Once upon a time Blue Roses was Laura Groves. Not that Blue Roses isn't Laura Groves anymore. Laura Groves was simply Laura Groves back then. Back when Blue Roses was just Laura Groves, I put the wonderfully magical 'Does Anyone Love Me Now?' on one of my podcasts (remember them?!).
Since then, she signed to XL, put out an eponymous debut album and one of her music videos was quite remarkably featured on Kanye West's blog a few days ago. Sadly, no-one has used the "IM'MA LET YOU FINISH BUT BEYONCE HAD ONE OF THE BEST VIDEOS OF ALL TIME" line in the comments. Missed opportunity.
With Blue Roses, Alessi's Ark and Theoretical Girl each producing solid debut albums and pushing forward the UK folk "scene" in 2009 with their differing avant garde ways, it will be interesting to see which direction each artist will turn to next. With Laura recently stepping into the studio with the superb Grammatics, her next move seems promising.
Blue Roses is touring with Wild Beasts across the UK at the moment and her debut album is £8.49 at Piccadillyrecords.com or on iTunes etc.