Laura Veirs

On her third Nonesuch release, Saltbreakers, singer-songwriter Laura Veirs remains tantalized by the mysteries and marvels of the natural world, filling her work with images, both precise and poetic, of the ocean and the stars. But she digs even deeper this time into the vagaries of human nature, transforming the turbulence of her own life, as well as her concerns about the hair-trigger state of the world at large, into a collection of songs distinguished as much by their emotional urgency as by their often astonishing musical inventiveness.

Though she now calls her group Saltbreakers, it’s actually comprised of her longtime compatriots, formerly known as the Tortured Souls -- guitarist/bassist Karl Blau, keyboardist Steve Moore and drummer Martine. Over the last three years, the band has traveled the world in support of Veirs’ previous Nonesuch albums, Carbon Glacier (2004) and Year of Meteors (2005), assiduously cultivating an international fan base.