[00:00:00] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Hey everyone, and happy holidays from The Song Saloon! I am your host, Jordan Smith Reynolds, and I hope you've had a great year of growth and made some memories that you're going to cherish. Um, I'm coming out of the podcast hiatus for a wonderful guest and friend of mine, Leah Ashton. Leah recently sang on my song, You Were There, that came out on October 30th, and God only knows, a Beach Boys cover I just released about a week ago.

Leah Ashton is an incredible singer and songwriter, and I think you'll really enjoy this holiday themed episode, as she discusses her new EP, sad Girl Silver Bells. We'll start with a live performance of her original song off the EP, Christmas Without You.

Enjoy the episode!

[00:00:41] Leah Ashton: All right. Hi, my name is Leah Ashton, and this is my song Christmas Without You.

[00:00:46] Jordan Smith Reynolds: All right. Thank you. Was that a one take?

[00:03:28] Leah Ashton: think

[00:03:29] Jordan Smith Reynolds: think so. That was

awesome.

[00:03:31] Leah Ashton: Let's do it.

[00:03:32] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah, that was really great. Thank you.

[00:03:35] Leah Ashton: Thank you.

[00:03:36] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah. Very good. Um, man. Okay.

So tell me a little bit about the story behind this song, Christmas Without You.

[00:03:44] Leah Ashton: Yeah, so, Christmas Without You, um, is, I released, um, a Christmas EP just last week on November 29th. Um, the EP is called, thank you, the EP is called Sad Girl Silver Bells, which we can get into the silly title in a moment, but, um, this song is the only original on the EP. The rest are all arrangements of, of covers of, you know, Christmas songs that are a little more familiar.

Um, But this song in particular, I started writing it, um, in December of 2020 when so many of us were separated from our friends and family. Um, that's the first year my husband and I are both from Ohio and that's where our families still are. And that was the first year that, uh, We stayed in Los Angeles since, since living here, um, because of the pandemic, we, we didn't travel.

And I was just thinking about, you know, how even in the pandemic, we still all kind of went through some semblance of the holiday motions, you know, decorations and music and people were having, like I had a virtual Christmas party, you know, there was still a lot of the traditions that still happen. Um, that make Christmas, you know, the, the Christmas season, what it is.

But I was just thinking about how, like, it's really, it's not really Christmas unless you're with the people who make Christmas

[00:05:09] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Mm hmm.

[00:05:10] Leah Ashton: Um, we also, my family, we lost my, my youngest brother, Joel, um, he passed away in 2018 and so, um, it also could coincidentally happened that. In 2020, when I was writing the song, it, um, it was December, but it was also his birthday.

It was December 4th. So it was a kind of a layer of, I'm missing everybody this year. Cause we're not, you know, we're not together, but also kind of in particular, uh, you know, a little dedication to him as well. Cause it just happened to be his birthday that the song started. Um, And I wrote the A sections that day.

It was one of those things that It happened pretty quickly. Uh, you know, it was a simple, the lyrics are pretty simple. The, the chords are repetitive and I, I wanted to maintain that simplicity, but I, I knew I wanted a B section that had a little something to it, but in the moment I couldn't figure out what the B section was, I would revisit the song, even when it wasn't Christmas time.

And I'd be like, what is this B section going to be? I don't, I don't know. I played around with different ideas and nothing ever really stuck. I never really settled on anything that I. that I liked. And so, uh, the song kind of sat unfinished for quite a while.

And then last year, so Christmas or well, it was like November, I think of 2023, I called up Justin Sinclair, who of course, you know, I know he's been on the podcast.

[00:06:40] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yes, Brother

[00:06:41] Leah Ashton: artist project.

[00:06:43] Jordan Smith Reynolds: King of Bridges. Yes.

[00:06:46] Leah Ashton: bridges specifically shout out to Justin for that. But I called him up because of that. Um, and I was like, do you want to help me finish the song? And so we sat down and, um, he, we worked on this bridge together. He had the idea to kind of, um, draw some inspiration from Christmas time is here.

The Vince Giraldi, Charlie, Charlie Brown. Um, he was like, let's look at that and kind of think about, you know, some of the chord structure there. And, um,

[00:07:15] Jordan Smith Reynolds: I want to just pause real quick on that one. Um, so you're a fan, yes, of that song, Christmas Time is Here? Okay. I have met some haters on that song recently and it just, I just

can't

fathom it.

