Laura started singing in karaoke competitions at around the age of 27 - 29. She has done many, many volunteer showcases and silent auctions, then joined a karaoke group that did showcases in Calgary quite frequently. They did showcases at downtown- Stephen Avenue Mall, Stampede week, Calgary Transit pancake breakfasts and small town fairs in Central Alberta. She was asked to showcase at the U. of C. for the arrival of a king from a distant country. Laura has showcased with people like Adam Gregory before he was signed with Sony Canada. He was about 12 at the time. Really nice kid. She had been in competitions with great artists such as Lisa Hewitt and Michael Carey. They are definitley worthy of their success.
Laura spent a summer with Nashville North Showcase - playing with the Clayton Bellamy Band (Clayton is one of the Roadhammers now). They Showcased at Calgary Stampede. Edmonton Klondike days, Big Valley Jamboree (beer gardens) and at Ivan Daines Country Music Jamboree.
A song that she had the rights to record was played on KG country in a song competition where callers called in and voted for the song that they liked the most. Laura was up against Gary Allen and won that night. The second night her song was up for vote and lost out to the Dixie Chicks (tough competition). It was a song called "All We Need", the first song that she had recorded and released. It was written in Nashville. She also showcased this song with Nashville North and did a radio interview on CISN Country.
Laura has done so many singing functions too numerous to mention
but has loved every one of them.
She then started to do some recording with Wayne Holt in his studio and they wrote a song together. She and Wayne now have about 10 to 16 originals written jointly of all genres, easy listening rock to country to blues.
Thanks to the help of Dick Damron, Laura sent one of the songs to a Nashville distribution company and the results of this were great. They had received letters from all over Europe just loving it. It is called "Crazy Ride" --- about a BMW Roadster and a girl off on a crazy ride to the city to get her man. She followed the stats and they were # 11 for 4 weeks in a row on a Belgium radio station. There were many other countries playing it as well and sending letters and requests for more. It played on Q91 Radio and Laura did a live radio interview with Dan Butler. There was even an article in the Country Music News magazine about the song and its success.
Laura has written the music, lyrics, produced and helped with the mix of the song: "Right By Your Side", a song that she wrote for her brother for his wedding day.
She and Wayne had formed a band originally called "Brickhouse". They had many different members come and go and did as many shows as possible. Classic rock was the order of the day for that time.
Along with some musician changes, they also changed the name of the band to "The Crossing". There was a fellow in the group who wrote a song called "A Little Bit More". It was featured in a vignette for a Toon Crew commercial and shown on TV across Canada. Great experience.
They were then asked by the operations supervisor of Red Deer Transit, Roger Bouchard (their current drummer), to do a show for the Red Deer Transit awards ceremony as Wayne is a transit driver as well as several other talented musicians who work for the transit system. They did the show and ended up getting another booking as a result. From there a new band was formed and most of the original transit drivers remain in the group. The band name was then changed to, of course, "In Transit".
The bookings keep rolling in and the band is busier than ever but they just love it.They are a great group of friends who are all on the same page!!! They have had great opportunities to open for Laura's friend, Adam Gregory and for Corb Lund and she knows that there will be many more in the future. (She is an optimist).
