Description
Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter Leslie Mendelson is supporting her most recent studio album ‘If You Can’t Say Anything Nice…,’ as well as a solo acoustic EP ‘In The Meantime,’ that was recorded during the 2020 lockdown. Described by Relix Magazine as an artist with “a loyal, cross-generational audience that hugs the hippie, hipster, coffee shop and society crowds,” Leslie’s timeless musicality and evocative songwriting indeed cuts a wide swath. All Music writes that Leslie evokes “1970s songwriter influences in the vein of Carole King and Carly Simon,” while The Aquarian calls her “the closest thing one can get to a truly honest musical experience.”
Leslie Mendelson’s previous work, including 2009 Grammy-nominated debut album ‘Swan Feathers’ and 2017 album, ‘Love & Murder’ dealt with matters of the heart. When it came time to compose the songs that comprise ‘If You Can’t Say Anything Nice…,’ however, she and her longtime writing partner Steve McEwan set out to examine the anxiety stemming from the current socio-political climate with songs like “Medication,” “I Need Something To Care About” and “Would You Give Up Your Gun.” It’s fitting extension of a more socially conscious outlook offered on “A Human Touch”—Leslie’s duet with Jackson Browne for the documentary film, ‘5B,’ released in 2019.
If Leslie Mendelson’s only collaboration with a legendary musician was Jackson Browne, it would be a worthy point to celebrate. What’s truly telling is that Leslie has also drawn the attention of The Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir who recorded a duet with her on Roy Orbison’s standard, “Blue Bayou,” while no less than classic rock royalty The Who invited her to open two shows at Madison Square Garden last year. She was set to open three more dates for the band in 2020 that were unfortunately postponed due to the pandemic. With some of rock music’s most legitimate voices seeking Leslie out, it leaves no doubt the rarefied air she inhabits as an artist.
Here is a video of Leslie performing her song Flesh & Bone.
Award winning singer/songwriter Kim Moberg was born in Juneau, Alaska, the daughter of a classical pianist mother of Alaskan Native Tlingit descent and a US Coast Guard veteran father from Kansas. Music was the constant in Kim’s childhood, helping her to adjust to the frequent moves associated with growing up in a military family.
At the age of 14, Kim began playing acoustic guitar on a borrowed nylon 6 string. A few years later, Kim taught herself to strum and finger pick to her favorite songs by singer/songwriters of the 1970’s, but debilitating stage fright kept her from pursuing her own dream of becoming a professional performer.
In 2014, after a career spanning nearly two decades in the financial industry, Kim set out to overcome her stage fright and wrote her first song.
Kim teamed with Grammy-nominated producer Jon Evans to record two albums: “Above Ground” and “Up Around The Bend”. Both have received world wide airplay and charted on the Folk Alliance International Folk DJ charts and the NACC Radio charts. Kim and Jon are currently collaborating on her third album which feature songs that tie ancient Native American prophecies to our current social environment.
Kim’s passionate and heartfelt vocals mesmerize listeners while her compositions tug at feelings of melancholy, heartbreak, healing and social consciousness.