[00:07:26] Leah Ashton: it's a weird song. I mean, it's very strange. The, you know, the, the whole, the harmony structure of it and how the melody sits in it. It's real funky,

[00:07:37] Jordan Smith Reynolds: It's mellow,

for

[00:07:38] Leah Ashton: I like weird Christmas. I like, I

[00:07:41] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah, same. Um, I guess, and I do have to say, I don't like the original recording because the kids are just singing so out of

[00:07:48] Leah Ashton: sure the

[00:07:49] Jordan Smith Reynolds: like, besides the nostalgia factor, like, um, and you know, with all like the major seventh stuff, if you sing a little out of tune, it just, it sounds super

[00:07:58] Leah Ashton: You're like, which, which half step are you going for?

[00:08:01] Jordan Smith Reynolds: yeah, yeah. But when it's sung really well, I think that song is really cool.

So,

[00:08:06] Leah Ashton: I agree. I like that song. Um, in fact, so we drew some inspiration for the bridge on that, but then when we ended up. We'll get there in a second. But when we ended up recording it, we actually used Diana crawls version of Christmas time is here for some production arrangement inspiration as well.

She's got some cool orchestration happening on her version of the song. Um, and so further drew inspiration from that song. Um, so yeah, so.

Justin helped me finish the song and then, um, I even had a moment of like, maybe last minute, I'll just record this in late November and I'll release it, you know, and just do a real quick thing.

And then like, I think I got sick and I couldn't sing for a while. And then towards the beginning of this year, I was like, you know, I do, I definitely want to record that song this year, but if I'm going to go to the trouble of recording this song, I might as well do a collection of songs. Um, so I called up Justin again and I said, Hey, I want to do a Christmas EP, including the song that we were, that we wrote together.

And then Justin helped me, um, produce the whole EP. And, uh, he wrote some really cool string arrangements and, um, yeah, just really made the songs come together as this Collection of sad Christmas songs. So the original one was kind of the catalyst for the whole project and. Then got five songs out of it.

Well, we recorded four songs this year. Um, there's five songs total. One of them I actually had already released in 2020, but

[00:09:48] Jordan Smith Reynolds: right. That was the Merry Christmas,

[00:09:49] Leah Ashton: Merry Christmas, darling. Yeah. Um, that one I put out in 2020 again in this whole, like, Hey, we're all separated. You know, we can't be together for Christmas. That's the theme of that song.

Um, and so it fit obviously in the rest of the. In the theme of the rest of the song. So I included that as well

[00:10:08] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah Awesome. So for the EP in production, you mentioned there's a lot of strings with the with the string arrangement What other? What else went into the production process for the CP?

[00:10:20] Leah Ashton: so everything was kept acoustic and kind of simplistic leaning into the, you know, sad melancholy vibe. So strings, um, my husband's a saxophone player and, um, he, we work together a lot. He's on all of my other projects. He's done some kind of playing, arranging, et cetera. Um, and so on Christmas without you, there's strings and then Eric arranged some horns.

Um, he played flute and, uh, tenor saxophone, and we had a bari saxophone, um, and then things are a lot of the EP, well, it's piano heavy, but there's, there's also a lot of guitar. Uh, my friend Ben Thomas played a really cool, um, guitar. He kind of laid the foundation for the recording of this song I just played, um, on guitar.

And so then we layered in strings, some piano, some horns. Um, Justin and his wife Joy and I sang a couple of little hidden background vocals. They're very lightly layered in. Um, I think that's all for this song, but the, the whole, the whole EP is very piano, guitar, strings, um, little sprinkles of some other things, but it's kept pretty mellow and acoustic and.

[00:11:42] Jordan Smith Reynolds: great Nice and sad. Awesome. So, that's for the production of the, of the record. Um, yeah. And so writing this with Justin, you had the B section, the A section.

It isn't, um, like first chorus, first chorus, bridge, like you mentioned, it's in sections, which kind of feels more jazz related to me. Uh, would you say that's true or?

[00:12:11] Leah Ashton: Yeah, definitely. It's definitely like, It's like an AABA, you know, which is pretty, pretty classic for like a jazz form. And I, I don't really consider myself, I, well, I don't consider myself a jazz artist or like a real jazz singer or anything like that, but I'm definitely inspired and influenced by the genre and the, you know, the art form.

