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Uppity

by Laura Love

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deepmission
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deepmission I’ve always loved Laura Love since I first saw her perform on a stage on the Embarcadero here in San Francisco. Her songs always have something to say in a beautiful and lyrical way that makes a person think, and every song on Uppity is a gem. I’d be hard pressed to pick a favorite, but the harmonies with Ruthie Foster on Two of Us are truly memorable.
David A. Miller
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David A. Miller It's hard to select just one track, but today I think that Gentle is the song I most need to hear in my life. Laura Love is such a gift. Favorite track: Gentle.
Bluegrassinman
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Bluegrassinman Well, while I love all the tracks, track 8 is my favorite because it's you and Ruthie Foster. Your exquisite vocals, and minimal production, especially featuring the dobro, really make en enjoyable mix. Love you and your talent as always! Best wishes. Favorite track: Two of Us (featuring Ruthie Foster).
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1.
Heart of Nat Turner I am reading the confessions of a man driven mad by the chains And the whip upon his back I look up at once to see the angry sons of those he claimed In their January march to the attack Let not anger overtake me as I watch their spirits soar On the heady incense of rage Let not visions fill my head - of dancing in the fields As those sins come a’calling for their wage Chorus: Don’t let me feel the heart of Nat Turner Beating in my chest Beating in my chest                       Don’t let me feel his troubled voice calling me from rest Me from rest Calling me from my rest I am trying to be kind To calm this beast I am hoping with reason to respond If I allow myself To enjoy the feast I may never return from beyond As you wail about the insults to your rights As you’re crying stop the steal Don’t tread on me I would like to submit for your Consideration It was you who denied him liberty (Chorus x2)           You make me feel Don’t make me feel You make me feel like a Nat Turner woman Don’t make me feel the heart of Nat Turner beating in my chest Beating in my chest
2.
23 & Me 03:42
23 & ME Outnumbered at nearly every turn She’s chosen to neither hang nor burn                                                                                  She’s chosen - to close her eyes And think of England                           We saw her - (23 and me) And felt her woolen hair We heard her - (23 and me) Crying   Tears - fall into her ears  Chorus:      The British are coming (in spite of her) The British are coming (inside of her) One if by land - two if by sea The British are coming (in spite of her)     The Sun - never sets on her The Moon - pirouettes on her Her body - is a drum to beat The shackles - rattle at her feet                        Tears fall into her ears (Chorus)                                                                 Tears - fall into her ears Run - run darling can’t you run? RUN Your Bible - tells her from birth Her joy - - will not be on earth Damnation is the curse of Ham Enforcement is the curse of Sam Tears fall into her ears        Sometimes I’m mistaken for one of them They tell me they long to return again My heart shatters finding it’s still too soon To suffer the dreams of this Octoroon          
3.
WHY DON’T YOU I was standing in line behind a guy in a camo shirt and an orange vest In the grocery store another man came up and said - did you get the big one yet? He said no man I was out in the woods and a giant buck - walked right in front of me He didn’t know I was there so I laid down my gun and I let him be Chorus:                                                                  I know it’s in there somewhere I know you’ve got a heart I’ve stumbled on you doing things that just tore me apart I know it’s in there somewhere I’ve seen what you can do I’m certain that you can be kind so Why don’t you I saw a story on TV About a man whose little boy came home crying He said Daddy I brought my little ponies to show and tell And they laughed at me They said my shirt looks like a dress, and my hair’s a mess - and only girls like flowers He told his son we’ll go to school on Monday And we’ll get it all worked out (Chorus) That night the missus asked him how it all went He said - pretty good I think I know they’d never seen a guy 6 foot 3 with a wand - wearing pink All the kids loved my tutu too And the glitter in my hair Even little Cody said I like your slippers man Do you have an extra pair? (Chorus)
4.
Gentle 04:19
  GENTLE I know what my cats like And I know how to type I know how to read and write But I don’t know how to mend I know how this scale goes And I know how to rhyme And I know how a song flows But I don’t know how to mend Chorus: Gentle, gentle Be gentle with this old heart Patient, patient Be patient with this sad heart Who can say if life goes on Just like it did before It doesn’t feel like it can ‘Cause I don’t know how to mend Forward onward we must march There really is no end Try as I may to pretend I just don’t know how to mend (Chorus) Sally forth and carry on With a rigid upper lip Steady as she goes girl Get up if you should slip Easier said than to do After the heart is rent All the lives this cat had Surely must be spent Oh with a little patience Oh with a little time Oh with a little patience Oh with a little time (Chorus)
5.
To Be Fine 03:19
TO BE FINE You shattered the illusion of inclusion overnight Well alright You got the complexion for protection Yeah I’m touchy - pass the Dutchy Stars and bars adorn your cars Hey Bubba, do you miss the past There’s a noose loose in your caboose - how did it get there You say I don’t know Chorus:  It’s going to take a long time For us to be fine It’s going to take a mighty leap And the mountain is steep What did you think was so great The strange fruit or the hate Is it the Trail of Tears That’s got you crying in your beer What are you so proud of boys Is it the guns or the toys Stop making sense Yeah hang Mister Pence (Chorus) You say that’s not who I am You don’t understand, well prove it (And it don’t look good) You say “you don’t see race when you look at my face”. But that’s a lie, a lie, a big white lie Oh it’s gonna take a long time (Chorus x2)
6.
Bayou 03:32
BAYOU It’s been dark, it’s been so cloudy Sunshine we hardly knew ye It’s been sad, it’s been so lonely Holding on so long Chorus: Who will break the circle? It can be broken - by me or by you Who will say, together we’ll go? It can be spoken by me or by you I am stirred and I am shaken My country tis of thee My poor heart is surely breakin’ Sweet Land of Liberty (Chorus x2) America - the beautiful Have you lost your shiny way Are you gone - or you just drifting Only you and I can say Who will break the circle? It can be broken - by me or by you By me or by you By me or by you By me or by you
7.
Uppity 03:45
UPPITY Chorus (x2): I’m that girl (Uppity) Clutch your pearls (Uppity, uppity) I’m unfurled Do you feel me? You’re a dick You’re a cancer A disease A thick - Onomancer We’re under siege May you never draw Another breath Without feeling the heaviness Of colored death Look around - be jumpy Feel the heat Of the smoldering crosses pressed To your own feet Uppity uppity uppity Uppity uppity uppity…….. (Chorus 2x) You be trippin’ You be illin’ You’re too far gone We be dyin’ You be killin’ Singing a siren’s song Get it - You’re over The end is near Sweet as Russell Stover, honey - ginger beer Uppity uppity uppity Uppity uppity uppity……..
8.
Two of us riding nowhere Spending someone's Hard earned pay You and me Sunday driving Not arriving On our way back home We're on our way home We're on our way home We're going home Two of us sending postcards Writing letters On my wall You and me burning matches Lifting latches On our way back home We're on our way home We're on our way home We're going home You and I have memories Longer than the road that stretches out ahead Two of us wearing raincoats Standing so low In the sun You and me chasing paper Getting nowhere On our way back home We're on our way home We're on our way home We're going home You and I have memories Longer than the road that stretches out ahead Two of us wearing raincoats Standing so low In the sun You and me chasing paper Getting nowhere On our way back home We're on our way home We're on our way home We're going home We're going home

