Laura Williams is an American Christian singer who has been sharing her message in song for several years. She has come a long way from the shy seven-year-old who was sure performance was not for her. “The first thing I did when I walked into my first lesson is very confidently tell my teacher, there’s nothing you can do to make me sing for you. And she just kind of shrugged. She was like, “Okay”, I guess she gets that a lot.” Not only did she convince Laura to sing for her but also in recitals, although afterward her first performance she was asked “Were you even singing? Because apparently no sound came out.”
Laura eventually overcame her stage fright and was introduced to Josh Groban, Sarah Brightman, and Charlotte Church among others. “The more I listened to their music, the more I wanted to sing… I wanted to do what they were doing. And so I started doing more and more, and it was absolutely terrifying. But it got a little easier each time.”
Laura attended Fountainview Academy which has a strong music program and began to realize the importance of sacred music. “During my time there I realized that it can be so much more satisfying to sing music that can have an impact on on a person’s life for eternity. And I realized that’s what I want to do. I want to completely focus on that.”
After graduating, Laura began performing and touring full-time. At first it was exciting but eventually the travel began to be difficult on her. “After a while it can start to get lonely, it can start to get really tiring. You’re always around strangers… So I started praying that God would send somebody that would bring to this ministry, things that I couldn’t myself… And also, you know, wouldn’t mind the lifestyle of traveling all the time living out of a suitcase, all of that.”
Quality is very important to Laura especially when it comes to inspirational music. “It’s music for God, it should be the highest quality we can possibly do.”
During a break from performing, Laura was working at her brother’s pizza shop when her future husband walked in. “He saw my CDs there on the counter and he says, hey, you know, I’m going to school for audio engineering. If you ever want help recording, just give me a call.”
God was working on both their hearts and their meeting led not only to a friendship, but conversion. “I got to see him give his life to God. And he ended up being just the person that I needed. He’s an audio engineer, so he produces all my CDs. He took up videography so he makes all my music videos. He took up photography so he does a lot of the photos and all that just everything and Ernie loves traveling.”
Each album that Laura and Ernie produce is put together with great thought. “We want all of our music to have a purpose and to have context. So I don’t generally just like to record random songs, every CD has a theme. And if possible, I do like having things in between like… we put narrations between each song to tell the story and bring it together with both words and music.”
Having heard Laura live in concert in December of 2021, the preparation is clear and there was a perfect balance between song and testimony. Laura’s soprano voice is clear and heartfelt and every bit as polished on her recordings. It’s also clear how well the team works together as they passed the mic back and forth during different parts of the show. Laura also performed songs from her latest completely original album entitled, “All That I Need.”
Laura shares, “The way I write music, it’s definitely not conventional. And musicians that are highly trained are going to be like, “What is this girl doing?” But I don’t read music at all, so I can’t compose or write my music down… So a lot of those songs, what I would do is just write the lyrics first and then I have like the general idea of what I want the melody to be like, but then I push record and I start playing and whatever happens happens. And I’ll do it until it’s right.”
Laura’s main focus is on live concerts but she continues to release videos and is planning additional albums soon. “We have two that are in the works, almost done. The first one that’s going to come out is called ‘Scripture Songs for the last days.’” It will be based on compositions by her mother. “Then the next one will be a CD called Never Alone. And that one is all focused on songs that bring comfort to people especially like right now, you know, people are at home, people aren’t getting the interaction as much as they used to and a lot of people are feeling lonely. I hope that the CD can encourage people that are feeling that way that they are never alone and God’s always there, no matter no matter how isolated they may feel.”
If you want to have a career as a music ministry (touring) artist you should:
Enjoy Travel.
“It’s so different all the time. And it’s so hard to keep a schedule, I wish we could be on a solid schedule even just as far when we eat. But sometimes we’re in a different state every other day.”
Be Flexible.
“Be open to change, for sure… we actually just take our equipment on the road and record everywhere. I honestly wish I would have taken a picture at every place that we recorded, how we’ve set up our studio, because sometimes it’s crazy just blankets everywhere, and pillows here and they’re falling on you while you’re trying to record.”
Watch our full interview with Laura on “Connections”
To find Laura’s touring schedule, CD’s, sheet music and more visit:
