Laura Rain and the Caesars
Detroit, MI | Established. Jan 01, 2013 | SELF | AFM
Music
Press
Please visit www.laurarain.net for all press/reviews. Thank you! - Various Press/Reviews
Discography
Still working on that hot first release.
Photos
Bio
Gone are Nathaniel Mayer and Nolan Strong, Jackie Wilson and Darrell Banks, The Falcons and The Ohio Untouchables. Andre Williams resides in Chicago, Bettye Lavette in New Jersey. Fortune, Lu Pine, Groovesville, Impact, Ric-Tic, D-Town, Inferno, Hot Wax, Groove City Records, and so many more are but memories; Motown moved to California decades ago. Ye who abandoned all hope for Motor City rhythm and blues, enter here: Laura Rain and the Caesars are reclaiming the storied Detroit soul music legacy from the ravages of time, neglect, and electronic dance music.
The Caesars are veterans of the Motor City’s R&B, jazz, rock, and blues scenes. For more than a decade, the classically trained Laura Rain has been singing in Detroit and Los Angeles with an absolute freedom of expression, permitted by her wondrous voice, an instrument of infinite shadings in timbre that avails itself to effortless glides between registers. Often compared to Aretha Franklin, Rains’s fire, feeling, and expressiveness are all her own. Producer, co-writer, and guitarist George Friend, another Detroiter returned home from L.A., has made his mark in multiple genres–rockabilly (Robert Gordon), R&B (The Sun Messengers), and blues (Janiva Magness)–and released a hip solo album of West Coast blues, Looka Here!, in 2004. The band is rounded out with players rich in the tradition of Detroit R&B with long resumes including Marvin Sapp, Bettye Lavette and George Clinton.
Tom Hyslop of Blues Music Magazine says Laura Rain is “a force of nature...While clearly informed and inspired by soul and R&B styles dating, roughly speaking, from the years between 1965 and 1985, Electrified is vital music for these times.” Blues Junction’s David Mac calls Electrified “a super charged soul shot that generates enough energy to light a small town and ignite a fire under the ass of all of its inhabitants.” Reflecting a bygone era when song craft and spine-tingling vocals outranked guitar solos, Laura Rain and the Caesars have waxed a superb retro-modern sound that falls squarely in the tradition of great soul music, and raised the bar significantly for their peers in today's blues scene.
In October 2015, Laura Rain & the Caesars released their 3rd record entitled "Gold", a hard driving mix of Motown stompers, fuzz driven funky blues, and powerful reverb-soaked vintage R&B. Laura Rain once again proved herself to be a unique performer, creating a contemporary sound within classic tradition.
Winning a prestigious 2016 Detroit Music Award for “Outstanding Blues Songwriter“, Laura Rain and the Caesars have been touring relentlessly throughout the U.S. and Canada. 2016 has seen the band performing at clubs and festivals alike including the Mississippi Valley Blues Fest (Davenport), Edmonton Blues International Fest, Bucks County Soul Picnic (Philadelphia), Blues on the Hill (Texas) and clubs from NYC to Florida, and from California to Texas. The band also embarked on their first European tour in France performing two nights at the famous Jazz Club inside Le Meridien Hotel in Paris, and the Seven Nights to Blues festival near Lille.
Detroit funk-soul-r&b and blues have returned with a contemporary guitar driven twist with the Caesars. The powerful Laura Rain guides her band through the classic era of R&B with a unique, soul drenched voice once again bringing danceable funky blues to the forefront.
Band Members
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