Laura Nyro Reissues and Unreleased Recordings Due

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Laura Nyro

A collection of original albums and a pair of new titles featuring rarities from the late singer-songwriter Laura Nyro are on the way.

Omnivore Recordings will release the two sets of rare Nyro music: Trees of the Ages: Laura Nyro Live in Japan and the never-before-issued Go Find the Moon: The Audition Tape. Both will be available on CD and digital, with Go Find the Moon also available on vinyl (as a 45-rpm LP). Each was restored and mastered by Grammy-winner Michael Graves and produced for release by Grammy-winner Cheryl Pawelski and George Gilbert with the approval of the Laura Nyro Trust.

Originally issued only in Japan as Live in Japan in 2003, the 16 tracks recorded at Kintetsu Hall, plus five recorded at On Air West, return as Trees of the Ages: Laura Nyro Live in Japan, to be released July 16, 2021.

Watch the trailer for the two Omnivore releases

The set runs the gamut of her career, from Nyro-penned hits including “And When I Die,” “Wedding Bell Blues” and “Save the Country,” to covers of Bacharach/David, Smokey Robinson and Phil Spector classics. Capturing Nyro’s February 1994 visit to Japan, the set features Nyro on piano and vocals, augmented by the harmonies by Diane Wilson, Dian Sorrell and Diane Garisto.

The reissue packaging contains updated artwork and new liner notes from author and musician John Kruth.

In the summer of 1966, a year before her appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival, an 18-year-old Nyro auditioned for producer Milt Okun and Artie Mogull, a noted A&R man. After the session, Mogull became Nyro’s manager and Okun signed on to produce her debut record, More Than a New Discovery. The first song she performed, “And When I Die,” became the opening track on The Peter, Paul and Mary Album, and achieved even bigger success with a cover by Blood, Sweat and Tears, which reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1969.

Go Find the Moon: The Audition Tape is due out September 10, 2021.

Also due is Laura Nyro—American Dreamer, an eight-LP deluxe vinyl boxed set housing seven of the artist’s original albums from 1967-1978, all remastered especially for these editions. The package includes the LPs More Than a New Discovery, Eli and the Thirteenth Confession, New York Tendaberry, Christmas and the Beads of Sweat, Gonna Take a Miracle, Smile and Nested, alongside an original LP of Rarities and Live Recordings. Housed in a bookshelf slipcase box that includes a 36-page, 12-inch book with extensive liner notes, the collection features rare photographs and interviews with Todd Rundgren, Charlie Callelo, Herb Bernstein and many more.

A member of both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Nyro not only wrote songs that became hits for artists like 5th Dimension, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Three Dog Night and Barbra Streisand, but has been cited as a major influence by artists as varied as Kate Bush, Elton John, Elvis Costello, Cyndi Lauper, Todd Rundgren, Broadway composer Stephen Schwartz and others. Born in the Bronx in 1947, she died at age 49 following a bout with ovarian cancer. She recorded 10 of her own studio albums (one released posthumously).

Listen to Nyro’s original recording of “Stoned Soul Picnic,” a hit for the 5th Dimension