New release available, listen at Waterbug.com.
JL (vocals, acoustic, fx)
Jeff Rady (guitars, vocals, fx)
James Bullard (bass, guitars, vocals)
Dave Townsend (drums)
Dylan Rieck (cello)
Sarah Stollak (violin)
Robert "Doppler Bob" Schmidt (dobro)
Gods & Nations
(Grassroots 2007)
JL (acoustic, piano, vocals)
Marc Copely (producer, guitars, vocals)
Matt Brown (producer, guitars, more)
Keith Lowe (bass), Chris Stromquist (drums)
Clancy (percussion)
Ryan Shea Smith (B3 Hammond, piano)
Jon Hyde (pedal steel), Orville Johnson (dobro)
Juliet Tondowski (vocals).
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Available in the UK at
Influences
bodies of water, landscapes, weather, trees, im partial to animals, kinda big into coffee but that was later, red poppies, ragtime, jugband, scratchy early blues recordings, the statue of wing'd victory, michaelanglelo's david, ancient stories about valhalla and brahma and the hindu gods, meredith monk, kurt weill, laurie anderson, diane arbus, byron, rudolf steiner, mary oliver, neruda, rilke, hafiz, arundhati roy, alice walker, certain spiritual texts like the seven story mountain and poetry by thich nhat hanh, ghandi, old love stories like the mahabarata, mandela, mlk, movies for sure esp early 70s french comedy, i love presents and therefore birthdays are good, im big into integrity esp partial to social courage, and then there's nina simone, dylan, woody guthrie, sly stone, jacques brel, otis, bach, billie holiday, thelonious monk, rickie lee jones, hugh masekela, stevie wonder, the stones, prince, lennon & mccartney (solo stuff), richard & linda thompson, pj harvey, joe jackson, tom waits, and lately the roots, cat power, martha wainwright, teddy thompson, jakob dylan, feist, tift merrit, deep house sounds, radiohead, citizen cope, ben harper, outkast, ravi shankar, jimi hendrix, janice, stevie ray, bob marley, queens of the stone age, looping, trance, laptop, hip hop, bippity bop etc
Since opening a show at the Lingerie Club for Mark Curry's band in Los Angeles in 2004, Jennifer has been touring her own songs with an eclectic spin on alt country and blues. She's shared stages and festival bills with Kevin Gordon, Doug Burr and Los Lonely Boys, and been included on compilations with folks like John Hiatt, Bobby Bare and Johnny Cash.
Born into a musical family out of Ft Worth, TX, home to native sons Townes van Zandt and T Bone Burnett (a band mate of one of her uncles back in the '60s) and surrounded by music daily helped develop a flexible approach to interpretation. Not allowed to listen to recorded music until her late teens, she spent long hours teaching herself piano modeled on her grandmother's ragtime and eventually guitar after school, listening in secret to Thelonious Monk on the radio in her room late at night. Living room jams -harmonizing on Appalachian melodies or keeping time with jugband tunes and old-time spirituals- gave her a broad musical vocabulary, and became the groundwork she needed for keeping in line with her own vision: "Music brings people home to themselves."
Recording five albums in as many years, she released her first full length studio album, Gods & Nations in 2007. Compelled by stories of survivors of Katrina and her own recent visit there with friends playing a roots music festival, she wrote it in a month and enlisted noted blues guitarist and producer Marc Copely (James Montgomery, Tracy Bonham, Jess Klein) who helped her lay down the first three tracks, including "Homeland", a "Top 20 Americana Songs of 2008" by KRVM (Eugene, OR). Copely's signature blues guitar helped to define the sound for the rest of the record, completed by guitarist/producer Matt Brown (Lucinda Williams, Bill Frissell, Trespassers William) the following summer who added lush pop layers.
