GIG – 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 goes 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.” “This one is about when you already know something isn’t right, but you need to hear it from someone else. I imagine it as a phone call to the other woman, who isn’t telling the truth.”

While “Tell Me” anticipates terrible news, “A Reason to Drink” serves something sadder. “One of my favorite topics in country & western music is alcoholic denial and shame,” shares Leigh. “The love interest in this song chases an unavailable person because she gives him a reason to drink excessively, while the singer chases the unavailable alcoholic. It’s a dysfunctional cycle I don’t recommend, unless you’re trying to gather material for country songs.”