Between your Adrianne Lenkers and Sufjan Stevenses, the world of modern folk music is a vast spectrum. Many artists are cast away to the depths of Soundcloud or struggle to keep up with the social media algorithm—but every now and then, a contender appears.
Hailing from Baton Rouge, La., singer-songwriter Odie Leigh has been making a name for herself in the world of folk and indie-adjacent music over the past four years. After a charcuterie board of EPs and singles paired with a series of successful tours and live festival appearances including Newport Folk Festival in 2023 and Outside Lands this year, Leigh is onto the next step: releasing her debut album, “Carrier Pigeon” on July 12, 2024.
Leigh studied film at Loyola University in New Orleans. Her original goal was to become a screenwriter. While she has always been a “big storyteller,” the format in which she articulates herself has long since changed.
“I went from writing screenplays and wanting to make movies to writing songs and writing lyrics,” Leigh said in an interview with The Beacon. “It was the same idea, just a different medium.”
While in New Orleans, Leigh lived with two friends who were engrossed in their own music careers. The experience galvanized her.
“Being surrounded by other people who were working towards art all the time, who were always writing, recording, and making beats, being around that was just a lot of motivation,” said Leigh. “It also made songwriting seem much less daunting.”
The moment when music began to look like a tangible career choice for Leigh was a mix of the strange environment brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and flashes of TikTok fame from clips of songs Leigh posted on the platform, some of which accumulated around 50 to 100 thousand views.
Leigh reminisced about the time she was in college, writing songs in her bedroom and posting them on the internet where “nobody cared.” However, it was the consistency of creating videos and slowly building her community of fans that led to her success.
“I just keep on making the songs that I like and I just hope that other people hear them and connect with them as well,” Leigh said.
Leigh pointed out, however, that becoming a musician doesn’t happen overnight—i.e., one viral TikTok video doesn’t always lead to a record deal. It was more about “putting herself out there” over a long span of time.
“I didn’t know how to make music, it was just like a weird little hobby of mine,” Leigh said.
“I think [my career] worked out because I didn’t rush myself and everything kind of happened in the right order, in the right pace.”
Almost four years after those first TikTok posts, Leigh celebrates the release of her record “Carrier Pigeon” with a tour spanning 41 dates and six different openers through 2024 including Valley James, Blood Root, Charlotte Rose Benjamin, Angela Autumn, Clover County, and Kaleah Lee.
“Rolling out this album taught me a lot about having a very clear vision and how I need to be very forward with [the process],” Leigh said.
Leigh says this “vision” extends to every aspect of her tour, from her all-female band to personally taping her name onto the drum kit for the tour. She also bedazzled a mailbox where audience members can buy postcards that Leigh will personally send to fans.
“Different things like that really help create this world that connects,” Leigh said. The debut album is Leigh’s emotions and experiences set to song, a mix of folk-esque ballads and stripped-back bedroom pop that cultivate a diverse tracklist. “Carrier Pigeon,” in Leigh’s words, is “raw, scrappy, hopeful, and vulnerable.”
“It’s just turning these thoughts and these feelings I have into an action, making them into a beautiful big picture,” Leigh said. “I want people to listen to it and just see the ways in which they can romanticize their own life. I think something that is so important for everyone is to see how their own lives are so rich, no matter what is going on.”
Leigh has prepared a live show that brings a new angle to her storytelling, saying she is “always trying to push herself and get better” for herself and her fans.
“I really love what we’re doing with the songs. It’s a lot of energy and joy that I’m excited to be able to bring,” said Leigh.
The “Carrier Pigeon” tour hits The Sinclair in Cambridge, Mass., on Nov. 10, and The Academy of Music, in Northampton, Mass., on Nov. 12.
