[Cover photo © 2024 Netcom Music]
Singer and songwriter Laura Pursell has released “Shooting Star,” the title track and video from her latest album. Marking the first single from her Shooting Star album that came out on Netcom Music this past September, it is Pursell’s exploration of Bob Dylan’s composition that appears as the final track on his 1989 Oh Mercy album.
The “Shooting Star” video was filmed and directed by Andrew Rozario and Cinematographer Mike Stryker for Casting Life Films in various downtown Nashville’s musically historic locations. Viewers will see the alleyway behind Tootie’s Orchid Lounge, the backstage entry to the Ryman Auditorium, and just across the alley is the back entry to Roberts Western World, “Nashville’s Home of Traditional Country Music.”
The final scene in the video is atop the pedestrian bridge next to the Tennessee Titans’ Nissan Stadium that offers up the best view of Nashville’s nighttime city skyline, reflecting the city’s growth.
Pursell shares:
Nashville is where I was born and raised, and I wanted to honor and pay homage to the soul of Nashville I grew up in—the places within our ever-changing skyline that have thankfully been allowed to remain authentic as our city continues to grow.
During the time of the lockdown, Pursell and her band began to meet daily in her living room at her then-home in Studio City, CA to rehearse and keep their chops up, work on new tunes, and figure out the road ahead.
Facing an uncertain future, they recorded a collection of songs at producer and guitarist Kenny Meriedeth’s Deep End Music Studios in Burbank. They set their focus on material from the Americana, Country and Roots Rock traditions.
Pursell comments on the album that resulted:
This album reflects a pivotal time when I began to stretch out vocally, work on different genres, and embrace a new vibe that reflected what the band members and I were going through at the time. Recording this album kept us all somewhat sane and energized.
Halfway through recording the album, Laura Pursell’s beloved father Bill Pursell, a respected Nashville pianist, composer, and orchestrator/arranger, passed away from Covid-19. The album was shelved indefinitely, and Pursell relocated back to her hometown of Nashville to settle her father’s estate.
In the fall of 2021, Pursell picked up where she and the band had left off while recording the album. Out of dozens of recorded tracks, 10 songs were chosen for inclusion for the album. Shooting Star became “an ode to loss and memory, and the perfect title for this collection of songs.”
