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| INTERVIEWS ARCHIVES RESCHEDULED |
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Name: Connie Leigh
Date: Thursday February 14th, 2008
Time: 5:00pm EDT
Website: www.connieleigh.com
Interviewer: Uncle Billy Dunbar
Description:
Music has been my inspiration since I can remember being in this world. I know that God gave me music in my heart as a way to cope with bad times throughout my life. It is not easy when you are a child growing up in an alcoholic home, and when you have something like a guitar to get to yourself and pour your heart into, it is therapeutic!
I remember writing my own songs as a teenager entering contests of different sorts. I never dreamed that someday I would actually be able to be a song writer.
I think if you are a songwriter, it is something already within your heart, and it pretty much has to be a God given talent. You are born with it in your soul. To me, Hank Williams Sr. is the most soulful writer of all times, and he is my inspiration to this day. Somehow, I feel I conect with his style, I can't describe it.
Many of my songs are about personal experiences throughout my life. "Behind Those Big Closed Doors" is part auto biography. Although I was actually writing about a girl I once knew of, the things that happened to her in the song, that is my childhood. People automatically assume if a young female is molested, it has to be the father who did it. My father was not like that, and although he was an alcoholic, he would have never done things like that.
I went to my first IBMA awards show 3 years ago, and I sat there mesmerized. I LOVED it! It inspired me. I recall sitting up in the balcony of the Ryman, and the award for song of the year was presented. Harley Allen graced the staged along with the Grascals to accept the award. I sat in my seat soaking up the scene. I will never forget whispering in my mind to God. I said, "God, do you think that perhaps one day, someone well known could record one of my songs?" I felt like he whispered back to my soul, "You Bet." Do you know that the following year, I had cuts by artists such as Larry Sparks, Larry Stephenson, Dale Ann Bradley, Rhonda Vincent, and Doyle Lawson? Who could have imagined. I am just a down home country girl married to a hay farmer in the flat lands of Arkansas. I am so thankful for those artists who took a chance on my songs.
In the last couple of years, I have placed, 1st, second, and third in the Chris Austin Songwriting contest. I have performed at the IBMA Songwriters Showcase, and have accompanied other songwriters in the mentoring sessions at IBMA as well.
I have had the honor of writing the past year with some of my favorite artists and songwriters, including Larry Cordle, Larry Shell, Jerry Salley, Buddy Cannon, Ronnie Bowman, and Rhonda Vincent.
Some of my biggest moments in songwriting include holding both the number 1 and the number 2 spots on the Bluegrass charts in September of 2007, and holding the number 1 spot with "Sadie's Got Her New Dress On" for 5 consecutive months. That song, as sung by Doyle Lawson, was nominated for Song of the Year for both the IBMA, and SPBGMA awards. I was also nominated for "Songwriter of the Year" at the 2008 SPBGMA.
I am currently working on several new songs, and have a lot of upcoming dates scheduled to co-write some more in Nashville. My dreams are all coming true, and I am more thankful than I can say. |
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