Meet Rachelle Laundrie

After becoming a celebrated participant of 716: Fine Art gallery’s “open mic” nights, she was invited to perform a featured acoustic concert there this past June (prior to 716 moving to Racine). After a 24 set, an energized audience was still eager for more.

She loves music and it shows upon first meeting her.

Rachelle is always looking for opportunities to express herself, so do not be surprised if you see her spontaneously playing around Kenosha and Racine’s coffee shops.

She has promised to keep us posted on the release of her upcoming album.

Let’s meet Rachelle:

Hi, my name is Rachelle Laundrie which is just recently changed from my married name, Hulbert. I have just moved back to Wisconsin after living in Northern California for 15 years. I was born and raised in Green Bay, WI and went to college at UWM for one year before taking a train to Washington with my guitar to work on a flower farm for the summer. I fell in love with the gorgeous mountains, greenery and the hippie way of life out west. I traveled around the West jamming with other musicians and traveled back and forth to WI for a couple years until I finally met my now former husband, got married and raised my son and his two children.

When I was 22 I had a newborn baby, a new husband and two step-children ages 2 and 5. This blended family and the stress of the situation just about killed me. I was very active in my church for my whole marriage and received a lot of support from my surrogate family there. The 12 year marriage did not work out despite my deep love and commitment. I have a lot of sadness over this which is reflected in my first album “Wish Me Well” that is 3 songs from being finished.

My first instrument was piano. I started taking lessons in second grade from the nuns at my Catholic school. I played through high school. My dad would love it when I played piano while he was laying in bed going to sleep. My dad is very musical but never learned to play an instrument. I spent a lot of time with my dad going fishing on the weekends. We would play John Denver and he would drum on the dashboard and I would play the spoons. My Dad has always been a natural performer. When he was young he sang and danced with a band. Me and my sisters took dance from his dance teacher from ages 5 through high school.

My Grandma Laundrie (my dad’s mom) loved music and singing. Her sister Margie played guitar and they loved to sing together. My Grandma taught me how to harmonize and it is one of my favorite things to do. It comes very easy for me. I went to spend some time with her in the nursing home before she died and was fighting dementia and I took her into the visiting room and played and sang for her. She was so happy whenever she was around music. I think this is where I get my deep love for music. I am most happy when I am performing.

I wrote around 100 gospel songs for my old church and through that discovered I had a talent for song-writing. When I came back to WI I didn’t know where to go with my music.

Then I ran into a writer named Marv Lindberg at a coffee shop I was working at. I found out he was working on a novel called “Cutting Edge” about a country singer who gets his band equipment stolen and how he gets it back. Marv said he was looking for a songwriter to write songs based on the book. Marv gave me a song he wrote to see what I could do with it. It was called “Lonesome Bar Blues”. He loved what I did with it and we recorded it along with other songs, one of which I wrote based on the book within a month. I have loved working with Marv and his son, Mykel Alexanderh, who played percussion for me at an acoustic concert show at 716 Gallery in Kenosha this June.

I am looking forward to future work with Marv and the book and CD should be coming out by the end of this year. I am also working on recording my next album that is going to be more positive and upbeat. I am calling it “Peace, Love and Macrame” for now. We’ll see where it goes. I am looking for a good person to record with who has reasonable prices. Recording is SO expensive! Also, looking for a way to sell my music online when the CD’s are ready.

In the meantime, please join me every other Thursday nights at Java Vino for their Open Jam and at 716 Gallery on Main St. in Racine for Open Mic on Wednesday nights. Come play or enjoy!

Thanks goes out to Nick Demsky, Angela Malone for being great friends and always encouraging me. To my best friend, Rick Weiss for believing in me and wishing me well. My neighbor Kurt Marquart, for critiquing and adding to my songs. To Dave the owner of 716 Gallery and all the Wed. night open jam friends for listening and cheering and keeping me motivated to create. To Marv for helping me spread my wings and fly. To Dustin, Danielle, Gina, Mykel and Jason for playing, dancing and tapping at my show. And to my dear friend and kindred spirit, Francisco Loyola who gave me the privilege of being one of the first features on this website.

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Rachelle Laundrie, you have been “Exposed”
Rachelle’s new album, “Peace, Love and Macrame” is forthcoming at a soon-to-be-determined date. Among other improvements for Kenosha’s musical community, she hopes to see an “open jamming” location established where musicians could meet and collaborate.

Please feel free to write Rachelle at laundrie.girl@yahoo.com
She would love to hear from you.