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Up From Down. The title says it all, yet leaves just enough unsaid. From the hazy bedroom exile of “Oblivion” to the painful regret of “Constellation” to the title track itself, Up From Down is a brief chronicle of loss and of fighting back. Layne is an amorphous band born from years of relationships with fellow musical travelers who for one reason or another have found themselves in Los Angeles. The record features a cadre of top musicians (see below) and the live band is a collective of some of those players collaborating with new faces. But at the heart of it all is Laurie Geltman, who hungered for a return to her front-person role after a couple years of touring as a solo artist. Geltman reflects, "This EP, from pre-production and onward to the live band, it's been about the song more than anything. I created Layne to free me up, explore new things and insist on making the song the center. "Up From Down finds Laurie indulging in a punchier pop-rock feel while the songs are left bare enough to showcase her raw emotion and soul. As a songwriter with three critically-acclaimed solo albums under her belt, Geltman’s wordly-wise vision of love, death, faith and friendship results in songs that mix “resignation with defiance and a cool-eyed observational power…” [Boston Phoenix] A perfect example is the title track, where Laurie sings her most defiant lines with a deceptively vulnerable voice: “But I’m ready to rumble / got no time to stumble / this time I won’t fall, this time I can’t fall / up from down / it's the only way out...” “We’ll throw a party in your honor / since you’re drinking again,” Laurie sings on Milwaukee, another one of those “killer lines” that says so much in just one short phrase. It’s moments like these that ensure that her fans feel a real connection with the music that keeps them coming back for more. With a whole slew of awards (Boston Music Award for Outstanding Female Vocalist; Lilith Fair Emerging Talent Competition Winner, to name a couple) and more than enough press accolades being generated in such notable publications as Billboard, CMJ New Music Report, The Boston Globe, and Dirty Linen, Geltman’s hard-earned reputation as an outstanding rock singer-songwriter-performer had most definitely preceded her otherwise low-key arrival in Los Angeles. Up From Down heralds her arrival with definitive force. On the record:Boston wasn’t quite so easy to leave behind entirely. Fellow ex-patriate Michael Eisenstein (Letters to Cleo, Our Lady Peace) signed on as producer and from there the list of ace players grew and each one ended up having been at some point part of the lovely and amazing Boston music scene. Laurie Geltman (songwriter/voc/gtr) Michael Eisenstein (gtr/bass/b. voc) Fred Eltringham (drums) [Dixie Chicks, Wallflowers] Peter Adams (keys) [Michael Penn, Tracy Bonham] Stevie Blacke (violin, cello, viola) [Beck, Timbaland] Kay Hanley [Letters to Cleo] and Michelle Lewis (aka The Dilettantes) on backing vocals. Mixed by Bruce MacFarlane, Tom Polce, and Jeff Russo [of Tonic, The Low Stars].
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