Last night, we attended an amazing all-female singer-songwriter round in Nashville at Dan McGuinness Irish Pub. The combined efforts of Chuck Schultz (Country Weekly, Country Aircheck) and artist SaraBeth resulted in a three-hour event in support of Second Harvest Food Bank that included: SaraBeth, Colby Dee, Sasha McVeigh, April Kry, Mary Sarah, Lyndsey Highlander, Jordyn Stoddard, Sandra Lynn, and the subject of this article — Leah Turner.
While each of these ladies is extraordinary in her craft, the show reminded us of just how spectacular former Columbia recording artist Leah Turner is and how necessary she is in the genre.
First and foremost, the girl has “swagger”. Her presence on the stage, which exudes professionalism and experience, is captivating, relaxed, and for the lack of a better term, cool. Whether she is delivering a gritty interpretation of one of her own fantastic songs or engaging with others sharing the stage, Leah is completely plugged in and at the height of her game.
Aside from her stage presence, her songwriting is flawlessly on point. Leah can deliver a song about vulnerability and follow it up with a flip of a finger seamlessly, shifting her persona and performance to portray a character, all the while slaying each and every lyric with her country rock voice that is unlike any other.
While each of Leah’s qualities sets her apart from the masses, it’s her vocals that can envelope an audience and keep it in the palm of her hand for an entire evening. With songs like “Take the Keys,” “Pull Me Back,” and “My Finger,” Leah showed off her enormous range, smoky and sultry tone, and passionate profession of emotion line by line. In fact, Leah’s vocals can aptly be described as being in a league of their own; so much, in fact, that it is a travesty that this artist, who opened for Brad Paisley on tour, is no longer signed and is left to work independently on a career that is deserving of major label support.
So, I leave the country music industry with these questions: Where the hell is Leah Turner and why isn’t she all over our radios? We, as fans of the genre, are being deprived of utter brilliance — and that is an absolute shame.
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What else is new. All new females get their obligatory one or two songs; then comes the real test, most of which results in oblivion. Her career will continue to blossom if played on Sirius The Highway, which is the most meaningful station playing all new artists, since there is no political or other agenda. This goes for the men too; countless of them are being played. Check out Stormy Warren’s fan voted top 50, and you’ll see many names of these artists who won’t get the light of day on conventional country radio. Repetitive, selective, country radio is fast losing ground. Fans want their voice to count and so do artists like Lisa.
Amen!
Amen is right! The two country stations where I live play the same nonsense. I can switch channels and gee same song. Disgusting. Tunein radio allows.me to hear channels elsewhere. Listened to one in sante fe and I was shocked that they played old songs by women too and not just luke, fgl, jason.keith, eric, Blake, kenny, brad, etc. There are so many better artists out there who do not have big label backing. A real crimE for REAL talent.
Great stuff Jen!
Thank you! I love that this is striking a chord with so many!
Jen, Leah might consider going on The Voice. Let our Music God (Blake Shelton) get ahold of her.. You did call her a former Columbia recording artist. How many in Nashville have signed deals with Big Machine from the voice. There seem to be more on the red carpets than I can count on my ten fingers.
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