Greg Laswell: Ohio or Bust

By: Lee H | in: Music |

Greg Laswell

When Greg Laswell released ‘Through Toledo‘ in 2006 “Sing, Theresa Says” instantly became one of my favorite songs of the year. Later, when I saw the video for it I fell even more in love. Directed by Drew Hancock, who’s done promo’s for Converse, MTV and Adult Swim, it echoed the somber yet uplifting lyrics and enhanced the song just that much more.

According to Laswell, he once dreamed his grandmother Theresa told him to “sing happy things” during the most difficult times in his life. The difficult time in question was the dissolving of his marriage. He stole away in his studio to record one song and emerged with the album Through Toledo.

Contrary to the title Greg is from not from Ohio. He grew up in Long Beach and moved to San Diego as an adult where he played in and recorded for a number of bands until his last group project decided to take a break. He then decided to do things on his own and it was in that time he recorded his first album, Good Movie, which won him a San Diego Music Award for “Best Local Album.” Since then he’s been a solo act. He plays virtually every instrument on his albums. He’s also his own engineer.

If the character of a person is measured by the people one surrounds themselves with then Greg Laswell must be a pretty nice guy. When thehollywoodgossip.com found out that he was dating Mandy Moore (I know it sounds weird but if Jessica Simpson can date John
Mayer…) they went to town on her stating “ you’d think this cutie would aim to be a better dater.”
Because Greg Laswell isn’t Justin Timberlake or Ashton Kutcher I wouldn’t say the floodgates opened but it did lead to numerous comments all in his defense.
Including: “Considering you are the Hollywood Gossip you sure don’t know your head from your ass when it comes to musicians.” A few weeks later thehollywoodgossip.com posted another blog entitled “In Defense of Greg Laswell …” that all but apologized for their blunder. If nothing else, he is a man of the people.

Greg has been on tour for the past few months and one of the undenyable highlights of the show is when he performs his acoustic version of the Cyndi Lauper classic “Girls, Just Want to Have Fun.” He’s currently working on an EP that will probably be released in August if not earlier. Until then we’ll just have to sing a happy song.

Greg Laswell – Girls Just Want to have Fun

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-Ezmy3AOd8

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Posted on May 20, 2007

Comments

6 Responses to “Greg Laswell: Ohio or Bust”

Emon on May 20th, 2007 1:02 pm

Love it! The original track (YouTube video) and the Lauper cover. Gives the song a completely different spin. Much like Travis’s version of the Britney Spears song at the Covers Project and, if you don’t mind a video link, Frente’s version of Bizarre Love Triangle http://musiconome.vodpod.com/pod/show_video/52431

Rustycat on May 20th, 2007 1:06 pm

Good find Lee, I didn’t know him, he’s got great music.
THX

Ekko on May 24th, 2007 12:27 pm

Dude, any way to download it?

10 REASONS OTHER BLOGS ARE COOL, TOO « Berkeley Place on May 24th, 2007 1:04 pm

[...] 5. The Plugg offers Greg Laswell’s cover of Cyndi Lauper’s Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. And it’s supergood. [...]

lipskin on May 25th, 2007 5:09 pm

Sweet.. thanks for introducing me to this guy. The music is great and that’s one of the best videos I’ve seen in a long time!