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NEW CD RELEASE DATE July 15, 2008 The New CD, "Between the Whiskey and the Wine" is set to be released July 15, 2008. This features all original songs written by Miss Leslie. ********************************************* |
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FOR THE LATEST ON MISS LESLIE Check my blog on myspace at - Miss Leslie's Myspace
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New Year - New Beginnings I’m overdue for a newsletter – and overdue for an update. The New Year brings new things. The band lineup has changed. Randy and Damian have decided to leave the band. Randy will be playing with the fabulous Amber Digby and although Damian is taking a sabbatical, my hope is that you’ll still be able to catch his wonderful piano playing somewhere. Country Jim will still be at a lot of shows but will also be doing some shows with Drop Watson, who many of you heard the couple of times he played at the Honky Tonk Happy Hour. Yes, there is a sadness in this. It is sad to see a group of people that I’ve played with for the past 2 ½ years disband. It is hard to say goodbye to musicians who helped me grow and create in myself music that I never thought that I had. I have many fond memories of road trips and gigs with Ben, Damian, Bill, Randy, Country Jim and Joe. My personal philosophy about music is that it has to be about the music. Unless you’re Brittney Spears or Shania Twain and are some kind of mega-money-machine on your own, there’s not really a huge point in making music only for the money’s sake – cause there’s not a lot of money to be had in this industry unless you’re with a major record label. SO, I have always said that I wanted the stage show to be about the music – and the people that I play with to be into the music. And if someone isn’t into what we’re doing, then we should try to see if we can either create something different or move on to something that does spark our inspiration and creativity. I am INSPIRED by this new band. It is Ricky Davis on steel, Ric Ramirez on upright bass and a drummer (of which I still get to play with several great drummers that you’ve seen us with such as Sean Reefer every Wednesday, Tom Lewis, Buck Johnson, Scott Matthews and Lisa Pankratz). The music is dynamic and clear and we continue to learn new original songs every week. In addition to my continued songwriting, I am going to do acoustic shows. I started this a couple of months ago with Ricky Davis, and we will continue to do “acoustic” trio shows. There are a couple of dates on the calendar already with Brennen Leigh. She is an amazing singer and songwriter, who Ricky and I are enjoying playing with tremendously. Just keep checking the Acoustic Shows link on the Schedule page. I hope that you will continue to come out to the shows. I know that initially you will miss seeing the people you saw before. But when you hear the music – you will be inspired – to dance, to cry, to drink – to celebrate country music – “three chords and the truth”, as Harlan Howard said. And if you’ve heard my songs – yep, that’s about it. |
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02-21-2006 Newsletter NEWSLETTER: Cactus Records in Houston is closing. This is sad news for Houstonians and especially Houston musicians, as Cactus was incredibly supportive of local and regional music, as well as more obscure, non-top-40 music. The owner is retiring and I guess didn't want to sell the business, so as of March 31, Cactus' doors will close forever. Cactus has been great to Miss Leslie and Her Juke-Jointers. They have helped us with selling the CD, advertising and just moral support in general. They asked that I be included in a KHOU news segment about the closing of the store. It should air hopefully today at 5pm, but the segment will be available on KHOU's website at www.khou.com. We'll link it on our website when it comes out. WEDNESDAYS - We're going to move the times on these shows at the Continental Club in Houston to go from 7-10pm. MORE Honky Tonk! It's a GOOD thing. . . Please mark on your calendars April 19. We will be recording a Live CD at the Continental Club in Houston. The plan right now is for the CD to be included in a "Live at the Continental Club" music series that both clubs in Austin and Houston are planning on starting. April 19 will include free food, drink specials and giveaways. We'll probably have some musical guests as well, but I'll keep you posted on that. We'll plan a CD Release party probably somewhere in August or September. . . . as a "live sound" is my favorite, I'm eager to hear this finished product. It should be a lot of fun . . . Speaking of recording, we're also planning on going into the studio in the winter of this year and record a studio project. We're