Um, and so sometimes I lean into that. A little bit more, um, depending on the song and the vibe and all that.

[00:12:46] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah.

So let's talk about that for your artist path. Your artist journey here. Um, what's, what's your background in music? How'd you get into it? And then Yeah. We'll, we'll start with that.

[00:12:57] Leah Ashton: Yeah. Um, a lot of my background is church music. I mean, I grew up, that's, that's the foundation of when I started to, you know, explore any kind of singing and being up in front of people singing or, or playing piano. I sing, do more singing than playing. But, um, so, um, A lot of it was church and, um, but like at home there was always Disney, Disney movies, musical, Disney musicals.

Um, uh, but like, there's a lot of eclectic music at my house too. There was a lot of jazz and classic rock and, um, like funk and soul and Carole King. And, and then as I got a little older, I fell in love with like, Mariah and Whitney and Celine. And I was like, Oh, well, yes, that's, you know, I would sing along and really believe that I was like singing right with them.

[00:13:53] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Uhhuh.

[00:13:54] Leah Ashton: um, and then, uh, I went to, I did go to college for music. Um, I got a degree in music business, um, which is funny. Cause it's like what you learn one minute in music business. Changes month to month. Um, just with the crazy industry.

[00:14:13] Jordan Smith Reynolds: And where was that?

[00:14:15] Leah Ashton: that was at Anderson university, a small school, uh, in Indiana, like an hour ish North of Indianapolis. Um, if there's any Gaither music fans out there. It's the Gaither School.

[00:14:28] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Is that right?

[00:14:29] Leah Ashton: Yeah.

[00:14:29] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Okay. Um, I know they do, um, I mean, crazy vocals, right? Gaither

[00:14:34] Leah Ashton: Oh yeah. Oh, crazy. Yeah. The singers in that, um, under that umbrella are some epic, epic

[00:14:41] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah. Oh, that's the song. It's the, Oh Love That Will Not Let Me Go. That's the one I know of theirs.

[00:14:45] Leah Ashton: Right. Yes.

[00:14:48] Jordan Smith Reynolds: I do that with my quartet in high school.

[00:14:50] Leah Ashton: Oh, that's awesome. Yeah.

[00:14:51] Jordan Smith Reynolds: My,

[00:14:52] Leah Ashton: the, that's like the claim to fame for that school though. It's, you know,

[00:14:55] Jordan Smith Reynolds: is Gaither.

[00:14:56] Leah Ashton: but, but yeah, Gaithers and Sandy Patty.

[00:14:59] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Very cool. Yeah.

[00:15:01] Leah Ashton: out to them.

Um, but I went to, uh, went to school for music, did the music thing. Um, a lot of what I did at school though was classical based just because, you know, at the collegiate level and especially, um, back when I was going to school, there weren't a lot of. Options. Like, I mean, I guess I could have gone somewhere for jazz, but the schools that I were, that I was looking at at the time, um, basically all of the vocal stuff was going to be classical, classically based.

That's not my forte. I mean, I learned some great skills and techniques, but that's not my happy place singing wise. Um, and then, uh, but you know, I made it work. And then after school, um, I moved to LA. And I knew I was gonna do like the big city thing. And I was kind of playing around with some different options.

And I almost moved to Nashville, but I ended up in LA. Um, While I was in school and before I moved out here, I, um, I had a couple EPs that came out, um, of original music. And then I came out to LA and spent most of my time working as a independently contracted singer and, um, teaching music lessons. And I kind of let my artist project kind of fall by the wayside to some degree because I was just trying to work as a musician more than create, I guess.

Uh, the focus was like the, you know, creating a viable career to pay the bills. Um, and then in about let's 2018, 19, I started to feel like, you know, I need to get back to, to my music and writing and creating and. Releasing music and so I started kind of getting back to writing, which I really hadn't done in a long time and, um, I, I had scheduled studio time to start recording these new songs I had written in March of 2020.

Uh, it was like March 25th or something like that was on the calendar and I had the band ready and we had the studio time ready and it was great and we were excited. And then obviously. Um, we all know what happened

[00:17:26] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah.

[00:17:27] Leah Ashton: So it got postponed a little bit, but the recording did happen. Um, the studio time did get used down the line.

