Brennen Leigh represents what is best about American music. If you call it Americana, then she is someone who embodies it in her music and her life. She has been born and raised into the roots, trees and musical branches many others sketch out of their own imagination and admiration for the music of our common history. Brennen Leigh lives it through her life and love for delta blues, authentic honky-tonk, country-gospel, bluegrass and the shaped notes of the Sacred Harp.
She was raised in Fargo, North Dakota, to a family connected through their love for music. Her brother, Seth Hulbert, is also a singer-songwriter. Her father sang John Prine songs to her as a child. She grew up listening to Robert Johnson, Son House and Hank Williams. Like many songwriters before her, she loves the poetry of the English language. As a teenager she read Blake and Yeats. All of this is reflected in the unique style she brings to her latest record, 2010’s The Box. It’s a record that holds a brightness and warmth, which stands apart from the field of young singer-songwriters on the road today. She can comfortably play a bluegrass festival in Norway and a club somewhere in Texas. The feel of her music brings to mind the best of Loretta Lynn or Kitty Wells in style, while much of the soul of her songs are planted firmly in the tradition of Hank Williams.
But, what is most striking is the originality of her songwriting. She brings something new to something old and cherished in our musical culture; a tradition of folk, country, gospel and bluegrass that allows them to flow through her songs in a natural way. It’s the way she was raised. At 28, she is already a veteran with a well-defined style and voice and a sound that is seasoned, real, joyful and sorrowful; fresh as a meadow full of Texas Hill Country blue bonnets and as old as the early music of The Carter Family.
Terry: So you have a busy schedule with a tour coming up?
Brennen: I haven’t had a lot of time to chill out. Last weekend I went to Oregon. In July I’ll be in Nashville, then I go to Norway.
Terry: Norway?
Brennen: There are people there who like slick, modern country music, but there’s also a large group of people into rich American country music. I’ve never been to this festival. It’s a picker’s type festival. I’ll be doing bluegrass with The Carper Family from Austin. They’re amazing. There’ll also be Norwegian bands like Lucky Lips, the best European bluegrass band.
Terry: How did you start out as a singer-songwriter?
Brennen: I grew up in Fargo, Minnesota. My parents had good records. Dad played guitar. My brother and I played together a lot. I always rejected what was on the radio. I just didn’t like it. As a young teenage kid I would seek out what’s different. Once, my brother ordered a delta blues cassette with Robert Johnson and Son House. We listened to it over and over. We got obsessed with delta and then got into Hank Williams and then the Louvin Brothers and that was the end of it for me.
Terry: What led you into writing your own songs?
Brennen: I always wanted to be a writer. I was obsessed with Blake and Yeats and that bled over into the country music I loved. You know, we write what we know. Today we’re literate, we have access to it. Most of us don’t have to hoe greens or pick cotton; but you lose something when you don’t have that hard labor factor. You have to listen and read.
Terry: How did performing start for you?
Brennen: My brother(Seth Hulbert) and I played where we lived. He became this crazy booking agent and a great musician. He started booking us every place he could think of before I was 18. We played in bars and festivals. It gave us something to work toward. I had no idea how hard the work is. Things have built. I’ve had so much support. It’s been nine years now.
Terry: Tell me about the new album.
Brennen: The Box. It was produced by Tommy Detamore at Cherry Ridge Studio. He’s a steel player and a great producer. He plays with Jim Lauderdale. I wrote 11 of the 13 songs. It took a while.
Brennen: I grew up in Fargo, Minnesota. My parents had good records. Dad played guitar. My brother and I played together a lot. I always rejected what was on the radio. I just didn’t like it. As a young teenage kid I would seek out what’s different. Once, my brother ordered a delta blues cassette with Robert Johnson and Son House. We listened to it over and over. We got obsessed with delta and then got into Hank Williams and then the Louvin Brothers and that was the end of it for me.
Terry: What led you into writing your own songs?
Brennen: I always wanted to be a writer. I was obsessed with Blake and Yeats and that bled over into the country music I loved. You know, we write what we know. Today we’re literate, we have access to it. Most of us don’t have to hoe greens or pick cotton; but you lose something when you don’t have that hard labor factor. You have to listen and read.
Terry: How did performing start for you?
Brennen: My brother(Seth Hulbert) and I played where we lived. He became this crazy booking agent and a great musician. He started booking us every place he could think of before I was 18. We played in bars and festivals. It gave us something to work toward. I had no idea how hard the work is. Things have built. I’ve had so much support. It’s been nine years now.
Terry: Tell me about the new album.
Brennen: The Box. It was produced by Tommy Detamore at Cherry Ridge Studio. He’s a steel player and a great producer. He plays with Jim Lauderdale. I wrote 11 of the 13 songs. It took a while.
Terry: Is there a theme to the album?
Brennen: It honestly took me a while to get the point where I had enough songs to make a record. You collect them over the course of three or four years. So, there’s really no theme to it. It’s just about life experience and what you’re going through, what happens to be compelling at the time.
Terry: Tell me about your approach to songwriting.
Brennen: I get an idea. Maybe someone will say something and I try to figure out what I’m going to say. I ask myself how to frame it, how to flesh it out with the story avoiding cliches as much as possible. I learned a lot about songwriting from high school English classes. I go back and look and cross out anything I’m saying that is unnecessary. If I can say it through implication, I don’t need to say it out right. I use that approach. A song should read like a good book. I just try to say it plain enough so that it won’t hurt your head. I try not to editorialize.
Terry: John Prine said, “Writing is about a blank piece of paper and leaving out what’s not supposed to be there.”
Brennen: I love John. I just did a John Prine Hoot Night. I know a bunch of his songs. We do one cover, “Spanish Pipedream.” That’s a song my Dad used to sing to me when I was a kid. “Blow up your TV!”
Terry: How do you see spirituality and music?
Brennen: That’s interesting. I don’t know that I equate creativity with spirituality. A lot of what I do comes from country-gospel and I think that shows. I find there’s enormously rich music in southern-gospel. I somtimes am a Sacred Harp singer, when I have time to be. Some of the best poetry comes from this music. It’s Sacred Harp shape note music. It’s church music. It was used in the movie, Cold Mountain. There’s a huge culture of Sacred Harp just for fun. I haven’t been able to sing it as much as I want. It’s so American. If you hear it live it will blow your mind. There’s movie about it called, Awake My Soul. Jim Lauderdale narrates it.Terry: So, like many others, you’ve drawn from your church life?
Brennen: It was amazing how Elvis did it with the Jordanaires. I like to see people do that now. But, southern gospel wasn’t part of my church experience. I grew up Lutheran. They have their own music. But, the language in southern-gospel speaks to me. Like when Johnny Cash sang them. Johnny knew all the words to bible verses because he knew every word to every hymn. Those old songs are taken from scripture. They stick in my head easier than anything I’m writing about. They have this unreachable standard. Consider “How Great Thou Art.” It’s an amazing piece of poetry.
Terry: Iris Dement has done some good interpretations of southern-gospel on her album, Lifeline.
Brennen: I didn’t discover her until I bought that record. Sometimes, if I’m in a certain place, Hank Williams gospel is what I want to hear. I just can’t hear about mortal things. It all seems so petty.
Brennen Leigh will be appearing in Southern California at the Cinema Bar on August 9th, Pappy & Harriet’s in Pioneertown in Joshua Tree on August 12, at EB’s Ranch Party and the L.A.’s Farmer Market on August 13th and at The Roots Roadhouse Festival at the Echo in Echo Park on August 14th. For more information visit her site at http://brennenleigh.net/calendar.aspx
