For Love, that last turn is so recent, it's still sinking in. In the wake of Seagrams buying out the Polygram Label Group, the Seattle singer-bassist was just cut loose by Mercury Records on the eve of her tour coming to the Somerville Theatre tomorrow.

''Three days before we leave, we say, `We need a little help here on this tour,' and they said, `Oh no, we're not going to do that - and you're dropped,''' recalls Love, on the phone. ''It was hard. The band was devastated.''

But the eight-year-old Laura Love Band, which blends styles as diverse as hip-hop, funk, and Appalachian country behind Love's yodel-tinged voice, is keeping the faith so far. And Love knows she can always record again for her own Octoroon Biography label, on which she released four previous albums.

''I was an indie for so long, and I know how that works, and it's a great life,'' says Love, 39. ''It keeps you sort of obscure, 'cause you don't really have any promotional money to work your record. But it's a very organic process, and to be connected to every phase of it just feels good. You feel very connected with the people who listen to your music.''

At least Love was able to release two critically acclaimed albums on Mercury, 1997's ''Octoroon'' and last year's ''Shum Ticky.''

(article then shifts tostory about Toshie Reogan for a while), then...

Love's rootsy potpourri is even more unusual, prompting such self-described labels as ''Afro-Celtic'' and ''Hip-alachian,'' referencing styles not often traveled by black musicians.

''My ethnicity is reflective of all those things,'' says Love, who was drawn to the word ''octoroon'' (meaning one-eighth black) partly for personal reasons. ''I'm black and German and Irish and Indian, so it's all kind of within me. There's no good reason why it shouldn't come out. A lot of those influences are there: northern European people who ended up in Appalachia, kind of having that hill-people sound that I love, and then really loving the way the blues came from Africa.

''It feels good to borrow from different cultures,'' she adds, ''snippets of this and that, without being able to copy anything truly, because you kinda have to be a part of it.''

Love weaves it all into her own language, a phonetic singing style of syncopated rhymes. ''Take a bit of nursery rhymes and rap music and a whole bunch of different music, and hopefully it fits something,'' she says. ''But even sometimes when it doesn't say something, if it feels good to say, that's enough.''

It wasn't so easy for the Nebraskan-born Love to put together her genealogy. Her mother (diagnosed with schizophrenia) was unwilling to address such topics, and claimed that Love's father, jazz musician Preston Love, was dead. But one day Love saw his name in an Omaha club listing, and introduced herself. He took it in stride, and invited her to sing with his band.

''It was kinda a baptism by fire,'' she says. ''He called me up onstage to sing before he even knew whether I could or not. I just felt this is what I should do. This is what I want to do.''

And it's still what she wants to do - with or without a big label. ''[Mercury] helped me quite a bit in getting further, and when it got ugly, it was time to leave,'' Love says. ''We don't need to be a household word to be fulfilled with what we do.''

source: fan email to the Laura Love Mailing List; transcribed by Laura

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