Laura Jean Band

The Laura Jean Band (formerly Laura and the Killed Men) steep their songs in the lore of the American West, refracting its triumphs and tragedies through an intimate lens. Laura Kepner-Adney, the lead singer and guitarist in the Tucson-based band, shades her unique voice with echoes of country and Appalachia. Her expansive songwriting, honed from years of playing in Tucson and touring across the country, highlights her connection to Arizona’s unforgiving environment and her own ancestral past. For the band’s first LP, Everchanging Trail, Kepner-Adney, in collaboration with songwriting partner and former lead guitarist Sam Golden, developed a style that weaves together all the diverse and disparate elements of what has defined country music throughout the 20th and 21st centuries and forges something timelessly familiar yet wholly unique. Bob Hanshaw on bass, and Seth Vietti, drums, supply soaring vocal harmonies and a tightly refined backbeat. After making their debut opening for Mavis Staples, Laura and the Killed Men recorded the One Bell hybrid CD/analog record and embarked on a nine-week national tour. Their first full-length album, Everchanging Trail (released April 2016), showcases songs they wrote on their 12,000-mile journey around the country. Their new lineup has shifted and still includes Hanshaw; Julius Schlosburg plays drums (and sings when there's a mic available), and Clay Koweek contributes pedal steel and lead guitar.