going to have some special guests included on the project that I'm VERY excited about. We'll release that CD sometime in the Spring of 2007. The Juke-Jointers' own Ricky Davis is currently recording music for a Warner Brothers' movie that is starring Winona Rider and should be released this summer. We'll keep you posted on that as well and let you know where you can pick up a copy of the soundtrack. If Ricky gets nominated for an Academy Award, we'll be sure and let you pick his dress for the red carpet . . . . ha ha. . . And remember the Tammy Wynette DVD documentary that was to be released with a Greatest Hits CD? And I was included in a good portion of the DVD? We-l-l-l, the company is not going to release the set. They have already released sets as part of a "Country Legends" series on Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Roger Miller, Conway Twitty, etc. . . But apparently the rights to some of the songs on the Greatest Hits CD are tied up in Tammy's estate so that pretty much killed the project. Ah well. . . Keep checking the calendar - promoters are finally starting to take notice of "that girl country singer" and her fabulous band. We're adding more and more big shows and new clubs all of the time. I want to thank all of you who have talked to club owners about our music. I know that many of you have been very patient waiting to hear us come play at a club near you and many of you have driven long distances just to hear the band. Well, It's all finally happening! |
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Press Release - Famed Steel Guitarist, Ricky Davis Joins Juke-Jointers Leslie Lindley, lead for retro honky-tonk country music group Miss Leslie & Her Juke-Jointers, has announced that famed steel-guitarist Ricky Davis is joining the band. An Austin-area fixture, Davis is best known as the steel guitar player for Dale Watson and Gary P. Nunn, and has performed in countless shows and on CDs for other Texas musicians such as Pat Green, Cory Morrow and Asleep at the Wheel. "Joining Miss Leslie & Her Juke-Jointers is a no-brainer," said Davis. "This is classic country in its truest form and performed by the most passionate individuals for that genre that I have ever met." "Miss Leslie's singing is the way I like to hear a real country song displayed," he said. "She sings real country songs about life, love and relationships with her whole heart and soul the way that they should be sung." "Ricky's steel work on our 2005 CD, Honky Tonk Revival, was a perfect fit for our sound and we're both honored and thrilled that he will be a member of our group full-time," said Lindley. "Ricky brings an energy and drive to our live shows that will expand our creativity and musicality." Davis will be joining Miss Leslie & Her Juke-Jointers in early January 2006. Miss Leslie & Her Juke-Jointers is based in Houston, Texas. Scheduled to perform throughout Texas in the coming months, the group will be playing at Windows on Texas 2006 in Fredericksburg, Texas on January 13, the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo on March 2 and 16, and at the Walker County Fair and Rodeo in Huntsville, Texas on April 8. For more information about Houston-based Miss Leslie & Her Juke-Jointers, please visit www.missleslie.com or email info@missleslie.com. Miss Leslie & Her Juke-Jointers was nominated for a 2005 Houston Press Music Award and as a 2005 Houston Chronicle Ultimate Houston Reader's Pick. |
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11-02-2005 Newsletter - Thanks for This Year I don’t think I realized until recently what a great need I had to connect with other fans of real country music and the people that play it. When Randy and I started this band, we thought real country music was dead, and that there weren’t many people who were buying reissues of albums or box sets like we were. The first time I realized country music wasn’t dead was when I went to hear Dale Watson at Blanco’s. And around about December of 2004, we played a show and met Warren Lightsey for the first time, who introduced us to a whole host of musicians that were playing real country music. He told us about Justin Trevino, Jake Hooker, Amber Digby, Bobby Flores and many more. He also sent me these great emails of old songs that I didn’t have recordings of. And the journey has continued. We have built a fan base of people that love real country music. Whether you’re a college professor like Bob Eubanks or your name is George Jones (we have 2 of you on our email list, by the way) or Roy who hunts in Africa or Gary who writes his blog, has started an internet radio show and loves supporting local music. You all have been people that we have enjoyed getting to know and sharing our music with. And the musicians have been amazing. When Randy and I started