Muddy Bottom Blues
Program #221 (October 9 at 8:00 p.m. and October 10 at 3:00 p.m.)
Brennen Leigh is an American songwriter, guitar player, mandolin player and singer whose to-the-point storytelling style has elevated her to cult icon status in Europe, Scandinavia, across the United States, South America and the United Kingdom.
Her songs have been recorded by Lee Ann Womack, Rodney Crowell, Sunny Sweeney, Charley Crockett, and many others.
The Nashville based singer released her sixth solo album, Prairie Love Letter, on September 18th. The concept record, produced by Robbie Fulks, is an ode to her birthplace on the state line between Minnesota and North Dakota, a region not often immortalized in song.
It was in her home state of Minnesota that Leigh got her musical start when she began touring at age fourteen as part of a mandolin and guitar duet with her brother Seth Hulbert. While still in their teens, the sibling duo performed at the Minnesota State Fair, toured the United States from coast to coast, and opened a string of dates for bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley.
Leigh’s wise-beyond-her-years perspective comes from her hard time on the road, and her accolades prove it: she is two-time Texas Music Awards Best Female Vocalist, 2018 Ameripolitan Music Honky Tonk Award winner, appeared as a finalist on USA Network's Nashville Star television show in 2003, and most notably, was champion of the 1993 Vergas Loon Calling Contest as a child in her home state of Minnesota.
Leigh is a member of the band Antique Persuasion, a bluegrass side project whose 2015 album Don't Forget Me Little Darling, Remembering the Carter Family, remains a modern day bluegrass radio standard. She has been featured as an instrumentalist and singer on a myriad of releases by artists such as Jim Lauderdale, Charley Crockett and James Hand.
(provided by Brennen Leigh)