Biography

Early life

Nash was born Leigh Anne Bingham in New Braunfels, Texas. She started singing country music and learning old country songs on the guitar at the age of 12. She had several years' experience singing in local cafes with a middle-aged band and performed regularly at a Texan country & western dance hall. She met guitarist and songwriter Matt Slocum at a church retreat in the early 1990s.

Career

The two formed Sixpence None the Richer, named for a line from the book Mere Christianity by the author C.S. Lewis, soon after and went on to record four full-length albums with the band. Their first album, released when she was just 16, was The Fatherless & the Widow. The album garnered critical acclaim and Slocum and Nash searched for new band members.

Joined by Tess Wiley, Dale Baker, and J.J. Plascencio, the new band recorded This Beautiful Mess, which won a Dove Award for Best Album. Wiley quit the band after their US tour and the band released the Tickets for a Prayer Wheel EP and then signed to the Squint Records label following the demise of R.E.X.

The band's eponymous album was released in 1997 and the single "Kiss Me" in 1999. In 1999 they received numerous Dove Awards, including Best Artist of the Year. The band was also nominated for a Grammy Award. A second single "There She Goes", which hit Billboard, followed by a third single "I Can't Catch You".

In 2000, Nash sang the song "Need to Be Next to You" for the movie Bounce in order to thank Miramax that had used "Kiss Me" in the movie She's All That and brought them into the spotlight. Written by Diane Warren, it became Nash's first solo single.

After problems with their record labels, Sixpence None the Richer came back in 2001 with the album Divine Discontent after losing both Dale Baker and J.J. Plascencio. Two singles from that album, "Breathe Your Name" and "Don't Dream It's Over", went onto the charts. However, Sixpence None the Richer announced their break-up on February 26, 2004, when Slocum sent a letter to CCM Magazine. After that, the band released The Best of Sixpence None the Richer.

In 2003, they were featured in Sabrina, The Teenage Witch as the main performers for Sabrina's boyfriend and future fiancé's club. Also, Nash hit-on Harvey Kinkle, Sabrina's old boyfriend as a joke.

In spite of the colossal success the band enjoyed with ubiquitous pop singles like "Kiss Me" and "There She Goes", the group was continually plagued by the business woes of the trade and finally decided to split ways amicably. Disoriented by this major change, Nash and her husband left their Nashville home of 10 years and moved to Los Angeles.

While in L.A., Nash penned a batch of songs that would eventually comprise her first solo record, Blue on Blue, which was released in August 2006 on One Son Records, Nash's own imprint label through Nettwerk Productions. During the record time of making Blue on Blue, Nash flew to Canada several times. The first single, "My Idea of Heaven", was released to U.S. radio the week of July 14, 2006, and the song "Ocean Size Love" was to be the second single, but it was a promo release only. She has also recorded a song "Mirrors and Smoke" with the band Jars of Clay on their album Good Monsters the same year. She also performed the song "A Place for Us" with Tyler James for the 2007 Disney film Bridge to Terabithia, written by Bryan Adams.

In the meantime, Nash moved back to Nashville, Tennessee, and into a new community of musicians—a recently formed rock collective called Movement Nashville.

In 2007, Nash began a new band, Fauxliage, with Canadian band Delerium, which released a self-titled album on August 14, 2007. Nash, Megan Thompson and Kate York also started a Christian band called Thompson, York & Nash. They worked on a few songs that have been put on MySpace. However, none of the songs posted on their MySpace page have been formally released.

In late 2007, Nash and Slocum met over coffee and positively discussed the reuniting of Sixpence None the Richer. In January 2008 Nash traveled to New Zealand to perform at the annual Parachute Music Festival. Performing on the main stage twice, she attracted crowds of over 30,000 who enjoyed her acoustic covers of Sixpence None the Richer hits "Kiss Me " and "There She Goes". In late 2008, Nash toured with Delerium.

Nash has since rejoined Sixpence and worked on a new EP My Dear Machine EP, and the Christmas album The Dawn of Grace with tour dates planned throughout 2008 in the States and Europe. Tess Wiley is also back to support Sixpence's European tour.

Nash joined Open Wings-Broken Strings tour in 2009 fall, along with Eddie Kowalczyk of Live, Art Alexakis of Everclear. In 2011 she released a worship album entitled Hymns and Sacred Songs. This is expected to be the first of three solo albums through a partnership with Kingsway Music. In a recent interview with FUSE TV, Nash mentioned that the next project will be an ambient worship album. No release date has been set.

In August 2012, Nash released Lost in Transition—her sixth studio album with her band Sixpence None the Richer.

On September 18, 2015, Nash released her album: The State I'm In.

Inspiration

Nash has two distinct poles of inspiration: her work with Sixpence in the Christian music sphere and her childhood fascination with older female country artists like Tanya Tucker, Loretta Lynn, and Patsy Cline.

"I started singing country music and learning old country songs on the guitar when I was 12. I was really, really shy but just had this desire to get on stage and started calling clubs myself to ask if I could come down and sing", says Nash, who grew up in the southern Texas town of New Braunfels.

Before long, the adolescent Nash was singing Loretta Lynn and Tanya Tucker songs like "You Ain't Woman Enough to Take My Man" and "Texas When I Die" on alcohol-free, open mic Sunday nights, backed by a middle-aged band of town locals. In spite of her country allure, Nash never developed an accent, and later in life her interest in pop acts like The Sundays, Innocence Mission, and The Cranberries provided more formative material for her songwriting and singing.

Personal life

Leigh is the younger of two sisters. She married PFR drummer Mark Nash in May 1996, whom she met while both bands were performing at the Cornerstone Festival in Illinois. They had one child together in 2004. The couple divorced in 2007. Leigh married musician Stephen Wilson in 2011.

Discography

Main article: Leigh Nash discography

• Blue on Blue (2006)
• Fauxliage (2007)
• Hymns and Sacred Songs (2011)
• The State I'm In (2015)

Compilation appearances

• "Innocente" - with Delerium - Poem 2000
• "With Every Breath" - with Dan Haseltine - City on a Hill: Songs of Worship and Praise 2000
• "Precious Jesus" - with Derri Daugherty - City on a Hill: Songs of Worship and Praise 2000
• "You're Here" - with Sixpence None the Richer - City on a Hill: Songs of Worship and Praise 2000
• "Run for It" & "Orbit of Me" - with Delerium - Chimera 2003
• "I Sought the Lord" - Bifrost Arts' Come O Spirit (Sounds Familyre 2009)
• "Good (Adam & Eve)" - with Matthew West Music Inspired by the Story (EMI Christian Music Group 2011)
• "Under the Gun" - with Conjure One - Armada Music 2013

[ Source: Wikipedia ]