this band we thought it would take about a year to find musicians we wanted to pick with. Within a couple of weeks, Randy called me on the way home from a Wednesday night at the Continental Club in Houston telling me about this fabulous steel player he’d heard named Bill Howard. We already knew Ben, but since he was already full time with a band, we asked him to fill in for us and after awhile, he was full time. Damian was an incredible find – he had been playing guitar and then we found out he was a great honky tonk piano player. We had picked with Truckin’ Joe for several years and he, like everyone else in the band, loved country music from the 50s and 60s (although Joe also loves Big and Rich, but I won’t even address that). And you could say that Country Jim started all of this in the first place – since he is my Dad and instilled within me the love of all of this music when I was a kid. From the beginning, like all bands, we have had a need to find substitutes for various band members for different gigs. And we’ve met wonderful people like Scott Young and Steve Candeleiri, and picked with some incredible musicians like Scott Matthews, Justin Trevino, Kevin Smith, Ricky Davis, Tom Lewis and Sean Reefer. . . . all of these people have inspired us in some way and have helped us realize that music is not about egos or contests, but about connecting and sharing something you love. And now that all the men have left the room. . . . alright, I’ll try to quit the sentimentality, but this has been a fun journey. Meeting all of the fans, the musicians, and, through the release of “Honky Tonk Revival”, the DJs and music writers, who have also gone out of their way to spread the word about our music. People like Mike Trynosky at WCNI in CT, Joe Belinski at KFWR in Ft Worth, RW Shamy at www.twangcast.com, and Joey Guerra at the Houston Chronicle. So thank you – keep sharing your stories and sharing the music. That’s what it’s all about. |
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08-03-05-Newsletter - Just the Music Booking is incredibly hard - especially when you're a band no one's ever heard of. In the beginning I was doing it all myself and I'd leave 1000 messages and smile through the phone when the booking rep said, "Miss Leslie & Her WHO?" My all-time favorite booking story has no involvement from me (other than in the music, I guess). About a year ago, Big Bad Truckin' Joe stopped by Borski's when he saw Barry Pollack picking up cans in the parking lot one morning. Joe said, "I've got some music I want you to hear." He started "Out of Control" (a cut we had on the early Live CD). He played about 20 seconds of the music and Barry said, "Uh - why don't you come on in here and I'll let you know how you guys can start playing at my club." Simple as that - Barry didn't want to know where else we played, what kind of recent press we'd had, who was on the recording or how many people we brought into a club. It was our first "real honky tonk" booking and whenever I'm down I think about the thrill of that moment and smile. I owe Barry a lot - he told Leslie T Travis very soon after that meeting with Joe that we were a band that she needed to work with. And that really should be enough since Leslie T's booking skills helped us break into Houston and beyond. But Barry connected us with Tommy Alverson, who also has helped us move into Texas and provided us with some very nice liner notes. And there are a zillion things that Barry does behind the scenes talking to people about our band that he doesn't have to do but does because he loves the music. You see, Barry is one of those rare individuals that I have come across that care about the music. There are a ton of club owners that only care how many feet walk through the door or how much money they make. Don't get me wrong - Barry is a businessman and cares about that as well. But Barry loves good music and takes every opportunity that he can to showcase it and spread the word about it. And now he needs help. The sad thing is that what he needs help with does nothing for our music. Publishing Rights Organizations collect licensing fees from anyone that plays music in a public format - whether it's a radio station, an elevator, a music-on-hold system or of course a bar. Lately, these organizations have decided that "musician jams" also fit in that category and have done a nationwide clamp-down on venues to get them to "pay up or close up". Here's the sad part: the monies collected for live performances are not organized like monies collected for radio airplay. An artist playing at a live venue is not required to submit a set list including songwriters (well, not in America anyway - I was informed recently by a fellow artist who is currently touring Europe that she is required to submit set lists and