Laura Story

by Deborah Evans Price

In speaking with INO Records artist Laura Story, it’s readily apparent that few artists have a more interesting story than this talented singer/songwriter. Best known as the songwriter behind the oft-recorded worship anthem Indescribable, Story has learned a lot about God’s timing and provision during her life and career.
  
Her INO Records debut, Great God Who Saves, was released on March 18 and it was a sweet day that had been a long time coming for Story. She had been caring for her husband as he battled a brain tumor, and had put her music on hold. These days, she’s happy to have a healthy spouse and a growing music ministry.
  
However, the South Carolina native didn’t hear a calling to Christian music as a child. In fact, her first love was the symphony. “When I was 10 years old I picked up the string bass and I loved being a part of the symphony at my school,” she recalls. “I went on and did it in high school and in college. I just loved the way that all these different instruments fit together. It was such a great experience for me and I feel like it contributes a lot to my songwriting ability. 
  
“I was basically living for music,” she continues. “That was my life and my priorities were all out of whack, even though I was a Christian. I definitely wasn’t asking God, ‘What do you want me to do with my life?’ I was saying ‘I would really like for you to bless this endeavor that I have. I want to do this and I want you to make it work,’ which isn’t really the way that God works.”
  
During her freshmen year of college, she was playing football with her boyfriend and broke her arm. “I had to drop half of my music classes,” she recalls. “I was just mad at Martin [then her boyfriend, now her husband] and I broke up with him. So I broke up with my boyfriend a week before Valentine’s Day and I had a stick shift, so I couldn’t drive my car. Everything seemed to be disappearing out from under me and that was the time I realized that so much of my value was based on my music, my boyfriend, and other things, and God just used that time for a time of humbling.”
  
Story recalls that difficult time as a pivotal point in her life and her relationship with God. “It was just kind of a wake up call to me because I had for so long placed so much value in my ability to play and how I rated in auditions and things like that,” she says. “So when God took away this thing that was so important to me, I really feel like it was for the purpose of showing me that He was the most important thing and that I had been doing music for my own glory. It was a reminder from a creator to a creation saying, ‘Your life isn’t going to be fulfilling unless I am the focal point and I’ve given you this gift of music, but not to make much of yourself but to make much of me.’ So that was a real turning point and I found that doing music for the Lord and using it to reveal what God is doing in your heart is so much more fulfilling.”
  
Her sophomore year, she met some other musicians in line during registration and they enlisted her to join the group Silers Bald. She spent five years with the critically acclaimed band before embarking on a solo career. In 2002, she recorded her first independent album, but her first real notice as a songwriter came when Chris Tomlin recorded Indescribable on his 2004 release Arriving. The song topped the AC chart for seven weeks and remained in the top 15 for 50 weeks. It was included on the Passion CD/DVD in 2005, Tomlin’s 2006 release, Live From Austin Music Hall, and Avalon recorded Indescribable for WoW Worship in 2006.
  
“It has been one of the most humbling parts of my career,” says Story, who admits the success of the song surprised her. “I didn’t even use that song in worship. I wouldn’t use that song because I remember thinking that there’s no way this would go over well as far as corporate worship because the words are so big. I thought no one is going to want to lead this song with these big words. I think radio helped out with that, the fact that people were hearing it during the week, not just Sunday mornings.”
  
In 2005, Story’s life and career were busy and fulfilling. She and Martin got married and she released her second indie album, There Is Nothing. She also moved to Atlanta to become the worship leader at Perimeter Church, assuming the position vacated by Aaron Shust.
 
Less than a year into their marriage, Martin became ill. “He started having symptoms probably about nine months into the marriage. It took them a year to diagnosis it,” she says of getting the devastating news that Martin had a brain tumor. “It was a crazy year of us not knowing what was going on and just having to have more faith than we could have ever imagine that we would need in our first year of marriage.”
  
It wasn’t an easy road, but these days Martin is well. “It was not cancerous, but it was malignant, meaning it was still growing, even though it wasn’t cancer,” Story explains. “It was expanding more and more and crowding out other things in your brain that you need to use and the fact that it was growing was why they needed to remove it...He also went through radiation and as far as we know, it hasn’t grown since then and he’s had checkups over the past year and a half and he still looks great. We’re very thankful.”
  
Story credits Jeff Moseley and the great staff at INO Records with being patient and supportive during Martin’s illness. “They are amazing,” she enthuses. “I got the call from them and it was about two weeks later that we found out that Martin had a brain tumor. It was crazy having both of those things happening all at once and obviously the brain tumor took precedence. The label just said to us, ‘You all take as much time as you need.  Don’t worry about us here. We still want to make a CD with you at some point in time, but we know that you need to just be concerned with taking care of Martin now.’ So I took about a year off and didn’t play much at all. About a year later, my manager called me up and said, ‘Okay, so are you ready to think about making a CD?’”
  
She was and she did. The result is her INO debut Great God Who Saves. When asked which song on the CD was most difficult to write, Story responds, “Definitely the song called Make Something Beautiful. That’s probably the most raw experiential song on there. It just talks about being in a place where you are looking at your life and it just seems like a mess and there’s a line that says, “All I know to do is lift my hands to you.’ I think a lot of times in life we come to a point where we can’t make sense of any of it. Life is so much more than you can imagine and the only way we can react as Christians is to just hold our hands to God and say, ‘Okay, we don’t understand, but we are going to trust you and ask you to use the tough situations to glorify yourself.’”
  
These days, Story does select concert dates around the country, but she also remains on staff at Perimeter and doesn’t see that changing. “For me as a songwriter, I found it’s so much easier to write the songs for a church when I’m in the church, when I’m interacting with the church,” she says. “We have this responsibility of figuring out what do God’s people want to say to God and what does God want to say to his people and it’s really hard to get those things if you’re not in a community, if you’re not part of a local church. It’s almost like a songwriter in residence program. I definitely benefit from the congregation.”

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About the Writer

Deborah Evans Price is a Nashville-based journalist who has spent the past 11 years covering country and Christian music for Billboard magazine, and has contributed stories on everyone from Alan Jackson to Bon Jovi to Avril Lavigne.

Deborah has received the "Outstanding Mainstream Contribution to Gospel Music" award from the Gospel Music Association. Considered a key analyst in the music field, Deborah has been interviewed by MSNBC, CNN, CMT, New York Times, Today Show, and ABC Primetime, among other outlets. She's served three years as judge on TBN's "Exalting Him Christian Artist Talent Search," where some say she's become the "Paula Abdul" of the Christian competition.

A Virginia native, Deborah grew up on Air Force bases in New Jersey, Georgia, Arkansas, and Japan. She and husband Gary have been married 21 years and have a 16-year-old son Trey. They reside outside Nashville and attend Mill Creek Baptist Church.