Biography
Wally Lawder is a collector of stories. He finds them in coffee shops and street corners, conversations with friends, in the seemingly ordinary events of daily life. They have a way of spinning around his brain and wandering onto notepads. They feed his imagination, and sometimes end up in his songs... After performing a set at a music festival, someone came up to him and remarked “You are my favorite performer here, and I have to say, you write about some of the most unusual things!”
Wally is originally from Kansas, but grew up in Connecticut and lived several years in the Princeton, NJ area before moving to southern New Mexico in 2003. His eclectic life path has led him to work as a nonprofit catalyst, carpenter, alternative energy consultant/technician, holistic educator and cognitive therapist, not to mention a brief, but strangely memorable stint as a waiter in a Karaoke bar. All of these experiences and more have been inspiration for his muse.
Wally won first prize in the 2008 Gila River Festival Songwriting Contest, and is a finalist in the 2009 Tucson Folk Festival Songwriting Competition.
Instrumentation
For live shows, Wally Lawder performs either solo, on vocals, acoustic guitar and harmonica or as a duo with Brandie Thornburg adding her vocals.
In southern New Mexico and Arizona, he is sometimes accompanied by the Flying Coyotes band (backing vocal, bass guitar and percussion).
His CDs have touches of added instrumentation, such as occasional mandolin, 2nd guitar, keyboards and horn--but Wally's voice and guitar still tend to be front and center!
Discography
LP's:
Leaving Town (2001)
My Place (2004)
Back to the Adobe Cafe (2007)
Single:
Hippie Chick (2007)
Streaming audio on: www.wallylawder.com
Links
| http://www.wallylawder.com |