Um, and that ended up being the starting steps towards what, uh, became my first full length album came out, um, September of 2022. Um, that's the first time I ever put out a full length. It was, it's how many songs is it? It's 12 songs, 11 songs with an intro.

[00:17:55] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah, that's a lot.

[00:17:56] Leah Ashton: It is a lot. I still kind of can't believe I did that.

It was a lot of work.

[00:18:01] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah,

[00:18:02] Leah Ashton: Um, and so. Yeah, that's been two years now and I always knew I wanted to do a Christmas project someday down the line. There will be a full length Christmas album someday too. I've always loved Christmas music. Um, but then here we are this year doing a Christmas EP.

[00:18:22] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Very nice. So if you were to do a full album of Christmas music, would you include songs from this EP, you think? Or would it be all new

[00:18:30] Leah Ashton: I'd probably do something new since this one is kind of themed. Um, and it's mellow. I feel like I would want to do I mean, if somebody else is wanting to pay for it, I would love to do like a big band Christmas album and, you know, like really go full out with it.

[00:18:46] Jordan Smith Reynolds: that'd be cool.

[00:18:48] Leah Ashton: Yeah. That's the dream.

[00:18:50] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah, that

would

[00:18:51] Leah Ashton: there's any wealthy investors out there who would like to, uh, you know, invest in that.

[00:18:57] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yes, please. We'll put the contact information in the episode description.

So, yeah. And then also, where have you been? Come help us out here at the podcast too.

[00:19:06] Leah Ashton: Yeah, exactly. No

[00:19:07] Jordan Smith Reynolds: No, I'm just kidding. Um, but yeah, I would love to hear that. I'd love to hear a big band with your voice. That'd be super fun.

[00:19:15] Leah Ashton: I would too.

[00:19:16] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah, um, have you had much experience like singing with big band, um, in

your session work?

[00:19:23] Leah Ashton: A little bit. Um, I've done not as much as I would like. It is so much fun when it happens. Um, I've done that kind of in more of like a for fun rehearsal, read through some charts kind of bands. Um, not as much in like, I mean, I guess has there been some in recording, but not as much in recording or performance

[00:19:45] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Mm hmm.

[00:19:46] Leah Ashton: spaces, but it's so much fun.

[00:19:49] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah

[00:19:50] Leah Ashton: I love to do it.

[00:19:51] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah, that's awesome.

And as a singer here in LA before transitioning to more of the songwriting side Well, um, tell me a bit more about that career path like just working as a vocalist in LA.

[00:20:03] Leah Ashton: Yeah. It's a wild one and there's a lot of ups and downs and it's a lot of like feast or famine. Um, I've done pretty much anything you can think of that, like, a singer would do, uh, in a professional setting. I've done it, um, I've done some on camera stuff, um, a lot of behind the scenes sessions, a lot of, um, group vocals.

Like, uh, small ensembles that do, you know, that a smaller group that creates a sound to sound like a big gospel choir or something like that. Um, a lot of group singing, um, yeah, backup for artists and, um, a lot of special events and corporate events and weddings and, um, some singing in Hotel lobbies and restaurants and, uh, you know, there's a whole spectrum of, like, glamorous and very not glamorous things.

Um, but it's fun and I like that, you know, every week is different, every day is different, every month is different, and I like that.

[00:21:15] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Mm hmm.

[00:21:15] Leah Ashton: and you never know what kind of adventure you'll find yourself on. And then you go somewhere and you sing and you go, I can't believe I'm singing in this place for these people or, you know, and you have a good story to tell afterward.

[00:21:32] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah, I know. I've had some funny things, um, as well. My, my most recent funny story for that is I do telegrams every once in a while. Um,

[00:21:43] Leah Ashton: never done that. Now. Okay. See, I can't say I've done almost anything. I haven't

[00:21:46] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah, telegrams, I like it a lot because it's like you go and you sing one song or at least like two minutes worth of music. Right. And most everyone is on board for it except for the person you're singing to usually.

[00:22:04] Leah Ashton: Yep. funny.

[00:22:06] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah, but the most recent one I did was for a, um, for someone that was working at a hospital in University of Irvine. They were getting a promotion and they wanted me to come in and sing the Never Gonna Give You Up song. So like I went and like did the Rick Astley impression and it

was so fun. Yeah, so I just come in with guitar and do the thing and leave.

