| Leah Seawright |
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Leah Seawright
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Leah Seawright |
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Fort Payne, Alabama |
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342
Phoots comi...
All it takes is a quick glance at the song titles on Leah Seawright’s new album, Country Girl 101, to realize you’re dealing with a new kind of country girl—not simply one who grew up poor (which she did) but one who also grew up very smart, emotionally sure-footed and with lots to say. From the light-heartedness of “Don’t Take My Lexus” and “Soft Abs Hard Arteries” to the somber empathy of “Strong,” “Over The Storm” and “Feeling You Gone,” Seawright’s songs are like intimate conversations with a close friend. The thoughts and attitudes are authentically her own. She wrote or co-wrote 13 of the album’s 14 songs.
A native and still a resident of Fort Payne, Alabama—the home lair of the supergroup Alabama—Seawright was immersed in music from birth. “I guess I was predestined to do this,” she says. “My mom and my dad are both musicians and singers. As far back as I can remember we’d have people over on the weekends. Mom would sing and dad would play the guitar. In fact, he could play just about anything he picked up.”
It should be noted at this point that Seawright has an even closer link with the band Alabama. Its longtime drummer, Mark Herndon, recently emerged from musical retirement to become her drummer. More on that later.
When Seawright was in the third grade, her family moved from the Sand Mountain side of Fort Payne to Lookout Mountain. “I had this horrible speech impediment when I was in elementary school,” she recalls, “and had to take speech classes. It’s a terrible memory, but I was able to overcome it. I would sing and sing and sing. Then I went through those awful pre-teen years when I hid and sang.”
Ever so gradually, Seawright built up confidence in her singing. “I was in the ninth grade when this band made up mainly of school-age kids put up signs that they were auditioning for background singers. So my friend and I applied. But when it came time to go to the audition, we were both so nervous that neither of us showed up. They called and convinced us to try out. And I guess you could say they ‘hired’ us. We didn’t get any money, but we thought we were stars. I started singing backup and worked my way over the next few months into singing the lead on a song. I remember to this day that the song was Reba McEntire’s ‘Rumor Has It.’ That’s how it all started. I stayed in that band for a couple of years.”
Singing in the band wasn’t her only job, however. “Oh, Lord, I’ve done every kind,” she moans. “Once I worked at an outdoor store where I had to skin deer, dip minnows and do all that other country bumpkin stuff. We definitely were poor, and we moved a lot. We lived in housing projects in different towns. But kids don’t notice that stuff. All I knew was that when I got off the bus at the housing project, all my friends were there. I thought I had it made.”
Not long after she graduated from high school, Seawright went with some friends to a fancy supper club in Attalla, Alabama, just outside of Gadsden. Unbeknownst to her, while she was enjoying the food and music, her friends slipped a note to the bandleader suggesting he invite her to sing a song with the group. He did and she did. “After I finished the song,” she says, “they called me back up to the stage and told me they were looking for a female singer.” She took the job. “That earned me a little extra money on the weekends. I worked as a waitress during the week. I met my future husband there at the supper club. He played keyboards in the band. He also had a little recording studio, and I started working and writing there.”
Over the next few years, Seawright gave birth to three children. But she continued singing and writing. She also recorded two gospel albums. Even so, her fans kept pushing her to do a country record. “I finally told them,” she says, “that when I can write the songs and feel like they’re good enough, I’ll do it. I’m not opposed to singing other people’s songs. But I think it means a lot more when you write your own. I feel like the people listening to you sense that you’re coming from a real place. And it’s fun telling the stories behind the songs when you’re performing. With other people’s songs, you don’t know the stories.”
In 2004, just a few months after Seawright gave birth to her third child, she heard about a local singing contest. “It was being advertised on the radio station and friends were telling me about it,” she explains. “But I’d just had a baby and I was feeling sort of blah. On the last day to sign up, I was in the kitchen and I thought, ‘I’m going to turn the radio on and if they’re advertising it at that moment, I’ll know it’s meant for me to enter.’ I turned on the radio, and they were advertising it. So I signed up.” She won the prize for Best Solo Artist. But even more significant, she met her future producer and co-writer, Frank Green, who was one of the contest judges. Seawright kept performing with her band locally, sometimes opening shows for the likes of Mark Chesnutt and Exile. And she and Green began writing songs together. The upshot of that artistic alliance is Country Girl 101.
