This is Leah

In the 1990’s, Seattle singer-songwriter Leah Kaufman released three recordings with popular acoustic quintet ‘The Wailing Strangers’, and her own solo debut CD, ‘Five Fingers’. Performing in festivals and venues throughout the Northwest, her songs garnered songwriting awards and accolades from the South Florida Songwriting Competition, Intermountain Acoustic Music Association, Mid-Atlantic Songwriting Competition and the Austin Songwriting Competition.  

In 2017, relocated to Raleigh, North Carolina, Leah re-emerged with a new collection of songs that demonstrated resilience and a deeper commitment to writing, singing and performing. Her songwriting took a love for old-time music’s drive and melodic simplicity and married it with the evocative lyricism of contemporary songwriting. The result: songs with melodies that stick like glue and lyrics that tell stories you love hearing. 

Her 2017 album 'On to Something Fine', produced by renowned songwriter and Piedmont Blues musician Jon Shain, features some of North Carolina’s best musicians: FJ Ventre (The Swang Brothers) on bass, Mike Rosado on drums and percussion, Bill Newton (Duke Street Dogs, Indigo Girls) on harmonica and soprano sax, Chris Frank (Red Clay Ramblers), Danny Gotham (Peter Ostroushko) on mandolin, and Isabel Taylor and Barry Gray on backing vocals. The songs pulse with rhythm and vibrant musicianship, from the sweetness of a lullaby to a driving honky-tonk dance tune, each starts with a backbone of articulate guitar playing and then layers on an ear-catching voice that pulls you in to each song’s unique story.