It's, it's great.

yeah,

yeah,

[00:22:32] Leah Ashton: like, okay, I have to do this for you and see ya,

[00:22:35] Jordan Smith Reynolds: here it is. Okay. Bye. Yep. Um, that's what's nice. It's like, I feel like it's really high pressure for like five minutes and then it's done.

[00:22:43] Leah Ashton: And then it's done and you can say, okay, that was my day.

[00:22:45] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah. Um, I got into it cause, uh, the telegrammer, uh, telegram company booked me for Valentine's day and they have obviously a lot going on that

[00:22:56] Leah Ashton: Right. I imagine that day is a crazy one.

[00:22:58] Jordan Smith Reynolds: So that could be a full day. And then it's just kind of like, they actually get quite a few requests. I get like one or two a week at this point.

Um, and I usually can't do them because I'm, I've already committed to other things and they ask you like really last

[00:23:12] Leah Ashton: At the last minute. Mm.

[00:23:14] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Um, but it's, it's fun. I do enjoy it. So

[00:23:17] Leah Ashton: That's really cool.

[00:23:17] Jordan Smith Reynolds: yes, that, that senior life is, is

really

[00:23:21] Leah Ashton: life. It's a wild ride.

[00:23:23] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah.

I love to hear your perspective on balance. Cause, um, I totally understand and relate to, um, needing to make more space for writing. I'm kind of in a space right now where it's like, all right, I need to, uh, work on building like the resources side of things.

So, you know, maybe I'll do more. session work or I'll do

more, uh, more of the telegram stuff, um, and then make space for the writing, uh, once I figured out that piece. But yeah, what, how do you manage that balance in your life and related what's your, cause I've, I've kind of been thinking like, is it better to just work and like do your, um, cause there's a few, uh, schools of thought.

It's like, do you want to do all your work in music so you can be a full time musician or. Do you want to make space for your artist project and possibly work on things outside of music that can help fund that better? Uh, I would just love to hear your perspective on that.

[00:24:24] Leah Ashton: Yeah, that's, uh, I, I struggle with that honestly a lot because the balance is really hard to find. And, um, I think it's, it's, you know, I kind of teeter back and forth where it's like, I feel like I'm, you know, one of the things that I myself am the best at for myself, not in comparison to others, but like one thing that I do really well is I sing really well and I can to some degree, earn a living doing that.

And I love to do it. Um, so why not, you know, go, go forth with that. I'm in a, you know, a city, I chose a city to live in where there's opportunities to do that. Um, but then, you know, between doing that, um, like I mentioned, I do teach some, some music lessons. Everything I do is music, music, music. And, um, So when it comes time to then do my own stuff.

I'm like music out sometimes, you know? Um, and so that, that balance is really hard, but, um, I have yet to, to, uh, venture into something not musical to support myself for the musical stuff. I have, I haven't done that like since moving here and just being like, okay, I'm a musician. I'm a singer. This is what I do.

Um, one thing that, um, well, a couple things. Honestly, I did. So much writing during the pandemic, because there wasn't a lot of other singing work. I was teaching virtually. I did do some sessions virtually, like I bought this mic and learned how to use pro tools and, you know, all this stuff. Um, so I did do some of that, but that was, Not a lot.

Um, but a lot of the work, you know, at live work, a lot of the stuff I was doing was just not there. And so I found myself with Time , you know, and I, so I did, I did quite a bit of writing during the pandemic.

And then, um, since being busy again and, and being back into more of the flow of work, um, one thing that has helped me is just like, um, being part of.

songwriting communities like, you know, song club, which is how Jordan and I know each other. Um, and there's, Um, like I did the soft spot, uh, songwriter, I did the local co writer one, but just

[00:27:02] Jordan Smith Reynolds: You did that with my friend, uh, Mike McClellan, who was

also on the

[00:27:05] Leah Ashton: Yes. We wrote together. We wrote a great little tune together. Um, uh, but those accountability things really helped me because, um, If I'm just left to my own devices, I can find an excuse, you know, to, Oh, I don't have time for that.

Or I'm tired or whatever. But when it's like, okay, this is a deadline, this is due for something, then I have to make time for it because I can't not do get reach a deadline. I can't not, that's just how I am. So, um, I think finding like some accountability groups of sorts, um, to kind of force yourself to have the time.

