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April 20, 2001

Argus Leader
Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Leighton picking up national buzz
by Robert Morast

Minneapolis band bringing roots rock to Mulligan's

Politics and music go hand-in-hand like Keith Richards and cigarettes.    So it shouldn't be surprising that gb Leighton was asked to play President George W. Bush's inauguration party on Jan. 20 in Washington, D.C.  Until you ask the band's leader, Brian Leighton, if he voted for Bush.

"No," Leighton says in a tone that could reveal a smile to a blind man.  "Everyone would ask that."

Even though he didn't cast a vote for  the president, Leighton didn't have any qualms about the opportunity to play a portion of the inauguration celebration at D.C's Hard Rock Cafe.   And luckily for him, Leighton didn't have to admit his voting record to the president. Bush failed to appear at the festivities. He left that up to his running mate  "I guess (Vice President) Cheney showed up, but I didn't see him,"  Leighton says. "He didn't fall down drunk or anything."

Hopefully Leighton won't see anybody fall down drunk at Mulligan's on Saturday night when the Minneapolis rocker and his band play the Sioux Falls club with local boys Studio 2.  The show starts at 9 p.m.

Leighton says he got the presidential gig after a contact at Epic Records passed a copy of the band's latest release "It's All Good" onto someone working on the celebration.  But the name-drop alone probably didn't get him the gig.  Leighton is steadily increasing his fan base with a brand of regional rock that often is compared to such roots rock territorial luminaries as Bruce Springsteen and John Mellencamp.

It's a comparison Leighton doesn't mind."I guess it's kind of an honor," he says. "Those are two of the guys I really got into. I don't want to be labeled as a copycat or want to be them. But that genre is what I'm all about."

Performing songs ripe with Minnesota attitude, this former hockey player has become a regular on the Minneapolis club circuit and a regional favorite.  And every once in a while Leighton and company get the chance to play nationally as well. Like the inauguration gig.

Though he enjoyed the chance to play in front of the D.C. crowd, Leighton hopes his audience in Sioux Falls warms up to his smooth Midwest rock songs a little faster than the hordes of Republicans did.   "It takes them a little time and a little more liquor to get to that happy place," Leighton says of the D.C. Republicans. "They just seemed pretty stiff at first."