Leah Abramson

L. Abramson sings with her hollow-body electric guitar the unusual songs that people shut up to listen to. Dark and melancholic, her songs have both sweet and sad undertones, without the kind of art-kid pretension that makes a dictionary an essential accessory at some shows. Leah sings songs that are haunting, intelligent, and beautiful, like the long lost love-child of Jason Molina and Joni Mitchell.

2006 sees the release of her new CD, Bedroom/City: 9 songs, some hopeful, some dark, but all lyrically unique. Honest to the point of being painful, Leah writes about experiences, feelings, and politics as in Hallmark Poultry Ltd. The song reveals truths about her East Vancouver neighbourhood-the smell from the chicken factory, the sex trade, and the disappearance of so many young women-and her dream of destroying the factory that represents so much misery.

Leah's first independent EP, 8 Songs from the Attic, charted for several months on Canadian campus radio stations CKMO Village 900 (reached #1 on the folk chart) and CFUV in Victoria, CFBX in Kamloops, and CIUT in Toronto. Bedroom/City promises more college radio successes. The album has already reached #4 on Lethbridge's CKXU folk charts, #7 on CHUO in Ottawa, and the songs Gerberas and Hallmark Poultry Ltd. have been added to CBC Radio 3's national playlist.

L. Abramson is an artist who knows who she is, and is uncompromising in her music. Her live performance is stark and spellbinding, completing the picture you only start to see when you listen to Bedroom/City. She toured solo across Canada, the Czech Republic and Germany opening for such acts as Geoff Berner and played showcases at Canadian Music Week (Toronto), New Music West (Vancouver), and the Western Canadian Music Awards festival. In 2006 Leah tackled the west with songwriting art-troubadour and filmmaker Bob Wiseman on a month-long tour from Winnipeg to Los Angeles.

Leah is also deeply rooted in her artistic community, collaborating with local comedians, filmmakers, musicians, and frequently lending her talents to non-profit initiatives. Last year she signed on with her friends as a partner in Copperspine Records, a grass roots collective formed to give artists support in their creative endeavours. L. Abramson is indeed an artist who, with her music, will always find a soft place in the city to fall.