Influenced By:
- Active: '90s, 2000s
- Genres: Folk
- Instrument: Vocals, Guitar (Acoustic)
- Representative Albums: "Show Biz
Biography
Arlo Leach is a singer/songwriter with a fondness for the simplicity and directness old-time folk music and a knack for the self-aware satirical sensibilities of contemporary artists like Robyn Hitchcock and Frank Black. Leach began writing songs as a young man growing up in rural Iowa. After playing guitar in a handful of small rock bands, Leach made his solo acoustic debut as a student at Iowa's Grinnell College. After graduating, he released a four-song demo CD (Flying) and established himself on the coffeehouse circuit in Madison, WI.Day jobs in multimedia development enabled him to attract press attention in 1997 by producing Madison's first enhanced CD, a five-track EP called Sorry-go-round. His first full-length album, Show Biz, was also an enhanced CD. Soon after its 1998 release, Leach moved to Chicago and began working the local music scene. In 1999, he teamed up with singer Anna Belyaev on a children's record, A Day at Honey Creek, which was released under the name Arlo and Anna. A year later, Leach embarked on his most ambitious project yet; Music of My Ancestors was essentially a fictional version of Harry Smith's American Anthology of Folk Music. The album contains 14 Leach originals written in the vein of Depression-era folk songs and performed as if they were recorded by a series of imaginary '30s musicians. Once again, Leach's inventive use of advanced technology -- he used computer software to recreate the scratchy analog sound of the period -- helped him to expand his following. ~ Evan Cater, All Music Guide
