Review: Brennen Leigh, Prairie Love Letter

Brennen Leigh is the kind of invaluable songwriter who can take familiar elements — so familiar as to disappear into the background, near parody in their common beauty — and imbue them with such specific words and feeling that they become entirely singular. Her new record, the deeply felt Prairie Love Letter, is a testament to Leigh’s masterful, humorous, and heartbreaking song writing. 

From the queer love story at the heart of “Billy & Beau” to the tenderly detailed “Prairie Funeral,” these songs are rich with character and place — their sprightly fingerpicked arrangements belie the complexities they hold. It’s a slyly political record too, from the aforementioned love triangle in “Billy & Beau” to the jaunty “You Ain’t Laying No Pipeline.” This is Leigh’s sixth record, and it sounds like the work of a veteran — personal and universal, small and broad, powerful in its simplicity and quietude. 

Minnesota is the beating heart of Prairie Love Letter, as much a character in these songs as the North Dakota Cowboy or Leigh herself. The record is a many-shaded immortalization of Leigh’s birthplace, and after hearing the gorgeous sway of closer “Outside the Jurisdiction of Man,” you’ll feel you know it nearly as well as she does. 

Prairie Love Letter was released September 18, 2020.
Listen to it here.

"Don't You Know I'm From Here" Words and music by Brennen Leigh.