| Performer / Band Name |
Jennifer Leonhardt
Acoustic Guitar, Piano, Violin, Vocals
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| Original / Cover Material |
90% Original Material |
| Musical Influences |
"We weren't allowed to listen to recorded music in my house growing up, so everything was live. Everyone played something or sang. My grandmother Kate was a musician, actress, television personality, composer, writer and stuff. She'd sit down at my mom's upright and play boogie woogie and honky tonk for hours. I think she was depressed, but that's what she did with it. That's the music I grew up on. My parents were really wide in their music interests and so we played everything from classical to madrigal to all the Civil War tunes or some dustbowl melody. The only records in the house were a 33 of Gilbert and Sullivan's Pinafore and some of Beethoven's symphonies, maybe a Judy Collins or something. But that was it, they didnt have the radio on so no seventies stuff came over, it was a blackout on the times. This was Wash DC in the seventies and we got rock and roll when my uncles would come to town with stories and cigarettes and transistors." |
| History of Performer / Band |
Jennifer Leonhardt was born in Fort Worth, Texas and grew up in a family of musicians who moved her to the East coast where she went to school and played on the streets of Wash DC, NYC and Boston. At 7 she took up a classical training on the violin which she later dispensed with and later taught herself piano and guitar, creating her own signature style. Her songs take from the rich and varied American roots-rock tradition with influences from traditional Irish ballads and spirituals to jugband, ragtime, migrant cowboy ballads, a strong 70s rock emphasis to early jazz and blues. Her music is strongly influenced by the Band, the Stones, Tom Waits and Nina Simone, and has been likened to sounds as diverse as Janis Joplin, The Clash, Bob Dylan, Alanis Morissette, Tom Waits, Alison Krause and Sheryl Crow. |
| Press Reviews / Credits |
“Hard Times Two” is a much better cd than I was expecting. Leonhardt has a beautiful voice that is somewhat of a cross between Carly Simon and Allison Kraus. All the songs are minimally produced, a lone acoustic guitar and Jennifer’s vocals are all you get but that gives the album a very intimate feel which works well for her. I really like what I hear and the songs are interesting and thoughtful. This isn’t just a lot of fluff. My personal favorites were “If Nobody Was Lookin” and “Thanksgiving”.—J. R. Oliver, Ear Candy Magazine
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= Music samples available for download