Actress and singer, Laura Pursell,  has release her lastest CD, entitled "The Very Last Dance Hall Left in L.A." (Sept/2015) by Bill Pursell & Laura Pursell (Download $.99 per song / CD $12.97).

Her nostalgic, lush and heartfelt voice, Laura Pursell's smooth west coast vocals are backed by the genius of her famous father Bill Pursell, who wrote 8 out of 10 arrangements and played piano on all 10 tracks. The rich orchestration, recorded by Nashville's A-team players.  Mr. Pursell is perhaps best known for his hit record "Our Winter Love," but also played piano on many of Johnny Cash's albums in the 1960s, and worked as a session musician and arranger for Patsy Cline, Johnny Paycheck, Hoover, Joan Baez, Eric Andersen, Scotty Moore, J.J. Cale, Willie Nelson, Dan Fogelberg, and others. In 1985, Pursell was named Composer of the Year by the Tennessee Music Teachers Association.

In 2001, Laura got her first natiopnal recognition, when she sang for Betty and President Gerald Ford in Palm Springs.  Since then, she has recorded 5 albums and performed with some of the greatest jazz musicians on the west coast.  She reached international acclaim performing in St. Petersburg, Russia, Dublin Ireland.  

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Singer/Actress Laura Pursell was born and raised in Nashville, TN surrounded by music (her father is pianist Bill Pursell, who had the hit record “Our Winter Love” (1963) and was a go-to sideman in Nashville for Marty Robbins, Patsy Cline, Chet Atkins, Boots Randolph, Johnny Cash, and many, many others.  At 18, she was cast as Dick Van Patton's niece in a nationally televised Christmas special, “The Gift of Song”,  starring a host of country music stars.  Relocating to LA in the early 90's, she studied at the South Coast Repertory and Beverly Hills Playhouse and has starred in countless stage productions all over LA, including "Blue Moon Dancing" by Ed Graczyk, "In the City for the Summer" (Variety singled out her gritty performance), and the farcical, outrageous "And Then There was Nun" which played to sold out houses for 2 extensions, where she did a hilarious sendup of Gloria Swanson.  She was a long time member of the Company of Angels, LA's oldest repertory theatre, winning a Dramalogue Award for her saucy, sword-wielding performance in the mainstage production of “Zastrozzi”.   She appeared in an iconic video for Weird Al Yankovic, spoofing Tanya Harding in the "Mmmm Mmmm" song (where she did her own figure skating). She appeared in several episodes of "Days of Our Lives" and had a small but pivotal role in "The Landlady" starring Talia Shire.  In 2013, she was cast as one of the three leads in a hilarious coming-of-middle-age web series called "Living the Dream", and in 2015, she had the starring role in "Only the Moon Howls", a moving one act which won the Encore! Award at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. Her performance was singled out for its "deep emotional access" and  hailed as "heartbreaking", "truthful", "sensitive" and "vulnerable". A film version of the piece is planned for late 2015.

In 2001, she landed a plum role, singing for Betty and President Gerald Ford in Palm Springs.  Over the years, she has recorded and performed with some of the greatest jazz musicians on the west coast. She has performed in St. Petersburg, Russia, Dublin Ireland and in west coast venues such as Spazio, Vitello's, The Money Tree, Barone's, Monteleone's, The San Ysidro Ranch (Santa Barbara), Vicky's of Santa Fe (Palm Springs) and the Canyon Club.  She appeared with Gary Tole's "Legends of Swing" orchestra and the Doug MacDonald's 13-piece "Jazz Coalition". She currently performs every Thursday at Mixology 101 in the Grove at the LA Farmer's Market with a stellar jazz trio.

Laura has recorded 5 CD's since 1999. “It Had to Be Swing" is a collection of swinging standards featuring some of LA greatest players and received generous radio airplay on jazz stations throughout the country.  “Unkissed” is a collection of pop country tunes crafted by some of Nashville's preeminent songwriters. “That's What Christmas Used to Be” is a jazzy big band serving of Christmas standards with arrangements by such luminaries as Bob Florence, Scott Lavendar and Kim Richmond. In 2007, she co-wrote all the tracks for her 4th CD, “Somewhere in this Room”. Critically praised as a concept piece, this CD was chosen as one of the Top 10 Indie Releases of 2008 by IndieMusic.com.  In 2009, Doug MacDonald and his Jazz Coalition included her in the“Fourth Stream” CD, singing the jazz standard “Invitation” with a live orchestra.  

In 2014, she was back in the studio, recording with her dad, the Nashville String Machine, and a rhythm section boasting the best players in Nashville.  "The Very Last Dance Hall Left in L.A." is a 10- track collection of jazz, country and pop standards, with 2 original tunes. An ode to an earlier time, this was a historic recording.  It brought her dad back to re-record a tune he had actually recorded with Patsy Cline ("Strange").  He also revisited a tune he had previously recorded as a solo artist for Columbia (" I Can't Help it if I'm Still in Love With You").  And the co-writer of "Strange" (Fred Burch) helped shape the lyrics to the title track.

Bill Pursell is an American composer and former session pianist. He had a brief but successful career as a pop musician before continuing on as a session player.

Pursell was born in Oakland, California and raised in Tulare. He studied composition in Baltimore and arranged for the U.S. Air Force Band while serving in World War II.[2]Bill Pursell studied classical composition under Howard Hanson at the Eastman School of Music and earned a master's in composition in the mid-fifties. His symphonic poem "Christ Looking Over Jerusalem" (the first movement of "Three Biblical Scenes for Orchestra") was the inaugural recipient of the Edward B. Benjamin Prize in 1953. Later that decade, he worked with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra and taught at Tennessee State University and Vanderbilt University. In 1962 he signed with Columbia Records, who released a full-length album of his entitled Our Winter Love the following year. The album reached #15 on the Billboard on the strength of the popularity of the title track, which hit #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in addition to hitting #4 on the Adult Contemporary chart and #20 on the Black Singles chart. The arrangements for the album were made by Bill Justis and Pursell, and the orchestra was conducted by Grady Martin.

His follow-up single "Loved" reached Billboard position 121. Pursell later recorded for Epic, Henry Stone's Alston, and Dot, but never hit the pop charts again. He played piano on many of Johnny Cash's albums in the 1960s, and worked as a session musician and arranger for Patsy Cline, Johnny Paycheck, Hoover, Joan Baez, Eric Andersen, Scotty Moore, J.J. Cale, Willie Nelson, Dan Fogelberg, and others. In 1985, Pursell was named Composer of the Year by the Tennessee Music Teachers Association.

Pursell has been a member of the faculty of the School of Music at Belmont University since 1980. In 1996 he completed his Doctor of Musical Arts degree (DMA) at Eastman School of Music.

A sample of Laura's work is available in MP3 upon request.

Laura Pursell is managed and booked by Casting New Lives, for booking information please contact robl@castingnewlives.com