Joy & Lara

After a somewhat lengthy hiatus due to creating a baby and a record label respectively (Henry and Craving Records), folk/pop duo Joy & Lara are back after eight years with a new album - Diary of Your Heart.

Since their inception over 14 years ago, Joy & Lara (Joy Howard & Lara Goodridge) have supported the likes of Luka Bloom, Leo Kottke, Art Garfunkel, Lunasa and many more. They have toured the country appearing at prestigious festivals such as Woodford, Port Fairy and Blue Mountains, and performed at concert halls in Perth, Melbourne, and the Sydney State Theatre. Songs from Joy & Lara’s first two albums - Thin Ice and Papa Luigi’s - have been playlisted nationally on ABC local radio.
Lara is well-known to many as one quarter of the acclaimed electric string quartet FourPlay, while Joy was a founding member of successful indie pop band The Whipper Snappers, a fixture on the 1990’s Sydney indie rock circuit.
The title track written by Joy is about her experience of becoming a mother for the first time, and attempts to encapsulate the profound realisation of what it means to be a parent in a three minute pop song. Joy and Lara felt the song’s name also served as an apt metaphor for the album overall, which continues their now-established theme of documenting their life experiences in unflinchingly honest, heartfelt song.

Joy and Lara follow a simple rule. If by drawing on their own lives a song resonates deeply enough with them, the hope is that it will get the nod of recognition from others, thereby making that essential human connection via shared experience.
Joy & Lara launch their album in Sydney at The Vanguard, March 12th with a great band lineup including Tania Bowra, Piers Twomey and more. (www.thevanguard.com.au)
This is what reviewers had to say about their last album Thin ice;
“Some albums seem like old friends from the first listening. This debut from Lara Goodridge and Joy Howard is like that because they sound so easy, natural and relaxed in both their songwriting and performing. It’s folky pop, with sweet, accurate harmonies being the icing on a finely baked batch of songs, with some special guests adding extra flavour.” John Shand SMH Metro 11/08/2000
"The album is a treat for fans of strong songwriting and harmony singing, the diversity of the songs only serving to make the record more compelling to listen to." Anthony Horan, InPress Magazine, Melbourne 3/5/2000

For more information: Website: www.joyandlara.com
Myspace: www.myspace.com/joylara | Contact: info@joyandlara.com