Boise is home to an emerging music scene. One of the musicians drawing big applause right now is female solo artist Bronwyn Leslie, who goes by the name of Lionsweb. Leslie is heading out on her first national tour Thursday: a three-month trek across 30 states and 50 cities.
But Leslie is not your typical musical performer. In fact, not much about her is typical.
For starters, her practice space this summer has been unconventional. She and Boise musician Kelsey Swope set up a temporary studio in the back of a bingo hall in Garden City. After passing by tables of smokers leaning over bingo cards, there's a pink glow coming from a back room.
"This, is the Psycho Adorable Lair," says Leslie.
She draws back the curtain and reveals a converted storage space filled with more than a dozen instruments -- including Leslie's upright and baby grand pianos. A vanity displays all kinds of old-fashioned dresses, hats, and even a pair of roller skates. There's a wooden baby cradle in the corner filled with records -- Paul McCartney's head is visible as you walk by. Sage is burning on a table, masking some of the cigarette smell coming from the bingo hall.
Again, not your typical practice space for touring musicians.
For the echo, Leslie sometimes practices in the bathroom at the back of the bingo hall. She rocks back and forth, and her long wavy hair covers her eyes. As you watch her perform, you get the impression she’s having an out-of-body experience.
But as powerful as Leslie sounds, she admits she’s insecure. She’s never taken any formal piano or voice lessons. The 27-year-old moved to Idaho from Alabama right after high school, and attended Boise State. Around the time she graduated from college, she started making a name for herself in the artistic community. She's made films, designed jewelry, and helped organize Boise’s Treefort Music Fest.
But her musical journey only began a couple of years ago, when she bought an upright piano and started playing at home.
Then last year, she took another leap and began performing her songs live. She soon met Swope -- who goes by the stage name Grandma Kelsey -- who insisted they go on tour together. Now, they’re embarking on a 10-week schedule of house and bar shows around the country. They’re calling it the Psycho Adorable Tour.
Leslie says she’s heavily influenced by the southern blues she grew up listening to. She went home to the South for the first time in years this spring. She found some tapes of her grandmother playing the piano in 1986 – the year she was born. Leslie says when she listens to her grandmother play in the tapes, she better understands the impact her southern youth has had on her music.
But if Alabama is her musical foundation, Boise is her inspiration.
“All of these [opportunities] just keep happening, and I keep meeting the most incredible people," says Leslie. "And the community is at this really special point where we’re all just thriving off each other and we all want to support one another. Why leave that, you know?”
Well, for now – she is leaving. Leslie will play in 30 different states, carting around her 350 pound piano and sharing her music. She sees her first national tour as a test – a way to see if strangers will like her chilling melodies as much as people in Boise.
