Laura Veirs announces new live album "Laura Veirs And The Choir Who Couldn't Say (Live In Angoulême)" out 10th October via Raven Marching Band || Shares first single "I Can See Your Tracks"
Laura Veirs today announces that a new live album, Laura Veirs And The Choir Who Couldn’t Say (Live In Angoulême), will be released digitally on 10th October via her own label Raven Marching Band. The recording documents Veirs’ May 2025 performance of 14 of her songs – as well as one by case/lang/veirs (Veirs’ 2016 collaborative album with k.d. lang and Neko Case) – alongside a French school choir composed of 32 students (30 girls and 2 boys, ages 12-18) and featuring arrangements by their director, Patrice Cleyrat. Veirs has also shared one of the songs, “I Can See Your Tracks”, from her 2010 album July Flame, alongside a video. Gorgeous, sparse and deeply moving, Laura Veirs and the Choir Who Couldn’t Say (Live In Angoulême) captures the intensity, soulfulness and hard work of school children in a middle class community in France collaborating with a renowned American singer-songwriter, and is a hopeful demonstration of international artistic collaboration during dark times around the globe. Listen to “I Can See Your Tracks” and watch the video HERE.
“Hearing their brave and soulful renditions of my songs and performing with them was a career highlight,” recalls Veirs. “I’m so glad we were able to capture the magic of this performance and can share it with the world in the form of this new album.”
Laura Veirs And The Choir Who Couldn’t Say (Live In Angoulême) is the Portland, Oregon-based Veirs’ second live album in two years, and a surprising collaboration. The choir and Cleyrat practiced for nine months before Veirs joined them on stage for a recorded live performance in Angoulême on 24th May 2025. Veirs accompanied the choir on vocals and guitar on most songs; Cleyrat played keyboards on many as well. The recording was a community effort, co-produced by Veirs and Cleyrat, captured live by Etienne Jouanneau, mixed in Paris by Edouard Bonard, and mastered in Portland, OR, by Jon Neufeld. Veirs created the cover art and an accompanying show poster in her backyard art studio in Portland.
A longtime fan of Veirs, Cleyrat previously also organized a concert of her songs with another children’s choir (the “Young Rapture Choir”) in 2006. While Veirs attended that concert but did not perform, the show was also recorded and she released it as a limited edition CD on her label. A deep music fan, Cleyrat has also taught his choirs over the years the works of Nirvana, Granddaddy and other American rock bands.
Veirs, Cleyrat, and the choir will reconvene for another concert in Paris in early 2026. Veirs will follow the performance with solo shows around France. Stay tuned for further touring updates.
Veirs’ 2022 studio album Found Light was released to universal acclaim. MOJO called it “a beautiful, nuanced record” while Uncut described it as “eloquent and thoughtful”. In a rave review The Guardian noted that “this self-portrait of a wounded yet gradually healing woman burns with candid disclosure.”
Laura Veirs And The Choir Who Couldn’t Say (Live In Angoulême) artwork and tracklist:
1. Intro
2. Shining Lamp Interlude 1
3. Freedom Feeling
4. Wide-Eyed, Legless
5. Shining Lamp Interlude 2
6. Little Deschutes
7. Lonely Angel Dust
8. I Want To Be Here
9. Shape Shifter
10. Shining Lamp Interlude 3
11. Black Butterfly
12. Snow Camping
13. Make Something Good
14. Riptide
15. I Can See Your Tracks