songwriters for every live performance over there). What does that mean? That means, folks, that the money Barry pays for my performances is paid to the songwriters for Shania Twain, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Big & Rich, etc - a quote from BMI's website: "Because it would be enormously expensive, if not impossible, to determine exactly what songs are played in every business or organization across America, BMI uses these same radio, and TV performance logs, coupled with commercial music service lists, to determine approximately how frequently our affiliates' music is played for the general public by businesses. By this extensive national and local sampling, BMI is then able to calculate and project the approximate number of total public performances for all BMI writers and publishers. Through our sampling process, BMI is also able to track the works of lesser-known songwriters and composers and compensates them for their local public performances." So "sampling" and "approximately" tells it all - we won't be getting compensated for our live performances of OUR OWN SONGS. NOW - to what Barry needs help with. He needs to pay a $5000 bill for these fees to go to BMI, ASCAP, and SESAC. Come out to the show on August 7th to hear some great music. We start the show off at 2pm. If you can't make it, go to www.borskis.com and get an address to send Barry a check to help out with the fees. Otherwise, legally, these groups can shut down live music at Borski's - thereby shutting the venue down completely. There are other Barry's out there - Marie at Pearl's Dancehall in Ft Worth, Karin at Blanco's in Houston, RW Shamy at www.twangcast.com, Joey Guerra at the Houston Chronicle, Bill Wence at Bill Wence Promotions - just to name a few that I haven't already mentioned. They are people working in the industry that make a difference for artists, especially independent ones like us. They care about the MUSIC and the artists themselves. Not some hidden agenda or politics or dollars and cents - just the music. Just the music. |
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07-05-2005 Newsletter - Awards and PROs Lots of exciting things are happening for us. For one, we’re nominated for 2 awards in Houston. One, is a Houston Press Music Award. You can vote online by clicking the link below, or you can vote at the showcase on July 24th or just pick up a Houston Press to vote. Houston Press Music Awards 2005 We’re also nominated for a 2005 Ultimate Houston Reader Picks Award in the Houston Chronicle. You can vote online by going to: 2005 Ultimate Houston Readers Picks If you’ll notice on our schedule, we’ll be playing in Bud Plaza on December 18 for the Houston Texans v Arizona Cardinals game. We’ll be posting a link soon that will allow you to buy DISCOUNTED tickets BEFORE they open up sales to anyone else. Feel free to tell your friends to buy these tickets through our website and remember to stop by Bud Plaza before the game to check out the music. I should get my first order of the “Honky Tonk Revival” CDs either by the end of this week or next, so feel free to ask to buy a pre-release copy that we’ll have for sale hopefully by my birthday weekend shows. And we have t-shirts and koozies for sale now as well, so look for those. Lastly, I need to vent a little bit about something. BMI and ASCAP are clamping down on live music venues. Normally, a venue that plays live music (whether it’s from a jukebox or having a live band) has to pay a fee to BMI/ASCAP for royalties on these shows. Theoretically, you would think that these fees would go back to the artist (as they do for radio plays or copies of CDs). Not quite. What’s bothering me is that BMI and ASCAP are now contacting live music venues that just have musicians come and jam and are wanting to collect additional royalties. Which would be fine – except that performers/jammers are not required to submit setlists. So, how do BMI/ASCAP know who to disburse these fees to? I am currently working on researching this issue. But BMI/ASCAP are now threatening venues across the country that if they do not pay additional monies, they will shut down the live music at those venues – which they CAN and WILL do. And IF they shut the music down, most venues would also have to shut down. It is affecting our very own Borski’s in Willis in a BIG way and we are participating in a fundraising activity to help Barry pay BMI/ASCAP so that he does not have to shut down the place. Barry is a great supporter of live music and musicians in general and I can speak from personal experience. The fundraiser is on Sunday, August 7th. There will be an entire day of live music – all I ask is that you come out and enjoy yourself. I’ll keep posting details about this event as well as any info I get about this whole issue.