But I mean, I wish I had a better answer to the balance side of it. It's a little nutty and, you know, I've, I've tried to be like, well, these days on these afternoons are going to be writing days. Or writing after right, you know, block it off for writing. But then when you get called for a gig on that day in the afternoon, you have to take it because that's your, you know, that's your bread for the month.

And um, so as much as I would like to say, there's like a structure to it to help keep the balance. There's not, it's just a free for all of madness.

[00:28:20] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Uh, I think that is the, the craziest part of it all is, um, yeah. It's just the inconsistency and it has to be, 'cause otherwise you can't take the gig if you, if you don't set your life up for, um, inconsistency and like

[00:28:37] Leah Ashton: Right? Because you have to be available for when that comes up.

[00:28:40] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Mm hmm.

[00:28:41] Leah Ashton: That's exactly it. Um, so I just try to. When, you know, moments of inspiration come up, I try to make sure I'm like leaning into that and not letting it fall by the wayside, you know, and be like, Oh, I'll get to that later. I'm like, okay, if I have the moment right now and I'm, I have some inspiration or I have an idea or whatever, like let's try to jump on it because who knows if the phone's going to ring later and

you know, I won't have time or whatever.

So I

[00:29:12] Jordan Smith Reynolds: deadlines are really good for me, too. I'm, I'm very, uh, like, project oriented. So, at this point, anyway, like, all my growth really happens when I have either, like, Oh, I really want to make an EP, and, like, there doesn't have to be a really great reason besides, I just really want to make an

[00:29:27] Leah Ashton: just want to do it

[00:29:28] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah. Um, That I've done like classes like school of song I mentioned on this podcast before and things like that Um, and I really do love working that way. Um,

[00:29:40] Leah Ashton: It

[00:29:40] Jordan Smith Reynolds: need to keep yourself accountable somehow for

sure

[00:29:43] Leah Ashton: And that it provides structure when you, much of your life, at least in my case, you know, doing what I do is not structured. So things like that provide some structure and that's definitely helpful.

[00:29:54] Jordan Smith Reynolds: For sure um, what are some ways that you stay inspired for songwriting like, um, either things that trigger songs to come out of you or Um, yeah, just like what you do to kind of draw from that. Well,

[00:30:11] Leah Ashton: Um, I feel like listening to New artists or bands, not necessarily new to the scene, but just new to me. I'm trying to not always listen to my standby favorites. Um, That often sparks some inspiration, um, going to live shows, whether it's local artists who are friends or, you know, bigger artists that are, that I'm a fan of.

Um, going to live shows always gives me a little pep in my creative step. Um, I think, uh, Something my husband and I just love to do in general is we take, um, because we're lucky and we live in LA and everything imaginable is close, you know, two hours to the mountains, two hours to the desert, less than two hours to the beach.

You know, we, we try to take, um, small trips, I think just like getting out of our, um, out of our house and getting out of our routine and like being somewhere in nature. Um, those are some, you know, I always get a little inspiration from that. Those are kind of the main things.

[00:31:20] Jordan Smith Reynolds: I love that too. Nature is a huge one for me.

Um, so you mentioned new music. What's on your list right now? Um, artists that you're, that you're into. You can pull up your Spotify if you want or

[00:31:34] Leah Ashton: the question. That's the question. I have to look at my my library.

[00:31:41] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah. Are you a Spotify user? What do you use?

[00:31:44] Leah Ashton: I'm an Apple Music

[00:31:45] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Apple music. Let's go. Me

[00:31:47] Leah Ashton: Yep. Yep. Um She's not super new to me, but she just came out with a new album. Um, Samara Joy, fantastic jazz singer. Um, I was just recently listening to the band couch. Um, I, I want to say there may be LA based, but the, um, Caleb Parker who, uh, mixed and mastered my Christmas EP, um, did their, I think at least they're mixing and maybe they're mastering too.

And so I was listening to that. Um, A lot of like horns and stuff on their stuff, which is cool. Um, oh my goodness. Some Maggie Rogers. That's not really new, but it's what's in the library.

[00:32:31] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah.

[00:32:33] Leah Ashton: Oh my goodness, the library. There's also, okay, true confessions, my most recent added to my library is songs I was learning for like a corporate gig.

[00:32:42] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah,

relatable.

