Leslie Alexander grew up on an Alberta sheep farm & couldn't wait to get to the city. She hit the road, made a bunch of mistakes & wrote songs about them. She wound up singing on a street corner in Vancouver for spare change. She does not consider this a mistake.
Along came producer John Ellis (Be Good Tanyas), who put together Leslie's first CD Bird in the House (1997). Tom Zillich (Westender) called this collection of tunes about street life & redemption “one of the best indie releases I've heard.†Anyway, it got Leslie out of the rain & into some coffeehouses where she set her sights on the concert stage.
Then she contributed a recording to the Grrrls with Guitars Compilation ..1(FESTIVAL 1999), jumping in a van with a bunch of other Grrrls to tour Western Canada. Noticing the disappearance of grain elevators from the prairies, Leslie began writing songs about the contrasts between her rural roots & her new home in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside that would become her second record Savage Country.
Fellow ex-busker Harry Manx turned up, fresh off the plane from India, so Leslie gave him a good dinner & a few gigs. John Ellis & Wyckham Porteous took them both into the studio to make Savage Country (PHD Canada 2002), also enlisting the help of the Be Good Tanya's Sam Parton, Angela Harris (Maximum Music) & Linda MacRae. Since then, Leslie's appeared on concert & festival stages across Canada, headlining or sharing the spotlight with the likes of Mary Gauthier, Corb Lund, & Jim Byrnes. Music writers praised Savage Country wherever she went, the record turning up on Campus, CBC, BBC, & Australian National Public Radio playlists. In 2004, Savage Country was ..4 Most Played Canadian Folk/Roots album on the CBC's Galaxie Satellite Radio. Today, Leslie's songs are receiving international airplay on her own recordings as well as cuts with other artists and have been licensed to film and television.
Invited to open shows for Barney Bentall in support of his upcoming record on True North (Spring 2006), before long Leslie became a part of his acoustic-based trio, playing banjo, guitar & piano. Pre-production with John Ellis & Wyckham Porteous for her third record was underway when Jane Siberry popped out of the crowd one night & offered to help, contributing vocal tracks & inviting Leslie to open shows for her. Barney & Dustin Bentall also pitched in, as well as folk/roots Sony/BMG artist Jeremy Fisher.
A collection of songs about life, death & dandilions in the concrete, the Garden in the Stones has generated some pre-release buzz as two of its tracks advanced to the semi-finals of the International Song Contest & two others were chosen to be featured on compilation CDs representing Sonicbids & the Pacific Music Industry Association.
Leslie is currently planning to sow seeds across Canada with her first coast-to-coast tour in support of Garden in the Stones. Performing solo or with her band The Wild Rose Hippies featuring John Ellis on pedal steel, banjo, & guitars, Leslie's unique perspective, songs & stories combine to create a show that moves from pin-drop intimacy to foot-stompin', flat-out folk rock'n roll, taking you all the beautiful & terrifying places she's been.