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05-02-2005 Newsletter Well, since we're in the studio again this weekend, I thought I'd take this opportunity to write a newsletter. First of all, I'd like to ask everybody to do your Houston Press nominations. You don't have to vote for every category, but for the ones you're interested in/feel comfortable with, please vote. Please notice that they have eliminated the Bluegrass category, so if you're wondering where to place your favorite bluegrass band, I would use the Folk/Acoustic category. Go to the link below to start the process: Houston Press Awards Nominations The CD should hopefully be ready to go to the presses by the end of this month. We've decided to title it "Honky Tonk Revival" (thank you, Mike Baxter!). Jake Jenkins has given us 4 more songs that will be included, in addition to 1 song that Hilary (my sister) wrote and 1 that I wrote. I can't promise anything except that the CD will be good and country. . . the official release date will be mid to late August. . . I still don't have a release date on the Tammy Wynette Greatest Hits CD/DVD Documentary set. I'm calling as much as I can without being a pest, but it is a big production company that puts out tons of projects every year so doing a release for them is no small task. I promise I'll let you know as soon as I get a solid date. Look for Miss Leslie & Her Juke-Jointers t-shirts, koozies and steins coming to our merchandise table soon. Elyse O'Grady (Damian's sister and the Miss Leslie video producer) has come up with a fabulous logo that will look great on anything. The Juke-Jointers may be sporting some new gear soon. Joe is working on acquiring Gretsch's new "silver sparkle" drum kit. Basically, it's the same thing the Buckaroos had during the mid- to late 60s. So, OF COURSE, Randy's got to get a matching silver sparkle tele. . . And I think you might be seeing Bill playing a ShoBud that's been cleaned up and restored to near mint condition. I don't know a thing about guitars but Randy says it's beautiful and Ricky Davis says it plays great. Hope to see you at a show soon. Happy Mothers Day to all of the mothers out there!
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03-28-2005 - Touring Texas Well, we're branching out quickly across Texas. We're at the Old Coupland Inn & Dancehall on April 15th (yes, they have a real mechanical bull), Ole Moulton Bank in Moulton on May 13th and we just added Pearl's in Ft Worth to the roster on May 20th. SO, my Austin and D/FW friends, you can finally catch us close to home! The Tammy Wynette Greatest Hits CD/DVD Documentary release has been pushed back to August. It looks like it will come out at about the same time as our new CD. I don't know if the timing is a good thing, but I'm so excited about both projects. We're going to feature mainly original material, most of which no one has heard before - but I promise it's going to be Retro-Honky-Tonk to the core! Maybe we need to coin a new term - "Retro-Tonk" or "Retronkabilly"? We're going to do some more "Fan Appreciation Nights" coming up. We're working on getting our merchandise together. Elyse O'Grady (Damian's sister and the gal that produced all of the videos on the Live Cuts) is working on a fantastic logo for us to use. So I'm hoping for an opportunity to pass along some freebies to all of you that make what we do possible. Hope to see you soon! Miss Leslie |
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2-1-05 Newsletter - New Juke-Jointer! We had a blast at Borski's & Barry's 60th Anniversary/Birthday Celebration this past Saturday. The place was packed and I challenge anyone to find a more hard core Texas honky-tonk atmosphere anywhere. I even got a few marriage proposals - Alright! He's been playing with us for a few dates so far, but I want to introduce you to the newest "Juke-Jointer". His name is Damian O'Grady and he played piano on the Studio EP (the cuts are on the website). He's been playing acoustic electric guitar with us recently - doing some nice twin guitar stuff with Randy. He's a heckuva nice guy for a Yankee, and I guess it didn't affect him too bad since he plays a mean honky-tonk piano. In fact, you'll be seeing an upright piano very soon at most of our gigs. That's right - he has bought a real upright piano and Randy and Damian installed some casters to roll that thing around with us everywhere we play (uh - or those gigs where the stage is big enough for it to fit). No one can say that we don't take "authentic retro honky-tonk sound" seriously . . . Look for some video footage of some of our live shows soon on the website. And remember to check our schedule for new venues - we'll be playing at Big Texas Dance Hall & Saloon in Webster (around NASA) on Thursday, February 10th. |
