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| Cast a Line | | | | FREE DOWNLOADS!>Bag of bones (whole track) 
| 1 | | Relying on the wind  | | 2 | | Cast a line | | 3 | | Treat you right | | 4 | | Too many lifeboats | | 5 | | Half-hearted love | | 6 | | Lafayette two step | | 7 | | Aware | | 8 | | No Show Tonight | | 9 | | Barren Land | | 10 | | Bag of bones | | 11 | | My love song |
| | order online from  | | order online from CD Baby |
Cast a line moves between darkness and light, intimate and upbeat, casting lines, uncovering beauty in the debris and learning to love our ‘bag of bones’.
While its musical roots lie in Americana – alternative country, bluegrass and a touch of zyedeco – Cast a line nonetheless has a distinctive New Zealand flavour that comes from living on an island, open to the sea, the mountains and the elements. It’s a Wellington album: the gorgeous ‘Relying on the Wind‘, underpinned by the shimmering sound of the Weisenborn guitar, finds the singer standing on Lyall Bay beach, hoping wind and water will wash away the after-taste of a failed romance. But it has a very different sound from the ‘Wellington school’ that the rest of the country has become familiar with, one that owes its allegiances to the likes of alt-country women Lucinda Williams, Alison Krauss and Stacey Earle.
Producer Steve Cournane (CL Bob, Windy City Strugglers, Warren Love Band) has infused the songs with a veritable melting pot of old r & b, reggae, jazz, bluegrass and pop, but if this album has to be catergorised then it probably sits in the alternative-country bag. The Coalrangers’ Dean Heatherington adds his distinctive guitar and mandolin to give the album its country and bluegrass flavours. Matthew Newman, Laura’s sideman in her previous band Urban Ruby, lays down the masterful electric and acoustic lead lines. George Barris on electric and upright bass - always the master of taste - works with well-respected drummer Steve Cournane to give the album a solid and inspired engine room. Wellington guitar-maker Paddy Burgin adds the wash of the ocean to the album with his handcrafted Weisenborn guitar, and other contributions come from Julian McKean, Nils Olssen, Elliot Fuimaono, Carol Bean and Vicki Knight.
Even though the lyrics at times go to dark places and wrestle with self-created demons, Collins delivers the songs with enough lightness, wry humour – and love – to make Cast a line an enjoyable, upbeat ride and a good soundtrack to summer.
Engineered, mixed and mastered by Robbie Duncan at Braeburn Recording Studio, this album blends back-porch acoustic instrumentation with electric drive and takes us down to the beach to ponder life.
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| One feather at a time | | | | FREE DOWNLOADS!>Union (whole track)
>Ballad (whole track)
| 1 | | Intimate | | 2 | | Union | | 3 | | Hope | | 4 | | The gods are smiling | | 5 | | Missing Man | | 6 | | Ballad | | 7 | | Must be love | | 8 | | Ten year night | | 9 | | Lover of my heart | | 10 | | The best of me |
| | | Independent, 2002 | | One Feather at a Time is the diary of a modern woman in search of love, self-love, or at least a decent night out. It takes a wry look at the rocky path of romance, from the optimism of New Love to the inevitable let-downs and loneliness encapsulated in the Ballad of a Single Woman. Lyrics range from the tongue-in-cheek self-analysis of Missing Man to the dark melancholy of The Best of Me and the intimate yearnings of the unaccompanied Lover of my Heart.
The players on this album are Matthew Newman on guitar, who also arranged most of the material, Clint Brown (ex-Warratahs) on bass, Simon Burgess on accordian, mandolin and double bass, Steve Cournane (CLBob, Windy City Strugglers, Warren Love Band)on drums, Shelley Taylor on backing vocals, Chris Price on djembe and John McDonald who found the piano arrangement to ‘The Best of Me’. Robbie Duncan mixed, engineered, mastered and co-produced the album at Braeburn Recording Studio.
The sound of the album is as close to live as possible – one song even recorded in the kitchen to capture the feel of jamming with friends. The album features two covers: Stacey Earle’s Must be Love and Lucy Kaplansky’s Ten Year Night. The remainder of the album is Laura’s own work – finely-crafted and powerfully-executed originals.
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