Jane Laws - Singer Songwriter - Folk Roots

I acknowledge the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and recognise the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. I pay my respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, and to Elders both past and present.

Jane Laws is a singer-songwriter who enjoys writing about the places she has been and the folks she has met along the way. Her favourite pastimes include long distance travel by motorcycle and racing her yacht, Ambience, a Lotus 10.6, out of Fremantle Sailing Club. Musically Jane writes folk-roots tunes flavoured with pop, jazz, blues and a touch of comedy.

Jane records her own compositions and performs occasional gigs. A major focus is songwriting and thus Jane is interested in hearing from any artists that may wish to perform or record her songs. Jane is also interested in making contact with other songwriters.

I had the greatest fun with Samele Haell on The Foldback Redux Show at GoldMX.
We went live with a two hour conversational piece, discussing and playing the songs that inspired me, along with playing my originals.
Listen to the podcast.

My Albums

Timing and Expectation (2022)

This is a diverse and engaging collection of songs by a singer/songwriter who has assiduously polished her skills over a long period of involvement in the business. “Timing & Expectation” is Jane’s most adventurous and complete display of her abilities to date. This is her ‘tour de force’ in that she marries several themes into a complete work, that expresses all of them.
Alan Edwards - Musical Australiana - 104.7 Gippsland FM
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My favourite song of yours is "Can I Dance?". WOW! I adored it. Closely followed by "Wings of Hope". I have made time in the show tonight for Can I Dance and Wings of Hope. Thank you very much from Casey Radio for your input.
It is our privilege to have you on our show tonight. Thank you so much.
Michelle Anne Noonan - Poet's Corner - Casey Radio 97.7FM

Songs in the Key of Sea (2018)

Jane's long awaited collection of maritime songs was released in July 2018 ~ from Jane
"I never really thought I would have enough maritime songs to fill an album, then 2018 arrived and out of the blue I was inspired to write three new songs. All of a sudden my Songs in the Key of Sea album was complete."

Does it Rhyme? (2016)

A very fine piece of work indeed...
Alan Edwards - Musical Australiana - Seymour FM 103.9

Wonderful album...
Dave Anger - Wednesday Night Coffee Morning - 100.3FM 2MCR

The Moods I'm In (2004)

All in all, a great job. You've gone outside the box to deliver this one!...
Erik Kowarski - Pocket Universe

Easy to listen to selection of songs...
Rob Oates - Western Australia Folk Federation

Gypsy Traveller (2000)

Finely crafted the music evokes an image of listening to the artist in an old pub...
Mandurah Mail

You get a feeling of sincerity and a lot of feeling in the songs, they have a life that has been lived...
Rob Oates - Western Australia Folk Federation

Official Music Videos

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I had the greatest fun filming the onboard footage aboard my yacht, Ambience.

Fremantle Harbour Bound is one of my maritime folk songs, it is a story about being at sea, for a very long time, and finally sailing towards home. My friend and renowned improvising fiddle player, Erik Kowarski, joined me for the journey of recording Fremantle Harbour Bound. I hope I have captured the great distances and the longing and desperation to be home after sailing the world's oceans for many a mile and many a year.

Read more about my songwriting journey with Fremantle Harbour Bound here.

Have You Ever Been Before was filmed on the porch of my Porongurup home for Play Music On The Porch Day 2023

I wrote Down to the Waterline to wash the covid blues away.

It's an upbeat, fun song inspired by my hometown of Rockingham in Western Australia.

Rockingham is an aquatic playground full of bays, beaches and beautiful people, so get your dancing shoes on 'cos it's cha cha cha.

Eighty-seven Years is one of my Australiana songs.
It's a song about the simple life pleasures of those folk who spend their whole life living and working on the land.

I had the privilege of being asked by adventurer and author, Wendy Campbell, to write a theme song for her autobiography, “On Aspiring: Journey Beyond Courage.”

Over a couple of weeks I immersed myself within the pages of “On Aspiring: Journey Beyond Courage.” Wings of Hope is an inspirational song about life’s quest to let go of the overwhelming psychological fears that stop many of us from achieving our personal goals.

Wendy and Rob Campbell produced this music video of Wings of Hope using film from their climb to the summit of Mount Aspiring / Tititea.

Sometimes I write a song that is very important to me, and I long for my fans to hear the new song instead of waiting for my next album, which could be some time away. So I released Falls of Thunder as a single, it is a song about Victoria Falls, and I really hope you enjoy this song and music video.

Having lived in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Namibia, words cannot convey the deep spiritual connection I have with Africa. A connection that I have carried with me my whole life. It is a wonderful moment for me to be able to release Falls of Thunder for you all to hear. This video footage was recorded by my parents on Super 8 film, in 1966, during one of our many border crossings at Victoria Falls. I was just five years old.

In recent years, songwriters have been encouraged to write songs about mental health to help bring community awareness to this most sensitive and important subject.

Help Me Free My Mind is like all my other songs, written from my own experiences and life observations.

This is my first video using my new Maton EM100C-808 Messiah guitar.

The Ghost of Wild Oats XI
The 2017 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race saw Wild Oats XI stripped of her record breaking line honours victory because of an infringement, with LDV Comanche, shortly after race start.

To me it seemed important for folks to know how the yacht, Wild Oats XI, felt about the race result.

The ghost will hang around until the race record is broken again; I wonder how many years that will be?

The yacht, Acrospire IV, was designed and built by Charles Peel and launched in 1929. She has an overall length of 54ft and a waterline length of 36ft. The "old girl" has been beautifully restored by her current owner, Gary Martin, Past Commodore of Fremantle Sailing Club.

I wrote The Spell of Acrospire IV after sailing aboard her during the 2010 Cockburn Sound Regatta.

Acrospire IV won the Fremantle Harbour Classic yacht race on the 11th November 2012 and the event was captured in this video.

The title track from the album Does it Rhyme? began life while I was idly doodling with my guitar and I started to sing “Does it snow in Tokyo? Does it rhyme on Disney time?” For the love of rhyming, these two phrases seemed like so much fun to me, and over the next few weeks I continued to enjoy playing with the lyrics. I watched the song grow into a collection of my life questions, some nonsense, some full of love and hope for this wonderful world we live in, and some full of fear of where we are going and what might happen next.

My life is all about the folks I have met along the way, and I would like to give a very special thank you to my friend and award winning film maker, Howard Moses, for mentoring me during the creation of this music video. Howard’s creative suggestions regarding the content for this song, full of whimsical and thought provoking life questions, and for his tips and techniques on film making, have been invaluable.

One of the most enjoyable experiences of my life have been the long days I have spent on the open road on my motorcycle. The idea for Six Hundred Outback Miles came to me when riding between Barkley Station and Daly Waters in the Northern Territory. By the time I arrived at the camp site, the tune and the first verse were set in stone. Over the next few weeks I had the pleasure of musing with the lyrics while I enjoyed riding the roads of the Northern Territory and listening and learning about Aboriginal Culture and Country.

Who’s to Say? is a song celebrating humanity.

The lyrics are filled with hope that we can accept each other’s different beliefs, and celebrate and learn from our differences rather than letting them come between us.

Check out my motorcycle song Highway Heaven. It was filmed in the Darling Ranges and the Porongurup National Park in West Australia.

My Yamaha Vstar 650 motorcycle is the star in the song. I rode the Vstar across the Nullarbor three times to tour the east coast of Australia & Tasmania.