Nash makes Brett Manning Studios and SingingSuccess.TV more than richer!
For singer-songwriter Leigh Nash, life is a humble walk of wonder along paths of privilege and positions of potential, with each step powered by love and learning.
As the newest coach with Brett Manning Studios, Leigh feels both excited and honored.
“I’m looking forward to the challenge,” she said. “In a way, it’s like walking out onto a scary stage. But I love voices. It’s my dream to help, to greet each singer with open arms and make positive changes to honor and celebrate their unique gifts.”
The naturally effervescent, engaging lead singer for the Grammy-Nominated and Multiple Dove award-winning group, Sixpence None The Richer, is actually quite shy by nature, but said she has learned to surrender fear and anxiety in exchange for the confidence that comes from performing.
From Shyness To Confidence
It was her uncanny ability to mimic country singers like Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn that helped her find confidence in the face of shyness as an awkward adolescent growing up in New Braunfels, Texas. It led to her singing in Heidelberg Hall at age 12 for a local group called The County Line.
“I wore the tightest red wranglers, white shirt, and a silly little bolo tie, and I had braces,” she said. “I sang, You Ain’t Woman Enough To Take My Man. I had such gusto and spirit. People thought it was hysterical. My parents were so shocked but very proud. I used to imitate Patsy Cline for my father because it made him laugh. I’d do it for his friends. I’ve always been really good with impressions. But, it occurred to me if I can sound like these people, then I probably have my own voice.”
Leigh said that she began to find that voice by singing in choirs with great teachers both at church and in school. It helped her develop good technique and healthy muscle memory.
Meeting Matt Slocum
It was a bus trip for a church choir outing that led to her creative partnership with Matt Slocum and the beginnings of Sixpence None The Richer.
“He approached me on the bus,” she said. “I don’t think we’d ever really talked. He just passed by me, going down a row of seats, and said, this is a song I wrote, handing it to me. He was shy like me, and said he’d heard me sing in church. It was the first song he’d ever written. The song was about his father who had recently passed away.”
Fast-Track Your Success!!
VIP Membership includes:
- Exclusive Facebook Group
- Interact with our vocal coaches–ask them YOUR question
- Live warmups
- Masterclasses and Q&As with Brett Manning and his guests
- SS360 QuickStart Program
- SS360 – The FULL Systematic Vocal Course
- Vocal Hacks
- Range Builder
- Mastering Mix
- Mastering Harmony
- Mastering Vibrato
- Vocal Therapy
- Plus…exclusive content only found here all along the way!
You can struggle on your own, or you can get direct access to the Nashville Coaches who have launched some of the biggest names in the music industry.
Sixpence None The Richer
Leigh sang the song for Matt into a four-track recorder set up on the dining room table. Matt had artwork done and made tapes of the song, giving them away as a Christmas gift.
One of the tapes ended up in the hands of Dave Bunker who was conducting a seminar on demo recordings at a Christian music event in Illinois called Cornerstone. That eventually led to Sixpence None The Richer signing with its first label, REX.
The Contemporary Christian group is best known for its mega-hit, Kiss Me, one of the most-used songs in the history of film scoring. After a run of successes, disappoints, highs, and lows that lasted a decade, the popular group that had its first release in 1994 with The Fatherless and the Widow, disbanded in 2004 when Leigh was eight months pregnant.
Flying Solo
After the breakup, Leigh soon embarked on a solo project called, Blue On Blue, produced on her own label, One Son Records.
“I had just had my son, Henry, and I felt this surge of independence and was inspired by being a mom after coming off this rush, this ride of success with Sixpence,” she said. “Being a mom and even giving birth was scary and inspiring, but the confidence was the coolest because I’d worked through the hardest thing ever. So, I wanted to write about this and make a record.”
Leigh is eager to do another solo project, this one to honor her country roots that played a huge role in helping her surrender her shyness for the sake of her singing success.
“I want it to be an authentic classic country record, but with mostly original songs,” she said. “I want to use the same mics, amps, and guitars they had back then. And work with our bass player from Sixpence (Justin Cary).”