[00:32:44] Leah Ashton: of, there's some Diana Ross, not new at all, but love her, but

[00:32:50] Jordan Smith Reynolds: That's fun. I'm trying to think of the Samara Joy songs that I know, because I

[00:32:54] Leah Ashton: what she does. I mean, a lot of what she does are, um, standards, arrangements of standards.

[00:33:01] Jordan Smith Reynolds: maybe that's where

[00:33:03] Leah Ashton: yeah, she won, she, a couple of years ago, last year, two years ago, she won, um, the Grammy for best new artist. And everybody was like, who is this? Because she's just really young and very, very like jazz in the jazz realm.

You know, she doesn't really, it's not like an eclectic branch out. Like it is jazz. Um, but she just came out with a, a new album.

[00:33:25] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Awesome.

[00:33:28] Leah Ashton: Your newest singles in my library, Jordan.

[00:33:30] Jordan Smith Reynolds: All right. you're on as

[00:33:33] Leah Ashton: Then I'm on.

[00:33:34] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah. So great. I'm actually releasing the second song that we recorded together, God Only Knows,

[00:33:40] Leah Ashton: Oh, good.

[00:33:41] Jordan Smith Reynolds: next week. So.

[00:33:43] Leah Ashton: good.

[00:33:43] Jordan Smith Reynolds: don't know where that falls with this release timeline, but it'll be around the same

[00:33:47] Leah Ashton: Right. It'll be soon.

[00:33:49] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah, so listen to Leah's song and then go check out god only knows.

[00:33:52] Leah Ashton: Exactly. Correct.

[00:33:55] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah, super fun. Um Yeah, that's great. Um, I need to be, that's another piece that I want to do is I want to be listening to more music.

I've been listening to a lot of musical theater recently, um, with, uh, Lin Manuel Miranda's newest concept album. I don't know if you heard that.

[00:34:14] Leah Ashton: I haven't heard it yet, but I've heard of it.

[00:34:16] Jordan Smith Reynolds: It's really good. I think so.

Anyway, um, it's an album called Warriors for everyone listening. Yeah, it's, uh, The, just the cast list is insane. Like the people that they got to work on the album is crazy. And, um, yeah, I

think

[00:34:35] Leah Ashton: going to have to listen.

[00:34:36] Jordan Smith Reynolds: you will, um, I think there is some really good potential for a, for a stage adaptation for it. Um, But I mean, some of it's just really challenging vocally and just the, you know, issues of like translating a concept album to, oh, no, like a bunch of combat scenes and stuff that would be really hard to, to make happen on

[00:34:57] Leah Ashton: Right.

[00:34:58] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Um, yeah, it's awesome. I think one of the crazy things, the villain is this, uh, this metal artist that just, the metal vocals are

[00:35:09] Leah Ashton: That's crazy. Oh my gosh. I have to listen to this. This sounds so wild.

[00:35:13] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah, it's just some like of the most difficult sounding vocal things. I don't know how you jump into screams and back and like not feel dead

afterwards.

Maybe you

just sell your soul. I'm not I'm not sure how that works. Yeah, uh, definitely check it out. It's got like so many different genres too. Um, do you know, like, I won't go into the whole thing for this podcast, but like, um, The idea is there's just a bunch of different gangs in New York City, right?

This one gang is running away from, you can listen to it to know why. But like, every single gang has like a different musical genre.

[00:35:49] Leah Ashton: that's cool. I love that.

[00:35:50] Jordan Smith Reynolds: so really fun. And then of course a lot of Wicked, because Wicked came out and,

[00:35:54] Leah Ashton: Oh my

[00:35:55] Jordan Smith Reynolds: and I'm just like a super Cynthia Erivo fan.

[00:35:59] Leah Ashton: Oh my gosh. She's, she's one of my most favorite vocalists in the world who is alive today. I think she is incredible.

She's insane.

[00:36:11] Jordan Smith Reynolds: I saw her in Color Purple, which was awesome.

[00:36:14] Leah Ashton: Did you see it like on stage?

[00:36:16] Jordan Smith Reynolds: on stage and like on broadway,

so

[00:36:18] Leah Ashton: heard the, I've heard her, you know, I've heard that, that version of the, of the show, uh, listen to the soundtrack and everything, but I didn't get to actually see it. That's so cool.

