La Grande (pronounced in the way of the American West, without any hint of French inflection — "luh grand") is a town just east of the Wallowa Valley in northeastern Oregon where native Oregonian Laura Gibson found inspiration while writing the songs that would become her new album of the same name. Gibson describes La Grande as a place that "people usually pass through on their way to somewhere else, but which contains a certain gravity, a curious energy." She's done more than her own fair share of traveling, playing over 200 shows in North America, Europe and Asia since the release of 2009's acclaimed beasts of seasons (Hush Records), and la grande is, in part, an album about journeys and transitions.