Julie Loyd

If you ask Julie Loyd her favorite part of touring, she's eminently qualified to answer. She strums, stomps and sings her way through over 170 high-energy shows every year—a stage presence that Curve Magazine characterized as “kick-ass.”

“The performing is really what makes the touring worthwhile,” she says, “getting in front of a crowd of riled-up (and a little tipsy) acoustic-rock-lovin' people and seeing how many strings I can break in one show.”

Maybe that's what drives her to cover so much ground, literally and figuratively. Loyd is known for moving to an area, performing at such an incredible level that she wins a “Best Of” competition, then moving on. Wanderlust? Or is it a strategy that has given her the opportunity to play in front of diverse audiences all over the country? The concept of moving around is not foreign to her.

She is a product of the highly-educated environs of Charlottesville, Virginia (where she earned her musical theater credits); is a self-described “university brat;” and has been influenced by living in Asheville, North Carolina; New York; Northampton, Massachusetts; and Chicago, her current stomping grounds. She credits an expansive support network with providing her a start.

Her musical influences come through in her music—at least to the more sophisticated ear. “I was influenced at a young age by Ani DiFranco and that definitely colors the way my music comes across emotionally; my love affair with melody started my freshman year of college and was introduced by Jonatha Brooke,” Loyd says. “People who know their music will pick out the Jonatha similarities before the Ani ones.”

Julie began her touring career in Asheville in 2002 at 19. In 2004 she won the Grey Eagle Songwriter Shootout only a few weeks before moving to Northampton, where it took only eight months to win Best Folk/Folk-Rocker in The Valley Advocate. At the time she won this contest, she had already moved her stuff into storage to hit the road for her second national tour.

Her tours have always been notable, performing with artists such as Shawn Mullins, G-love and Special Sauce, Alana Davis, Michelle Malone, disappear fear, Garrison Starr, and Chris Barron (of the Spin Doctors), to name a few. She can often be seen on the stages of prestigious listening rooms such as The Bitter End (NYC), Bluebird Café (Nashville), Club Passim (Boston), The Iron Horse Music Hall (Northampton), Jammin' Java (Vienna, VA), World Café Live (Philadelphia), and Gravity Lounge in her hometown of Charlottesville, VA.

Now, with her live performance reputation solidly established, Loyd is following up on her earlier recorded works—Self-Portrait #94 (2000); Fate Says He's Sorry (2001) and The Waiting Room (2004)—with a live album due out in Fall 2006. For her new work, she traveled to some of her favorite rooms and recorded live tracks and footage for a live DVD. Both promise to capture the ferocious energy of her stage show, and satiate her fans when they can't catch her live.

“This new album was recorded in all of my hometowns, and I love that I can hear ghosts from all of my different lives on this recording,” she says. “My father's laugh, my best friend's guttural cheer, the sound of the rooms of my different homes, it's a really nice encapsulation of where I've come from.”

Asked if she has any regrets thus far in her still-growing, her reply is predictably audience-focused: “I regret not having picked up a band yet,” Loyd says. “I've been talking about it for years, and I know it's what my fans want to see. I just haven't had the time or money to fund other people and bring them on the road.”

The music business can be challenging, but for an accomplished singer and songwriter like Julie Loyd two things are certain: she'll be right at home when she begins to tour extensively to support her new album; and wherever she sets down roots next, she'll be a crowd favorite very quickly.