A popular instrumental pianist, composer, and arranger with dozens of releases to her credit, Lorie Line's self-released albums typically feature her versions of popular movie themes, Christmas songs, well-known pop tunes, inspirational music, and light classical standards. Her first album, 1989's Out of Line, effectively kickstarted a career that would see her sell millions of albums and play over 50 shows a year. Some of her most commercially successful albums have included 1999's Simply Grand and the 2003 holiday album Sharing the Season, Vol. 4, both of which reached the Top Five of the Billboard New Age chart. In 2006, she began publishing an ongoing series of piano books featuring simple arrangements of traditional songs for beginners (Practice, Practice, Practice!), and she was inducted into the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame in 2015. Coinciding with the 30th anniversary of her debut, her album Rock Star saw release in 2019. Born and raised in Reno, Nevada, Line began playing piano at the age of five. Gifted with the ability to play by ear, she started taking lessons a year later; by the time of her high school graduation, she had won two national classical piano competitions. Line studied piano performance at the University of Nevada in Reno, eventually relocating to Minneapolis in 1986 with her husband and future business partner Tim Line. She launched her career as a pianist by performing for shoppers in Dayton's department stores around Minneapolis. While performing at Dayton's and moonlighting around the Twin Cities, she recorded her first album, 1989's Out of Line. Released on her own label, Time Line Productions, it featured piano arrangements of a variety of songs best represented by movie themes. Soon she was performing around the country as a solo artist and with her Pop Chamber Orchestra. Continuing to self-release music throughout her career, she offered albums such as the 1992's Beyond a Dream, 1997's Open House, and the first three installments of Sharing the Season in the '90s before producing a pair of popular public television specials in the later part of the decade. Featuring a mix of original compositions and covers of the Beatles and Brahms, her 1999 album Simply Grand reached as high as number four on the Billboard New Age chart. In 2002, Sharing the Season, Vol. 4 hit a career-high number two for Line and her Pop Chamber Orchestra. She returned to the New Age chart with 2004's Young at Heart, which peaked at the number seven spot. The inaugural volume of her piano book series Practice! Practice! Practice! arrived in 2006. Following albums such as 2007's The Glory of Christmas and 2008's Christmas Around the World, the seasonal collection Special Christmas Collection: 20th Anniversary Edition came out in 2009. At the dawn of the next decade, Line's instrumental music became increasingly popular on streaming services, one of which drew thousands of listeners with her radio station. She had also established a sideline as a piano-book arranger, offering printed music of many of her albums. In 2011, the album Vogue offered orchestrated covers of tunes from film, Broadway, Taylor Swift, and the Black Eyed Peas. She followed it in 2013 with the Beatles record Come Together. Christmas LPs and instructional books dominated her output in the middle of the decade; Line was up to Practice, Practice, Practice! Book Seven by 2017. Featuring instrumental covers of songs by Elton John, Led Zeppelin, the Doors, and more, 2019's Rock Star arrived 30 years after her debut. ~ Marcy Donelson & Timothy Monger
