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Leni Black opens up her heart to let us know how she feels

Leni Black is an emerging Nashville-based singer/songwriter with a no-holds-barred songwriting style that has sprung up from such diverse inspirations as the Grateful Dead, Carole King and Carly Simon.   Even her stage name came from another inspiration – her grandfather, Leonard Epstein, who was a singer/songwriter in NYC that sounded like Frank Sinatra.  She combined his stage name “Lenny” along with her grandmother’s maiden name.

“How I Feel” is a song about the desperate feeling of not being able to say how to feel in the moment.  It came out of a chance writing session with three rookie Nashville songwriters,” explains Black.

“Israel (McFarland) and I met by chance through another Nashville songwriter who suggested we all get in a room and write together. An hour into the session the song was nearly finished. I came in with a melody for the chorus, and as soon as Israel hopped on the piano and sang “your eyes are the problem” I knew we were going to work well together. We both love pulling on heartstrings and being as emotional as possible. Greyson Campbell, who was the link between us, always kept us in check with where the song was headed as we could get off track pretty easily talking about our own experiences hiding feelings.
“I didn’t realize Israel was also a talented musician and producer.  We did a couple of takes of the song in his room and I came back the next couple of nights for background vocals, a couple of weeks later the song was finished.  We are both new to Nashville and passionate about writing, now with a couple more songs in the works.  What I love about working with Israel is that he also uses his own experiences and pours his heart into a song.  Whenever we write it is always an emotional hour or so.  The only good cries I had this year were with him in the room with a piano.”
McFarland is an up-and-coming singer/songwriter and producer with a growing portfolio of original songs and a passion for creating great music.   He explains, “This production really gave me the chance to stretch my creativity.  While it was influenced by our indie-pop roots, the main focus was creating something that felt new and authentic to the artist.”

Spotify – HOW i FEEL

Black likes to say that she doesn’t write a lot of love songs – but she’s written a ton of breakup songs.  That’s because when she’s in the throes of a relationship, riding the wave of joy and expectation, shes too in the moment to write reflectively about it.  Yet she has plenty of time post-breakup, when she’s engulfed in tearful emotions and in need of catharsis, to write her heart out.  Now that she’s going after her long-delayed dream of making music for a living, she’s got an incredible stockpile of emotional outpourings that she hopes will connect with everyone who has ever gone through these same types of experiences – which is pretty much everyone.

The Maryland native is the first to admit that she “kind of let life take me wherever I wanted throughout my 20’s.  I’m basically a runaway bride who doesn’t know what eggs she likes” – a reference to a hilarious scene in the 1999 film where Richard Gere accuses Julia Roberts of not having a mind of her own because her tastes change with every new guy she meets.

“I stayed inside weekend after weekend crying and writing, singing and playing music to heal from all the heartbreak I kept going through,” Leni says.  “I probably slipped into some sort of depression without many of my friends knowing.  I’m generally a very happy, easygoing and sarcastic person.  I don’t normally express my emotions verbally.  Songwriting has given me that outlet and I’ve been doing it since I got my first journal.  It’s always been a form of expression for me that I have kept to myself.”

We think this young lady has a whole heap of potential and we are thoroughly impressed with her new song, which debuted last Friday, February 26.  She reminds us of early Taylor Swift, and we can easily see Black on the radio for an extended period of time.  We can’t wait to see what comes next and we will be rooting for her success.