LeeAnne Savage

Check out Page 42! - Zocalo Magazine

Check out Page 42! - Zocalo Magazine

This high-energy performing artist successfully performed in and around the western US since 1995 with a collection of high caliber of musicians. Making her home in Arizona, many of her bands were not only very popular with fellow Arizonans, but received high accolades such as several TAMMIES (Tucson Arizona Music Awards) for Best Band, Best Musician, Best Vocalist. - Tucson Citizen

As a musician, I love music. I made a living doing music for many years. I owned my own business so to speak as a musician. I paid my rent and all my bills and was fascinated that I was able to make a living doing what I loved–music. So today Tucson Biz Beat, which focuses on local small business, art, food, clubs and entertainment proudly salutes LeeAnne Savage.

I recall years ago, I was somewhere and I heard this band playing. I did not think much of it as I was in a hurry and had to be somewhere, but the singer started to belt something out and it caught my attention. I recall stopping in my tracks, turning around and was amazed that I heard that sort of voice coming out of such a small framed woman, and then I realized that day that dynamite comes in small packages, and that was my first introduction to singer, songwriter and musician, LeeAnne Savage.

Tucson not only salutes Savage, we should be proud to have this wonderful artist calling Tucson her home. After all, she is somewhat of a local celebrity. She has had the honor of being the opening act for performers as Lonestar, Belinda Carlisle, Clay Walker, Kool and the Gang, The B-52's, Eddie Money, Jefferson Starship, Blaine Larsen, to name just a few.

This high-energy performing artist successfully performed in and around the western US since 1995 with a collection of high caliber of musicians. Making her home in Arizona, many of her bands were not only very popular with fellow Arizonans, but received high accolades such as several TAMMIES (Tucson Arizona Music Awards) for Best Band, Best Musician, Best Vocalist.

So many of you are wondering, well where this amazing singer is and how come you have not been privy to hearing her. That is because In 2007, LeeAnne decided to remove herself from performing and touring to focus solely on her songwriting. It was during this time that she rediscovered her passion and love for country music. As LeeAnne honed her songwriting craft, her songs became more lyrical, with the emphasis being on the story line itself. She decided to infuse the genres she loved to create a blend of her favorite musical stylings. When asked as to the genre of her CD, it is referred to as “Alternative Country Rock Pop” as many music genres are represented in this offering.

In July 2010, LeeAnne went to Beaird Studios in Nashville, Tennesee and recorded all music tracks for her recently released CD, “To The N9nes”. The list of musicians who accompanied her was a who’s who of the recording industry, and included the likes of Eddie Bayers on Drums, who was the first call session player. Michael Rojas on Keyboards, who was the first call session player named Academy of Country Music’s Piano/Keyboard Player of the Year in 2010. Dan Dugmore on Dobro and Steel Guitar who was the former player for Linda Ronstadt’s band for 14 years and James Taylor’s band for 11 years. Russ Pahl on Steel and Rhythm Guitars who played on CDs such as Rascal Flatts, Gretchen Wilson, Montgomery Gentry, andMiranda Lambert. JT Corenflos on Lead and Rhythm Guitars and played on Carrie Underwood, