Leigh Marble

Leigh Marble roots his songwriting in traditional folk while weaving in an eclectic array of folk-rock, punk, hip-hop, and indie strains, yielding a style his press kit likens to a fusion of Tom Waits and Fugazi, with further reference points in Ani DiFranco, Beck, G. Love & Special Sauce, and assorted figures from the anti-folk scene. A New England native, Marble completed his studies at Brown University in 1997 and promptly relocated to the creatively receptive setting of Portland, Oregon, prompted by an emerging friendship with Portland-based producer and studio owner Larry Crane—whose credits include Elliott Smith and the Decemberists—after the two met at a TapeOp magazine conference.

Following an early cassette demo, Marble issued his first full release in 1998, a Crane-produced split single with fellow New England alt-folkie and Brown graduate Erin McKeown titled Anticipation et Denouement on his own Laughing Stock Records imprint. He then pursued a side excursion into ironic hip-hop via the jokey rap trio the Buttery Lords before returning to solo work with the 2003 album Peep. Though he performed and recorded nearly every part of Peep himself, Marble assembled a live backing unit of organist and accordionist Ben Macy and drummer Jason Russell, both of whom later appeared on his second solo album, Red Tornado, issued in fall 2007. Between those solo projects the Buttery Lords put out an expanded collector’s edition of their earlier hard-to-find debut, Buttered for Her Pleasure.