< -- press kit

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
August 10, 2006
Contact: Mark Zenow
Phone: 919-859-5333

MINNESOTA’S SHINING STAR GB LEIGHTON
EXPANDS IN NEW DIRECTIONS -
RELEASES NEW DVD

For music fans in Minnesota, gb Leighton has been a household name for nearly a decade. Now with the release of the double-disc DVD Live at the Minnesota Music Café, people outside the Midwest will be able to see why Minneapolis-based gb Leighton has become one of the region’s most popular bands.

It’s obvious from the DVD’s first moments that audiences are passionate about the music created by lead singer Brian Leighton, who also plays guitar and harmonica. Each of the discs twenty-three songs seemingly touches audience members at their core.

“Part of the connection with the audience,” Leighton explained, “is that out of some stroke of luck I’ve written songs that people want to sing. They become part of the band. It incorporates them into the show.”

In fact, it was his fans who prompted the idea for the DVD in the first place. “This is so much better than the bootleg recordings of our shows which have been circulating amongst fans for years,” he added. “People have been asking me for a long time about something like this.”

The skilled players backing Leighton are equally talented, and their musicianship shines as brightly as the multi-colored lights reigning down from above the venue’s stage. The video looks and sounds great, thanks in part to state-of-the-art sound and lighting the Minnesota Music Café offers.

The six-piece group, which includes a violin and saxophone player, has been a staple of the live music scene in Minneapolis and throughout the region. The band has played venues such as O’Gara’s and Bunkers in Minneapolis, Fitzgerald’s in Berwyn, Illinois and Shank Hall in Milwaukee, along with non-conventional gigs at the Minnesota Governor’s Mansion, church festivals, and a special show in March 2006 for Minnesota National Guard troops who were shipping-off to serve in the Middle East from Camp Shelby in Mississippi.

In recent months, Leighton’s presence outside the Midwest has been expanding.

In 2005 he caught the eye of former Hootie and the Blowfish manager Rusty Harmon, whose North Carolina-based firm, Murphy to Manteo, has also represented New Orleans’ rockers Cowboy Mouth (Eleven Thirty Records), country newcomer Jason Michael Carroll (Arista Nashville) and veteran musician and producer Don Dixon (R.E.M, Smithereens).
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Harmon recognized similarities between Hootie and the Blowfish in the 1990’s and gb Leighton today. “I see the same thing with Brian Leighton today that I saw fifteen years ago with Hootie - good songs that people like to sing, and diehard fans at every show,” Harmon explained.

For Leighton, who has been self-managed most of his career, the new addition to his team has been a breath of fresh air.

“You can only do so much and go so far without the help of someone who has been there and has the knowledge to make things happen,” Leighton said in reference to his recent alliance with a management firm. “This music business is just that, a business. So much of what happens is on desks in offices behind closed doors. Now I have someone working that end of the business for me, allowing me to concentrate on making good music.”

Leighton’s roots-rock music has at times leaned a bit toward a country sound. Harmon realized this and arranged co-writing sessions with some of Nashville’s biggest names: Liz Rose (Gary Allen’s “Songs About Rain”; Bonnie Raitt’s “Back of the Bottom Drawer”), Clay Mills (Diamond Rio’s “Beautiful Mess”; Danielle Peck’s “I Don’t”) and Billy Livsey (Lorrie Morgan’s “Good As I Was To You”; Mark Chesnut’s “Almost Goodbye”).

For Leighton, an accomplished songwriter already, the experience has been eye opening. “Nashville has some of the greatest songwriters in the world,” he said. “To work with people that do that every day is incredible. I learn new tricks each time I sit down and write with them.”

The songs co-written during recent Nashville excursions lead him to believe the next record will be his best to date. “If there is one specific thing I’m looking for in songs it’s usually about being positive,” Leighton said. “Negative can be good for some people, but I’m trying to write the song to pull them out of the negativity.” Work on the next record continues and should be released in early 2008.

According to Mark Zenow, who handles publicity for Murphy to Manteo, “There are a couple of recognizable producers who have expressed interest in making Brian’s next record, but we’ll have to wait and see how scheduling and budgets work out to determine how it all comes together.”

No matter who it is though, Brian is confident his next record will be his best one to date, and for a guy who has already sold tens of thousands of records, that’s a good outlook.

gb Leighton’s DVD Live at the Minnesota Music Café can be purchased via the band’s website at www.gbleighton.com. A 12-song audio CD from the same performance is also available.

Interviews and DVD samples can be provided by calling gb Leighton’s management office at
919-859-5333.

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