Biography
Heather Leigh serves as a composer, singer, improviser, and visual artist in addition to her work as a pedal steel guitarist. From the 1990s forward she has extended the sonic and tonal capacities of the pedal steel past conventional limits. Her instrumental range further includes electric guitar, keyboards, cuatro, psaltery, drums, bass, and harmonica. She portrays her music as "high metal masses for amplified strings and vocals that blow all notions of form and fidelity to pieces."
Throughout the 2000s she joined Christina Carter in Charalambides and Scorces. In 2004 she established Volcanic Tongue, the Glasgow-based music distributor that later developed into a shop and record label. Partnerships with experimental figures such as Thurston Moore, Jandek, and Chris Corsano have marked her path, as have solo albums issued on Not Not Fun with Devil if You Can Hear Me in 2007 and on Ideologic Organ with I Abused Animal in 2015. A sequence of collaborations with free jazz legend Peter Brötzmann began in 2016.
Born in West Virginia, she was raised in and near Houston, Texas, where she first learned the pedal steel. Solo recordings, undertaken both independently and within ensembles, date back to the mid-'90s. Her output comprises more than three dozen releases on nearly as many labels, among them her own Wish Image and Volcanic Tongue.
She has toured widely as a solo performer and as a participant in Ash Castles on the Ghost Coast, Charalambides, Scorces—which she co-founded with Christina Carter—the Dream/Aktion Unit alongside Thurston Moore, Paul Flaherty, Chris Corsano, and Matt Heyner, Taurpis Tula, and Jailbreak as a duo with Corsano. Further associations include Jandek, Richard Youngs, Smegma, and Jutta Koether.
In her capacity as a visual artist she acted as graphic designer for the Pauline Oliveros Foundation Houston. Her pieces have appeared in exhibitions across the United States and the United Kingdom and have appeared on album covers.
Scotland has served as her home since the beginning of the century. Together with her partner, author, critic, and musician David Keenan, she operated the mail-order music shop and record label Volcanic Tongue from 2004 to 2015. Solo albums such as There's a Brunette Up in Tulsa That Cries for Me on Volcanic Tongue and Devil if You Can Hear Me on Not Not Fun received strong critical attention and opened additional touring avenues. Released jointly in 2015 by Stephen O'Malley's Ideologic Organ and Peter Rehberg's Editions Mego, I Abused Animal foregrounded her singular songwriting and singing alongside her instrumental command. The record earned international praise and appeared on numerous critics' year-end lists.
Early in 2016 she embarked on a duo tour with saxophonist Peter Brötzmann. Their debut album, Ears Are Filled with Wonder, captured during a stay in Kraków, Poland, appeared on Trost that May. Later releases include 2017's Sex Tape, recorded at the Music Unlimited Festival in Wels, Austria, and the tour-exclusive Crowmoon from 2018.
Throughout the 2000s she joined Christina Carter in Charalambides and Scorces. In 2004 she established Volcanic Tongue, the Glasgow-based music distributor that later developed into a shop and record label. Partnerships with experimental figures such as Thurston Moore, Jandek, and Chris Corsano have marked her path, as have solo albums issued on Not Not Fun with Devil if You Can Hear Me in 2007 and on Ideologic Organ with I Abused Animal in 2015. A sequence of collaborations with free jazz legend Peter Brötzmann began in 2016.
Born in West Virginia, she was raised in and near Houston, Texas, where she first learned the pedal steel. Solo recordings, undertaken both independently and within ensembles, date back to the mid-'90s. Her output comprises more than three dozen releases on nearly as many labels, among them her own Wish Image and Volcanic Tongue.
She has toured widely as a solo performer and as a participant in Ash Castles on the Ghost Coast, Charalambides, Scorces—which she co-founded with Christina Carter—the Dream/Aktion Unit alongside Thurston Moore, Paul Flaherty, Chris Corsano, and Matt Heyner, Taurpis Tula, and Jailbreak as a duo with Corsano. Further associations include Jandek, Richard Youngs, Smegma, and Jutta Koether.
In her capacity as a visual artist she acted as graphic designer for the Pauline Oliveros Foundation Houston. Her pieces have appeared in exhibitions across the United States and the United Kingdom and have appeared on album covers.
Scotland has served as her home since the beginning of the century. Together with her partner, author, critic, and musician David Keenan, she operated the mail-order music shop and record label Volcanic Tongue from 2004 to 2015. Solo albums such as There's a Brunette Up in Tulsa That Cries for Me on Volcanic Tongue and Devil if You Can Hear Me on Not Not Fun received strong critical attention and opened additional touring avenues. Released jointly in 2015 by Stephen O'Malley's Ideologic Organ and Peter Rehberg's Editions Mego, I Abused Animal foregrounded her singular songwriting and singing alongside her instrumental command. The record earned international praise and appeared on numerous critics' year-end lists.
Early in 2016 she embarked on a duo tour with saxophonist Peter Brötzmann. Their debut album, Ears Are Filled with Wonder, captured during a stay in Kraków, Poland, appeared on Trost that May. Later releases include 2017's Sex Tape, recorded at the Music Unlimited Festival in Wels, Austria, and the tour-exclusive Crowmoon from 2018.
Albums
Singles
Live