[00:36:26] Jordan Smith Reynolds: and it was uh, I was like I was actually wanting to go to hamilton Um, but the tickets were crazy expensive and it was like we were just looking at other options like color purple Oh, that would be really cool. And so we went to that one and was blown away Obviously and then just ever since then i've been like super cynthia revo fan

[00:36:44] Leah Ashton: Yeah. I mean, how could you not be after? Oh my gosh. After seeing that, my goodness,

[00:36:48] Jordan Smith Reynolds: There's um, just to gush a little bit more about Cynthia Erivo for other one who hasn't checked her out yet

[00:36:54] Leah Ashton: you have

[00:36:54] Jordan Smith Reynolds: I don't think there's another vocalist that like connects me instantly to like I don't know how to describe it. It's like she she like sounds like the human experience just like in a voice And I don't I don't get it How she can like,

[00:37:10] Leah Ashton: I know. It just comes out of her.

[00:37:11] Jordan Smith Reynolds: yeah, and like, I'll listen to the same recording and usually, you know, when you listen to a song, it's like, okay, I'm used to it.

This is amazing. It doesn't hit me the same way. Every single time. It just like wrecks me.

[00:37:21] Leah Ashton: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:37:23] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Don't

[00:37:23] Leah Ashton: Oh, I, I, um, wicked wrecked me like, because of that. I mean, my goodness. Yeah,

[00:37:32] Jordan Smith Reynolds: So good.

[00:37:33] Leah Ashton: she's epic. now everybody listening has to go jam out to some Cynthia

[00:37:38] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah. We're making you a playlist right now.

[00:37:40] Leah Ashton: Right. You're welcome. Listeners.

[00:37:45] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah.

Well, thank you so much for, um, for being on the show. It's been great to finally have you

[00:37:51] Leah Ashton: for having me. Yeah, I know. I'm so glad.

[00:37:54] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah, been going at this for about a year. So it was like, it was bound to happen. I'm glad that we finally made it

[00:37:59] Leah Ashton: No, I'm glad that you're doing this. It's really cool. And thank you for having me.

[00:38:02] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yes. Thank you. Great.

So yes, please check out Leah Ashton's full EP of Sad Girl Silver Bells, right? That's

[00:38:11] Leah Ashton: Yes, that's the one.

[00:38:12] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Sad Girl Silver Bells. Um, some of my

favorite

[00:38:15] Leah Ashton: A silly, name for not very silly songs. There is one silly song on there, but the rest of them are not silly.

[00:38:21] Jordan Smith Reynolds: What's the, what's the silly song? I try to,

[00:38:24] Leah Ashton: Oh, well, the Christmas blues at the end, we, we, we capped it off with like a little, um, cheeky moment after, you know, making you feel all your feels. It's still like a sad song if you really listen to the lyrics, but the lyrics are also very silly.

And it was inspired by, if you haven't. a very Murray Christmas. It's the Bill Murray Christmas special on Netflix. Um, if you watch that, the opening scene is what inspired the addition of that song to the EP.

[00:38:53] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Okay,

I'll have to check that out. I don't think

I've seen

[00:38:57] Leah Ashton: you'll, see it. It was directly inspired by that.

[00:38:59] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Love it. That's so great. Yeah, some of my favorite songs in this, just to give, um, everyone listening the, the track list. We've got Someday at Christmas, River, Christmas Without You, Merry Christmas Darling, and the Christmas Blues. So definitely add that.

So sad.

[00:39:16] Leah Ashton: So sad.

[00:39:17] Jordan Smith Reynolds: And you have, um, when this comes out, you'll have another few weeks to, to jam to this before Christmas. And, you know, just that kind of melancholy in between until New Year's, which I feel like kind of happens.

[00:39:29] Leah Ashton: Yes, exactly. Exactly.

[00:39:32] Jordan Smith Reynolds: and then you can listen to it to mourn the passing of Christmas.

[00:39:35] Leah Ashton: That Christmas is over and you're so sad about it.

[00:39:37] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Mm hmm. So really you've got like two months to listen to this.

[00:39:40] Leah Ashton: Exactly. Thank you for that.

[00:39:42] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah Awesome. Yeah. Thank you so much. Leah. This has been a

[00:39:47] Leah Ashton: Thanks for having me. This is great.

[00:39:48] Jordan Smith Reynolds: All right. Okay. I'll see you later.

[00:39:50] Leah Ashton: All right. Bye.

[00:39:51] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Bye