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12-01-2004 - Looking Forward I am looking forward to a really good year. To some of you that know me personally, my life has been a bit of a roller coaster the past few years. And when Randy and I made a decision to start a traditional country band and try to "make it" from a regional perspective, I wondered whether it was just another start of a big long hill. . . . I guess in some ways it is. But the music fell into place much quicker than I expected. We have an incredible band made up of some incredible talent. Bill Howard is a phenomenal steel player - he pulls some great tone and has such a natural feel for the 50s and 60s pedal steel sound. Joe and Ben are solid, rhythm guys - and you can't find anyone more country than those 2. And Randy has been amazing - I've always been astounded by his natural ability, but he has gone well beyond my (or anyone's for that matter) expectations in picking up the electric guitar. And beyond the talent, we all have a good time together and have the same love for the music we are doing. And so the big question was: Does anybody want to hear what we're doing? Is there anyone out there wants to hear "torch and twang" country music? Those questions are slowly being answered with a resounding, "Yes!" Check out our schedule - we're adding new dates and new venues all of the time. And this is thanks in large part to Leslie T Travis from KILT who has been helping us with booking. She's been great to work with and is helping us achieve a lot in the Houston metro market in a short amount of time. And December will feature our band in a Houston Chronicle article. The writer is Joey Guerra, who I met through Hilary. Beyond being a nice guy, he is a great fan of old country music. Tomorrow I'm going to shoot some footage for a documentary about Tammy Wynette and her impact on country artists (I'll give more details later). We'll also have an article in CountryStyle, TX magazine coming soon. So, who'd've thought? A band gets together to do some old and old-sounding music with a singer that's about as far from the mainstream country sound as you can get. And they can play clubs, get a little press and maybe even make a little jack. So I am looking forward. I am not sure at what just yet, but for now I am just looking forward. I'm enjoying some great music and sharing that with great people - both onstage and off. So Happy Holidays to you and yours and here's to 2005. Cheers! |
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12-01-2004 - Addendum to 12-01 Newsletter I need to add 2 things: 1) The Chronicle article will be out December 9th. I don't know why I thought they came out on Tuesdays. It will be in the Preview section of the paper that Thursday. If you miss it, don't worry - it will be available online on the home page of the Chronicle. Go to www.chron.com and then look at the Local Bands section/link. 2) Most importantly - - I knew I was forgetting a band member, but kept thinking it was the piano player we're planning on adding one day . . . I can't believe I forgot the 2nd most important man in my life - my father, "Country Jim" Sloan. I am very grateful that he is a part of my life and my band. He is the singing voice I fell asleep to as a little girl when my parents had bluegrass jams at our house. He has always been an encouragement to me, whether it's musically, emotionally or spiritually. His infectious love of country music cultivated my love of the music. And he has been the closest friend my husband has ever had, which means more to me than he will ever know. I am proud that he is our acoustic guitar player and hope he'll keep singing his cool country songs with us. . . . sorry I left you out, Pop. |
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9-29-2004 - - The First Newsletter Inspiration . . . . I was listening to NPR this morning on the way to substitute at the junior college where I teach. I heard an interview with Brad Lukowich. If you're not familiar with the name, he helped the Tampa Bay Lightning win a Stanley Cup last year. The National Hockey League is in the middle of a lockout because the players won't accept a salary cap and other issues, so thus far there's no major league hockey being played. Brad, however, has signed with the minor league Ft Worth Brahmas and what inspired me were his comments about this decision. Interviewer: You stood to have made 1.3 million dollars this year. Instead, you’ll be making 1200 a month plus a housing allowance. Brad: Yeah I’ll make about 10,000 dollars this year. 1.3, ten thousand, whatever it takes to keep playing hockey. I am always inspired by stories of people who are focused on doing what they love - especially if it demands personal sacrifice. Odds are that music is not going to make me a lot of money. I'll be lucky if I can quit my day/night job. But when Randy and I decided to start MLJJ, we were looking to find musical fulfillment from playing music we love with quality musicians. There is a fulfillment that I can't describe in playing great music with quality people who are interested in getting the same sounds that you are. Financial compensation is great. Big crowds that clap and smile are wonderful. But for me . . . 1.3, ten thousand, whatever it takes to keep playing good country music. Do What You Love, Miss Leslie |