A native and still a resident of Fort Payne, Alabama—the home lair of the supergroup Alabama—Seawright was immersed in music from birth. “I guess I was predestined to do this,” she says. “My mom and my dad are both musicians and singers. As far back as I can remember we’d have people over on the weekends. Mom would sing and dad would play the guitar. In fact, he could play just about anything he picked up.”
It should be noted at this point that Seawright has an even closer link with the band Alabama. Its longtime drummer, Mark Herndon, recently emerged from musical retirement to become her drummer. More on that later.
When Seawright was in the third grade, her family moved from the Sand Mountain side of Fort Payne to Lookout Mountain. “I had this horrible speech impediment when I was in elementary school,” she recalls, “and had to take speech classes. It’s a terrible memory, but I was able to overcome it. I would sing and sing and sing. Then I went through those awful pre-teen years when I hid and sang.”
Ever so gradually, Seawright built up confidence in her singing. “I was in the ninth grade when this band made up mainly of school-age kids put up signs that they were auditioning for background singers. So my friend and I applied. But when it came time to go to the audition, we were both so nervous that neither of us showed up. They called and convinced us to try out. And I guess you could say they ‘hired’ us. We didn’t get any money, but we thought we were stars. I started singing backup and worked my way over the next few months into singing the lead on a song. I remember to this day that the song was Reba McEntire’s ‘Rumor Has It.’ That’s how it all started. I stayed in that band for a couple of years.”
Singing in the band wasn’t her only job, however. “Oh, Lord, I’ve done every kind,” she moans. “Once I worked at an outdoor store where I had to skin deer, dip minnows and do all that other country bumpkin stuff. We definitely were poor, and we moved a lot. We lived in housing projects in different towns. But kids don’t notice that stuff. All I knew was that when I got off the bus at the housing project, all my friends were there. I thought I had it made.”
Not long after she graduated from high school, Seawright went with some friends to a fancy supper club in Attalla, Alabama, just outside of Gadsden. Unbeknownst to her, while she was enjoying the food and music, her friends slipped a note to the bandleader suggesting he invite her to sing a song with the group. He did and she did. “After I finished the song,” she says, “they called me back up to the stage and told me they were looking for a female singer.” She took the job. “That earned me a little extra money on the weekends. I worked as a waitress during the week. I met my future husband there at the supper club. He played keyboards in the band. He also had a little recording studio, and I started working and writing there.”
Over the next few years, Seawright gave birth to three children. But she continued singing and writing. She also recorded two gospel albums. Even so, her fans kept pushing her to do a country record. “I finally told them,” she says, “that when I can write the songs and feel like they’re good enough, I’ll do it. I’m not opposed to singing other people’s songs. But I think it means a lot more when you write your own. I feel like the people listening to you sense that you’re coming from a real place. And it’s fun telling the stories behind the songs when you’re performing. With other people’s songs, you don’t know the stories.”
In 2004, just a few months after Seawright gave birth to her third child, she heard about a local singing contest. “It was being advertised on the radio station and friends were telling me about it,” she explains. “But I’d just had a baby and I was feeling sort of blah. On the last day to sign up, I was in the kitchen and I thought, ‘I’m going to turn the radio on and if they’re advertising it at that moment, I’ll know it’s meant for me to enter.’ I turned on the radio, and they were advertising it. So I signed up.” She won the prize for Best Solo Artist. But even more significant, she met her future producer and co-writer, Frank Green, who was one of the contest judges. Seawright kept performing with her band locally, sometimes opening shows for the likes of Mark Chesnutt and Exile. And she and Green began writing songs together. The upshot of that artistic alliance is Country Girl 101.