Hard Blues Shot’ in 2017, and
followed this up with ‘Burning Bright’ in 2019. Laura chose to release
the third album, ‘Head Above Water, a year or so ago, in just her
name. She chose to re-invent herself, and recorded the album at the
World famous ICP Studios in Brussels. You will hear on this, that she
plays precision guitar, blending traditional rock with blue grass with
astonishing ease. She illustrates that she is a more than competent
guitarist and that she is a driving force in a new generation of rock
guitarists. For her third studio album and from then onstage, she
chose not to play as joint guitarist with Mathieu Albiac, and instead
utilised a keyboard player.
For
the ‘Head Above Water’ album, Laura chose not to work with the band in
her native France, and holed up in Portugal by herself, to write and
demo the record’s 11 tracks. You can hear how she shines as a
multi-instrumentalist, exploring outside her comfort zone, and
integrates her banjo playing with the aid of lap steel into a few
songs. She apparently wanted the end result of the third album to be
less heavy than the first two albums, with a decided ‘Southern’, blue
grass and country influence.
She
is unusual in that when she writes, she produces the guitar riff
first, and then adds other instrumentation, at the same time deciding
what type of vocals the track should have. All in all Laura has worked
hard to become an accomplished guitarist and vocalist in what is still a
very competitive sector within the rock music industry. Some would
argue that it is an extremely male-dominated sector. If you have never
heard of her, then please give her a listen – I think you’ll be
pleasantly surprised when you hear her perform her own material and
cover versions. Undoubtedly music journalists have proclaimed that
she is heavily influenced by X, Y, and Z guitarists, but I reckon it’s
pretty cool, in the track I’ve asked Lex to play, (as one commentator
put it) to hear of a French musician, singing in English at the
Pol’and’Rock Festival. It not only proves that music is a universal
language, but also in simpler terms, that Laura Cox rocks! The track is
‘Going Down’ and can be found here. I wish you all a peaceful New Year and hope that 2025 is kind to you.