Laura Nyro was an American singer/songwriter from New York City who enjoyed her greatest success in the late-1960s and throughout the 1970s. Her style was uniquely identifiable as her own, despite working within a spattering of genres that included soul, folk, jazz and gospel. Born in 1947 to a musical and artistic family, she was raised with the urging to embrace her talents. At a young age, she was using piano to flesh out the songs she'd began to write, and was honing her booming and unrestrained vocals. In the late-1960s, a number of Nyro's songs were recorded and made popular by high-profile artists such as Peter, Paul & Mary and Blood, Sweat & Tears. By the turn of the decade, however, she was enjoying sustained success as a solo performer with albums like Christmas and the Beads of Sweat and the all-covers album, Gonna Take a Miracle. Comfortable with performing her starkly personal and hauntingly beautiful songs either solo or with an accompanying band, Nyro remained an influential and slightly under the radar musician up until her death from ovarian cancer in 1997.
