If you don’t know Leah Turner yet, you will very soon. The twenty-six year old country singer is set to light the country world on fire with her California sass, her southern charm and her soulful voice. Despite being under the weather, Leah took time out of her busy touring schedule to sit down and answer some questions for New England Country Music.
Leah has been singing for as long as she can remember and she says she doesn’t remember not singing. She has always had music in her- it seems that music runs through her veins like blood. She wrote her first song when she was just six years old and would sing in her father’s truck in the way home from church and it has always been country music for her. There was never a choice, it’s all she knew.
“Country music was the soundtrack to my childhood. It was the very foundation that I was built on. My dad was a professional team roper in the rodeo, he’s a championship header. My grandfather is a cowboy. All of my cousins are championship barrel racers. Not many people can say that their cousin went to college to be a horseshoer. Country music is the very thing that runs through me. It’s so deep in me that I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.”
It was at a Trisha Yearwood show at the Santa Barbara Bowl when she was nine years old that made Leah realized that she wanted to be a singer. “She (Trisha Yearwood) hit this one note, and then just fell to the ground because she was putting her all into it. And I just remember the tears dropping down my face. It just overwhelmed me with, ‘That’s what I want to do for the rest of my life.’ The way that she was making me feel is how I wanted to make people feel. I wanted to evoke people’s emotion, like she did mine.”
In the past year, her life has been a whirlwind. She was signed to her record deal just a few months after moving to Nashville and since then she has performed at the Grand Ole Opry twice. Her debut at the Opry actually occurred in the Ryman Auditorium which is quite the honor. Leah describes the experience as being “so surreal.” This year she was also given the opportunity to open for Brad Paisley on his Country Nation World Tour. Leah tells us that being on tour with Brad is “pretty amazing” and that he really takes care of everyone on the tour from the catering to the use of the stage. On the tour, Leah has gotten to perform in some venues which are near to her heart including a stop at the Salinas Rodeo in July. The stop was her first time back at a rodeo in a couple of years and it is also a venue where her father competed at while in the rodeo. So being able to perform her craft at the same venue where her father performed is craft was a special moment for the singer.
Despite coming so far in the past year, there is still so much more left in store for Leah and her music. However, she tells us that she thinks it is difficult as a woman to break through on country radio. She says, “There’s so many of us out there that are so talented. There’s Lindsay Ell, who is pushing out there and is a heck of a guitar player. Same thing with Clare Dunn who is a hell of a guitar player and a great singer. Cassadee Pope and Danielle Bradbery with all the exposure that they have had… Sheryl Crow who is a superstar in her own right, and has a fantastic record isn’t getting radio play. Brandy Clark, who has an amazing album and is an amazing songwriter…they aren’t breaking through to numbers ones.” Leah is definitely a strong supporter of the country ladies and says if she could design her own ‘Countryfest’ it would be a show full of “girl power” with artists like Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood, Wynonna Judd, Jana Kramer, Kellie Pickler, Brandy Clark, Lindsay Ell, and Sonia Leigh.
One thing about Leah is that she has written all of her songs and on real life events. Because of this, she is proud of all of her songs, but there is one song that she is the most proud of and that is her next single titled ‘My Finger.’ The song is her anthem to not cheat. Like her other songs, this one is written about something she went through and experienced first handedly when she gave her ring back. The sassy song goes, ‘You dug your grave, the day you kissed her, take your ring, and here’s my finger.’
Her songs are emotional and personal and at times they can show a vulnerable side of Leah Turner. But she is never afraid or worried to release these songs that show her vulnerability because she hopes that each one of her songs relates to someone; that they make sense and affect someone in a positive way, especially for those who may not have the platform to say what they are feeling or for those who may not have the courage to. In many ways, Leah Turner is a fantastic role model for young girls everywhere as she is a wholesome, independent, and strong woman. She’s the type of woman a man would want to bring home to his parents and the type of daughter, every father would want. She wants everyone to know what even she has her bad days but “don’t be hard on yourself or down yourself. Believe in yourself, like I did. It’s okay to love out loud! Celebrate life!”
So what’s next for Leah Turner? “To rule the world,” she tells us, half-jokingly. But in all reality, she will continue to go out there and inspire people and sing her heart out. And who knows, if she keeps down the path she’s on, she may just rule the world- the country music world.
You can catch Leah on her last stop in New England at the Xfinity Center in Mansfield on August 23rd with Brad Paisley, Randy Houser, and Charlie Worsham. You can get tickets to that show here.
Make sure you go to iTunes and purchase her self-titled EP.