Sydney Leigh
Sydney Leigh is a 23-year-old singer-songwriter in the classic lineage of the artform – featuring acoustic guitar compositions filled with confessional and insightful lyrics of her times, plus personal stories of pain, loss, love and growth and sung with a lilting grace of pain and promise. Inspired by Joni Mitchell, Cheryl Crow, Regina Spektor, Carole King, and Madison Cunningham Leigh’s songs explore the human experience and speak of hidden truths and passionate expressions, yet she is also a playful storyteller, using equal measures of humor and irony in her work. Her voice, a whimsical elasticity of sweetness, belies her age, as well as the depth of her songs, and it is in that delicate balance of sultry timbre and emotive phrasing that her music flourishes.
Celebrated songwriters and recording artists have assisted in her evolution, Eric Hutchinson, an early influence and supporter, to Counting Crows’ Adam Duritz, for whom Leigh played in both the 2019 and 2025 Underwater Sunshine Fest in NYC, Kiley Lotz aka Pedal, Elisabeth Ziman of Elizabeth & the Catapult, and Matt Sucich, to name just a few.
Leigh recorded two songs in 2023 with NJ musician, Peter Blasevick, the jazz-infused, “Scraps” and the playful new wave homage, “Chess.” After earning a BA in Biology from Long Island’s Stony Brook College, she pursued music as a profession moving to Oak Ridge, NJ and routinely gigging around the state and in NYC playing both covers and original material, working on occasion with Monte Entertainment, who has booked her in several venues. She has played NYC’s Berlin Underground, where her moving, “Ginger Tea” was filmed for YouTube, and she’s opened for singer-songwriters, Dan Bern at the Mercury Lounge and Stephen Kellogg at the Folk Project. This is all while recording a four-song EP in both Nashville and New York produced by pop songsmith, Eric Hutchinson, her mentor.
Sydney continues grow musically both live and, in her songwriting, deftly mining her youthful evolution into heartfelt songs, expanding her sound to world music, including penning songs in Portuguese. Publicly and privately lauded by such significant artists as Rob Thomas, Will Varley, and more, Sydney looks forward to what lies ahead in her musical journey.
“There is an overwhelming earthiness to her tone, an honesty to her cry, and a warmth to this song that cannot be understood by merely reading about it. One must listen, and preferably watch, the grounded melodic prowess of Sydney Leigh as she teeters on the edge of buzz-worthy singer-songwriter status.” – Debra Kate Schafer, Aquarian Weekly