Bio

Laura Jean Binkley“On the prairie plains, where I got my name…” Laura Jean’s love of Americana roots music was instilled at an early age when her parents took her to folk and bluegrass festivals around the Midwest. Soon, she was strumming songs by artists like Dylan, Joni Mitchell and Ani DiFranco.

While attending the University of Minnesota, Laura Jean took up songwriting in earnest. Invited to take part in a weekly “Acoustic Showcase,” she became a regular fixture in Minneapolis bars & cafes.
Laura Jean transferred to the University of Missouri and immediately switched her Journalism major to English in order to study poetry. She won a scholarship in a local talent show and began her first venture into the studio to start recording her original material. She even assisted one of her favorite poets and professors, Anand Prahlad, in developing a song-writing course for Mizzou.   
Having been drawn to New York City since childhood, Laura Jean moved east to the Big Apple where she soaked up the local music community. NYC embraced her sometimes soft, but always powerful, folk-rock style, and she sang everywhere from the LIC Bar to the Bitter End (and all the subway stops in-between.) 
Laura Jean has since moved up the coast where she now calls the white mountains of New Hampshire home. She brings a feminine touch to Reckless Breakfast, a good-time bluegrass band and also fronts the LJB Trio with James Burger on harmonica and Nate Hamm on fiddle.