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The Review - MUSIC - grooves with CHARLOTTE CHAMBERS
Published: 24 January 2008

The young singer who came in from the cold

PREVIEW
LAURA MARLING
Soho Review Bar

WHEN she was last due to play at the Soho Review Bar in October 2007, Laura Marling (left) was refused entry on the grounds that at 17 years old she was too young to be on the premises.
The determined songstress instead played a 20-minute set to an appreciative audience in a nearby alley. However, she is now all set to play again, this time inside the venue.
The alternative-folk singer from Reading is predicted to become big in 2008.
Her new album Alas I Cannot Swim is due for release on February 4, and her single Ghosts comes out a week earlier on January 28. Those attending the Review bar can expect a haunting acoustic set, with poetic lyrics enhanced by Marling’s sweet, soulful voice.
Her songs are often about love, and have a poignant, heartfelt quality containing evidence of – dare I say it? – a wisdom beyond her years.
Marling began learning to play the guitar at only three years of age and began composing in her early teens.
She cites Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell as some of her earliest influences, and, indeed, her voice does have a Mitchell-esque quality.
Sometimes it is said that a whisper can be more compelling than a shout, and nowhere is this more true than with the delicate, beautiful songs of Laura Marling.

SARAH PEACEY

• Laura Marling plays the Soho Review Bar on February 1

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