Adam Leonard is an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...

 working mainly in the folk

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

, rock and roll

Rock and roll

Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...

 and electronic music

Electronic music

Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...

 fields. His style is often described as lo-fi and the subject matter of his songs somewhat unconventional. Since his debut album 'How Music Sounds' in 2003, he has released many EPs, albums and mini-albums on various small labels. Live performances, which have so far been limited to the UK (Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 and Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

) are as intriguing as they are rare. In 2008 he opened for British folk legend Steve Ashley

Market Square Records

Market Square Records is a music publishing, promotion and record label company started in 1999. It releases the back catalogues of British folk artists and has also expanded into other genres such as rock, blues and jazz....

. He regularly collaborates with other musicians, most notably Pat Gubler (P.G. Six

Drag City (record label)

Drag City is a Chicago-based independent record label. It was established with a Royal Trux release in 1990 in Chicago, Illinois by Dan Koretzky and Dan Osborn.Drag City specializes in experimental indie rock acts...

), Ashley Cooke (Pulco), Gareth Davies

Gareth Davies (singer-songwriter)

Gareth Davies was a founder member and principal songwriter in Suburban Vegetable, releasing five albums between 1990 and 1993, including the cult classics Organic and Censored Haircut...

, and Steven Collins of The Owl Service

The Owl Service (band)

The Owl Service is a British folk/rock band formed in 2006 by multi-instrumentalist Steven Collins, named after the 1967 novel by Alan Garner.-History:...

, a band for which Leonard provided vocals for their 2010 album 'The View From A Hill'.

In November 2010, a new limited edition album entitled 'Nature Recordings' was released on vinyl only by the London label The Great Pop Supplement. It sold out almost immediately.

Selected discography

• Napoleon single, 2002 with Gareth Davies
  Gareth Davies (singer-songwriter)
  Gareth Davies was a founder member and principal songwriter in Suburban Vegetable, releasing five albums between 1990 and 1993, including the cult classics Organic and Censored Haircut...
  
   (Real Wood)
• Not Alan Rickman single, 2003 (Real Wood)
• How Music Sounds album, 2003 (Real Wood)
• Ship Of Nothing EP, 2003 (Real Wood)
• How Real Is Real? mini-album, 2004 (Apport)
• Dwarf Rumor Denied single, 2004 (Apport)
• The Message Tapes EP, 2004 (Apport)
• Sgt. Pepper remake, 2005 (joint release by Real Wood/Bottled Music).
• Leonardism album, 2007 (RW021) (Real Wood)
• It Happened On A Day EP, 2007 (Great Pop Supplement)
• Dan & Headless Bill - REDLIP mini-album, 2008 (Real Wood) --> reissued by Folkwit Records, 2011
• To Give Up You Have To Bloody Start Live EP, 2008 (Real Wood)
• Nature Recordings album, 2010 (Great Pop Supplement)

Press & Reviews

• "Really special" - Tom Robinson
  Tom Robinson
  Tom Robinson is an English singer-songwriter, bassist and radio presenter, better known for the hits "Glad to Be Gay", "2-4-6-8 Motorway", and "Don't Take No for an Answer", with his Tom Robinson Band...
  
  , BBC 6 Music
  BBC 6 Music
  BBC 6 Music is one of the BBC's digital radio stations, was launched on 11 March 2002 and originally codenamed Network Y. It was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years....
  
  

• "Excellent ... sublime ... intriguing ... ambitious ... This is a curious little gem of an album and one that should delight the discerning listener, time and again." - Terrascope Online
  Ptolemaic Terrascope
  Ptolemaic Terrascope is a magazine covering old and new music, usually of a psychedelic nature. It has been published irregularly since 1989...
  
  

• "Leonard has developed a signature style and it's working well ... the whole thing has the ramshackle feel of a bumpy journey in the south of France." - Shindig! magazine.

• "Charming, ramshackle album that whirls and fidgets round the muddy pastoral fields of middle England; here, a little Robyn Hitchcock, there some Syd Barrett whimsy and Swell Maps pout... even the odd sarcastic E. Smith colloquialism. Nice." - Everett True
  Everett True
  For the cartoon character, see The Outbursts of Everett True.Everett True is a British music journalist, who grew up in Chelmsford, Essex...
  
  , Plan B
  Plan B (magazine)
  Plan B was a monthly music magazine based in London, England. It catered mainly towards independent music but did not discriminate between the relative popularity of the bands it features. Plan B also documented alternative culture such as film, comics, video games, visual art and books. The...
  
   magazine

• "Music For A Slow Motion Film sees Adam sitting on a rock on the sea shore playing a mandolin while the wind whips his gravelled voice into a swirling echo" - Careless Talk Costs Lives magazine.

• "A Drakeish air and an English drift" - fRoots magazine

External links

• Eden's Engine: Adam Leonard website (not updated since 2008).
• Adam Leonard MySpace
• The Message Tapes - new blog