Eloise Laws

The sister of flutist Hubert, saxophonist Ronnie, and vocalist Debra, Eloise Laws was born in 1949, in Houston, TX. She began recording for Holland-Dozier-Holland's Music Merchant label and had a couple singles released in 1972-1973: "Tighten Him Up" and "Love Factory." When the famous songwriting team folded Music Merchant, they signed Laws to Invictus. They released a few singles and her first LP, 1977's Ain't It Good Feeling Good. Due to mismanagement, Invictus folded and Laws jumped to ABC to record Eloise, released later that year. Linda Creed, who co-produced the album, produced 1980's Eloise Laws, released on Liberty. All in Time, for Capitol, followed two years later. During this phase of her career, she was also featured on a number of albums by her contemporaries, including Harvey Mason's Funk in a Mason Jar, Aquarian Dream's Fantasy, Lee Oskar's Before the Rain, Ahmad Jamal's One, and several releases by her siblings. She went inactive as a solo artist until the late '90s, when she released The Key (1999) and Secrets (2003) on her brother Hubert's Scepterstein label. She spent part of the time away from the studio establishing herself in the theater, even co-writing and taking the original lead role in the Tony-nominated It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues. While her recordings have deserved much more recognition than they've been given, the level of notoriety for her stage work — including several nominations and awards throughout the years — has been more fitting.