about

I am now 61 years old and have been a musician since 1976. I happily retired from live performance at the onset of the Covid Pandemic in April of 2020. I canceled my website and hung up my microphone, feeling satisfied that I'd said and done all I needed to say and do. Then came January 6th, 2021. As an African American woman who’s spent nearly four decades addressing sexism, racism and all the other isms that keep me up at night, I am suddenly unable to resist the compulsion to leap from my LazyBoy and scream out that I am shattered, broken-hearted, angry, betrayed and horrified by what looks very much to me like an apocalyptic plague of crazy, armed, white folks (mostly--but not limited to--men) that are obliterating the planet in every possible way with their unbridled conquest and heedless assault on all living things. Besides annihilating what's left of the flora and fauna, privileged pale Northern European colonial capitalists are leading the way in the frenzied killing, maiming and disenfranchisement of my dark sisters and brothers each day in ways that terrify me and often make me feel utterly naive and foolish to have ever let any such scoundrels into my heart. Throughout the benighted Trump years I fumed and grieved in equal measure while bathing myself in the relief that my time here on earth was drawing ever shorter. I laid low, consumed and depleted by my own devastating personal experiences with white excess and oblivion and I counted myself fortunate to be leaving this mess without having produced any precious brown children to be abused by the brutes, yet an unexpected gift by a dear friend changed all that in an instant and hurled me into the bloody fray faster than police pull triggers on people of pigment.
Laura Koch surprised me with an online analysis kit to determine my genetic makeup. Digesting the results of this information set in motion an unwelcome rage that aligned perfectly with the disgust that overtook me watching a violent mob of angry white guys trying to overthrow what’s left of our ailing democracy to reclaim it entirely for white supremacist rule - just like we had in the good old days of the antebellum South. While absorbing and processing my “23 & Me” DNA results I felt blind-sided - cold cocked with the horrors of my own unsavory, revolting, super-rapey ancestry. I learned that I am 48% African (Benin, Togo, Nigeria, Congo; and 52% Northern European--British, Scottish, Irish). It occurred to me that my birth came only 97 years after the official end of slavery and I was suddenly visited by a persistent, unshakeable image of a dark, very young woman (perhaps 14 or 15 year of age) who had just reached the East Coast of America, after a miserable, foul, death-filled voyage on a ship overflowing with others like her, sick and paralyzed with fear after the vile journey. I cannot get this pitiful sight out of my mind. I can see her head making repeated contact with the wooden planks beneath her as she is being violated, without mercy, by someone -a white man who reeks of alcohol, tobacco and body odor. His hair and skin are greasy. He is filthy and nearly all of his teeth are rotten. He is somewhere between 30 and 40 years old. This scenario comes to me often, unbidden, at all hours of the day and night. I don’t know if it is the result of an overactive imagination, or perhaps a glimpse into something that actually happened. I do know that she and I are related. I am, as well, related to him. Regardless, it disturbs me and refuses to be suppressed. Yet, here’s the thing...despite all this ugliness, disappointment and betrayal - despite the niggling doubt that has crept into my psyche lately and threatened to obfuscate all hope, I remain certain that human beings enter this world, more good than bad. Even as this core conviction is being challenged like never before, I do still believe.

credits

released September 3, 2021

Laura Love - Lead vocals, bass guitar
Orville Johnson - Acoustic guitars, dobro, mandolin, percussion, bass guitar
Woody Simmons - Banjo, organ, harmonica, gong
Ruthie Foster - Guest vocalist on “Two Of Us”

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Laura Love Winthrop, Washington

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