Today, Kentucky born singer-songwriter Leah Blevins has announced her debut full-length album, First Time Feeling due out August 6th on Thirty Tigers. To mark the occasion she shares the title track and its companion video, out now. First Time Feeling was produced by Paul Cauthen and Beau Bedford of the Texas Gentleman and recorded at Modern Electric Sound Recorders in Dallas, Texas. First Time Feeling is available for pre-order today with vinyl available in limited edition turquoise and brown.
“This song captures a reflective state of mind, says Blevins. “It’s a way of recognising how shiny and new things are in the beginning of a relationship. This song shamelessly acknowledges that the intention has been tossed to the wayside and it’s pleading with the desire to rekindle what once was in the primitive moments.” The music video was created by photographer/director Citizen Kane Wayne. “Leah’s music and voice is timeless and authentic, and I tried to represent that in a visual way,” said Wayne. “We shot at multiple locations including Leah’s home state of Kentucky, a lake outside of her current home Nashville, and on a set we built inspired by classic TV performances. We wanted to create first time feeling memories and a sense of nostalgia that viewers can relate to.”
Leah Blevins was born and raised in Sandy Hook, Kentucky where her father was a state politician and her mother was a musician. On her maternal side, church and music were the family business. Her grandparents and aunts and uncles all had a gospel group called the Harbor Masters and Leah and her sisters inherited that generational knowledge of how to sing and play guitar and piano. Eventually she found her way to the country music capital in the neighboring state of Tennessee, where she began the well-worn path of showcases, songwriters circles and knocking on doors.
Following a handful of singles and her 2018 EP Walk Home, Blevins was ready to make her full-length debut. After writing the songs alone on her guitar, she turned to the outlaw country singer-songwriter and East Texas producer, Paul Cauthen. Cauthen and Blevins shared a similar upbringing – a childhood brought up in church around gospel music, but listening to classic country at home. Co-producer Beau Bedford of the Texas Gentleman came in and together they holed up in a Dallas studio for a lightning fast recording session that birthed First Time Feeling.
First Time Feeling has all the hallmarks of an artist deeply in touch with her interior life – with her demons, her shortcomings, her guilt, her admissions and her wants. Blevins songs are literary and rich, with romantic tribulations reminiscent of a Tennesse Williams character and the Southern grit of a Faulkner novel – you understand that Blevins life wasn’t easy and regardless of the details, listeners can relate. With her one-of-a-kind country croon, she draws on Lucinda and Hank and Loretta and Dolly and the same musical traditions of Appalachia that were around even before them and in the lineage of Leah Blevins’ great grandparents.
Leah Blevins will be on tour this summer supporting Paul Cauthen. The dates kick off on Saturday, July 31st at the Rev Room in Little Rock, AR with more tour dates announcing soon.
