Brennen Leigh

When it comes to Brennen Leigh, there is no question. Always and assuredly precise in her ability to craft country music of the highest caliber, her latest album - the uncompromisingly titled Don’t You Ever Give Up On Love - is packed full of playful earworms, tender tearjerkers and honky tonk quintessence that two steps straight to the heart.

Offered as a declaration for the desperate, the titular track that opens the album was initially composed by friend and fellow musician Elijah Ocean, who had completed a portion of the song with Leigh in mind. “My immediate reply was ‘Don’t you dare finish that without me,’” says Leigh. Bright and blissful, the resulting co-write boasts a cinematic quality akin to the soundtrack of a countrified happily-ever-after ending.

Nodding to some of the more cautionary cuts of artists like Loretta Lynn, Leigh quickly removes herself from a rubbish romantic relationship in stride on the pedal steel heavy “Dumpster Diving.” Although self-described as a “trashy little tune,” do not discard the wisdom earned from Leigh’s brief suffering by “settling for less than we deserve in love.”

A lover of subjects tried and true to the genre, Leigh’s talents as a writer apply equally to songs of both the cheating and drinking variety. “This album needed one more country & western cheating song,” explains Leigh of the twangy “Tell Me.”