Leigh Harrison / BACKSTORY
Leigh Harrison is a Brooklyn-born poet, singer-songwriter,
and musician. She plays acoustic & electric 6 & 12-string
guitars, banjo/guitar, Dobro, percussion, and African blues flute. She studied music with Woody Mann at the New School's Guitar Study Center, and with Mark Mangini at
CUNY, among other places.
Leigh has written poems and songs since childhood, is the author of two books of poetry & has one CD available. Her books are "Tour de Farce" (a chapbook of humorous poems & witty parodies) and "Our Harps Upon the Willows" (poems of spiritual faith and doubt). Her 1st CD, "LEIGH HARRISON / Eclectic Chanteuse" (SongCrew Records)
is available from CDBaby.com and at live performances.
She is currently working on her second CD.
A creative, innovative streak runs through Leigh's family.
One of her mother's uncles was one of the several men to play Clarabell on the "Howdy Doody" TV show; as a result, Leigh spent some time at the RCA studios backstage as a child, and in the infamous "Peanut Gallery" on the show.
In addition, she counts numerous rock, jazz, and new-age musicians among her relatives. In addition, by marriage, she is distantly related to the Beatles former manager, the late Brian Epstein. Two of her British relatives are married to Brian's family members -- her relative, Barbara, was the wife of Brian's late brother, Clive -- and her relative, Meyer, to Brian's Aunt Stella.
A wild, runaway hippie youth gave Leigh the opportunity to travel widely and meet many other artists; among her
friends, lovers, or acquaintances were John Lennon, Janis Joplin, Johnny Winter, Bob Marley, and Mick Jagger.
Leigh has more or less "settled down" these days, and resides in Queens, where she continues to pursue interests in poetry, songwriting, recording & performing, as well as her interest in painting; she is a watercolor artist who does surreal, pointallistis fantasies. (You can see her original portraits on the cover of her first CD.) Leigh also avidly collects masks, Mission-style candlesticks and Oaxacan dot-painted wooden animals. She also builds dollhouse rooms for fun and relaxation.
Leigh believes that part of the path of being a performer
and artist is to support other creative people -- to that end,
Leigh hosts three regularly scheduled Open Mics for POET TO POET, a group of which she is a member. One Open Mic is held the LAST Sunday of every month at the Back Fence in Greenwich Village (3-5 pm) and the others are held on the 1st & 3rd Sundays of every month at Munch Cafe in Forest Hills, Queens (3-5pm). Poets, musicians, songwriters, and others are welcome to attend, and are encouraged to bring poems or songs to share at these readings.