Kentucky-bred country artist Leah Blevins has released a new song, “Believe,” off of her forthcoming debut full-length album, First Time Feeling due out August 6th on Thirty Tigers. “‘Believe’ is about the unmanageable moments in life,” says Blevins. “It’s about surrendering, and knowing that’s the only option left in order to free yourself from internal bondage. It’s about having faith in something greater than mankind.” The song follows two single/video releases with all clips being directed by Citizen Kane Wayne –  the title track, “First Time Feeling” and the plaintive “Beautiful Disaster.” First Time Feeling was produced by Paul Cauthen and Beau Bedford of the Texas Gentleman and recorded at Modern Electric Sound Recorders in Dallas, Texas. First Time Feeling is available for pre-order today with vinyl available in limited edition turquoise and brown. 

Leah Blevins has also announced a new tour featuring appearances at both Austin City Limits and Watch Nature Now Festivals this fall. She’ll also open two runs of dates with the Marcus King Band and Kendell Marvel on tours throughout the South, South East and up the East Coast in August and September. The new tour follows previously announced dates with Paul Cauthen.

Leah Blevins was born and raised in Sandy Hook, Kentucky where her father was a state politician and her mother was a musician. On her maternal side, church and music were the family business. Her grandparents and aunts and uncles all had a gospel group called the Harbor Masters and Leah and her sisters inherited that generational knowledge of how to sing and play guitar and piano. Eventually she found her way to the country music capital in the neighboring state of Tennessee, where she began the well-worn path of showcases, songwriters circles and knocking on doors. 

Following a handful of singles and her 2018 EP Walk Home, Blevins was ready to make her full-length debut. After writing the songs alone on her guitar, she turned to the outlaw country singer-songwriter and East Texas producer, Paul Cauthen. Cauthen and Blevins shared a similar upbringing – a childhood brought up in church around gospel music, but listening to classic country at home. Co-producer Beau Bedford of the Texas Gentleman came in and together they holed up in a Dallas studio for a lightning fast recording session that birthed First Time Feeling. 

First Time Feeling has all the hallmarks of an artist deeply in touch with her interior life – with her demons, her shortcomings, her guilt, her admissions and her wants. Blevins songs are literary and rich, with romantic tribulations reminiscent of a Tennesse Williams character and the Southern grit of a Faulkner novel – you understand that Blevins life wasn’t easy and regardless of the details, listeners can relate. With her one-of-a-kind country croon, she draws on Lucinda and Hank and Loretta and Dolly and the same musical traditions of Appalachia that were around even before them and in the lineage of Leah Blevins’ great grandparents. 

Photo Courtesy: Bree Fish