This year she completed Minstrel's Daughter (Waterbug 2009) and dedicated the album to her parent's influence. Recorded at the kitchen table in her east side Austin home with band members and musician friends and co-produced with guitarist/producer Jeff Rady with whom she co-wrote one of the tracks, the majority of the record got put down on an old Shure 57 mic. They went for a stripped-down, homemade concoction of sounds in a gentle but gritty referendum on love and survival by an artist clearly thinking for herself.
Press
Minstrel's Daughter
"A master class in mournful songwriting."["More Rope"] John Hawes, AmericanaUK
"[A] ghost room romp with dashes of dirge and echoes of the Breeders." ["Let the Wretched Come Home"] Jordan Block, Sepiachord
"Poetic, forthright, redemptive songs." Andrew Calhoun, Waterbug Records
Gods & Nations
"A great album." Martin Vowles, RootsCD.com (UK)
A Paste Recommends Indie Album. Paste Magazine
"A stirring songwriter." Austin American-Statesman
"A music phenomenon whose star is rising." KPAS-TV, Los Angeles
Top 20 Americana Songs of 2008 [Homeland]. KRVM's Scott Majors
"My favorite singer-songwriter out of Austin." KYRS' Crossroads Bob
"The arrival of a major new talent, Leonhardt is a gale force to be reckoned with." Pop Culture Press
"As raw and genuine as you're going to find." 1340 Mag
"Leonhardt's voice is a striking and soulful instrument...[Gods & Nations is] contemporary, relevant and, most importantly, compelling." Blogcritics
Live
"Jennifer Leonhardt knocked our socks off." Sandbox Inn House Concerts
"Why this girl is not one of the top acts in the country is beyond me--her singing is like throwing a lit cigarette out a car window, she's an absolute runaway wildfire." Don Wolff, Talent buyer
"Leonhardt leads the Whalers with a delivery touching on everyone from Chrissie Hynde to Edie Brickell." Austin.com
Quelques news de deja vu: notre album "Roulette Russe" sort (enfin!!) officiellement le 09 novembre prochain (mvs records/anticraft)! il sera dispo dans tous les bacs hexagonaux, sortie numérique etc...
Deux concerts en novembre pour fêter tout ça: le 17 novembre au Batofar à Paris, et le 27 novembre à la Marquise à Lyon (gratuit!!). Tu seras là?
Hi Jennifer Leonhardt! I Hope you and yours are doing great. My album "Out of Jail" is available for download on all the best online music store! Check it out!! :)
Yo Jennifer Leonhardtasaurus. I just found out that we're related...and as a special family only present we've made a new song for you called "End of Days" (start doing backflips now). It's an epic instrumental opus to the moment when our ancient Dino relatives saw a large fiery object plummeting towards them. Please come to our page, give it a listen and let us know if it makes you feel like something catastrophic is gonna happen. If the song upsets you too much we will be holding several s support groups (read: comcerts) in the near future. Check our page for locations, dates and times.
Hi Jennifer Leonhardt! I Hope you and yours are doing great. My album "Out of Jail" is available for download on all the best online music store! Check it out!! :)
FRANCOIS AND THE ATLAS MOUNTAINS et MICHAEL J SHEEHY en CONCERT à PARIS / La Maroquinerie, le dimanche 11 Octobre à 19h30 - 17 Euros
FRANCOIS AND THE ATLAS MOUNTAINS nouvel album "Plaine Inondable" disponible "le Charentais à l’accent mal placé souffle son onirisme à la lumière d’une frêle bougie, chante sa mélancolie telle une timide amie, et dicte tout étourdi des textes qui alternent avec une pertinence huilée paroles anglaises et prose française. " Magic
Sorry for not having been in touch awhile - been rather busy! Just wanted to say that your valued friendship continues to be appreciated. Have you checked out my MySpace and web site (www.faberoptime.com) recently? Oh and did you subscribe for my free newsletter (using the form on site at page right - high quality, low quantity, no spam!)? You might also like to take a look at some of my vids on my YouTube channel too! www.youtube.com/faberoptime Take care and keep in touch. Best, Faber. "Just a guy trying to make the world a better place."
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