Laura Nyro – Go Find the Moon – The Audition Tape (Omnivore Recordings)

The first steps of a singular artist

The year is 1966, five years before Tapestry; a time when women weren’t really taken seriously as artists. In this climate, Laura Nyro, an 18-year old from the Bronx, who sang, played piano and wrote her own songs, auditioned for two record executives. This brief, but revelatory recording has just been issued as Go Find the Moon – The Audition Tape from Omnivore Recordings.

The first song she showcases is also one of her most enduring. “And When I Die” was first sold to Peter, Paul & Mary later in the year, then featured on Nyro’s debut, More Than a New Discovery in 1967, before being taken to #2 on the Billboard charts in a rendition by Blood, Sweat and Tears in 1968. Here, the demo version is rollicking, and the tempo speeds up and slows as she sings. She sounds young, but exudes confidence beyond her years.

That assurance wanes for an instant as she struggles to play “Lazy Susan.” She recovers nicely with the soulful “Enough of You,” one of a trio of songs on here that she never officially recorded. She’s pouring herself into this, you can just feel it. Another of the unreleased tunes is “In and Out,” which is only a brief snippet, but you get to hear her falsetto.

The set is named after the last of the unreleased songs, “Go Find the Moon,” and for good reason – it’s spellbinding. Nyro alternates between gutsy blues and soaring show tune-inspired vocals. This song alone justifies picking up this collection.

“Luckie” is another song that would appear later – opening her sophomore album, Eli and the Thirteenth Confession. This nascent version isn’t really more straightforward as just missing the intricate tempo changes that would accompany the released version.

Toward the end of the audition, you can hear the exec ask her

“Do you do any songs other than those that you’ve written”?

To which she abruptly replies

“no”

They ask again

“you don’t know any pop songs? “Stardust”? “Moon River”?

Then Laura responds,

“Of course I know there are other songs, and I know a few lines from each one…maybe.”

At this point she attempts to play snippets (and I do mean snippets) of three songs, “When Sunny Gets Blue,” “Kansas City,” and “I Only Want to Be With You.” But, all these fragments show is just how laser-focused Nyro was as an artist. She wasn’t interested in doing songs by other people and even if she did, those songs still sound like Laura Nyro and no one else.

She ends off by playing one last of her compositions, the gorgeous “Lazy Susan,” this time making it through the entire song.

Here is Laura Nyro, her soulful, sweeping voice and her piano, not tethered to any rhythm or pattern, except her own. And, her songs – chronicling the misfits of the New York underground. Can you imagine what must’ve been going through these two executives’ minds?

Go Find the Moon is brief, clocking in at under twenty minutes. Yet, there’s so much magic here, especially in the three unreleased songs. We get to hear the first steps, some confident, a few tentative, of one of the most unique artists in history. —Tony Peters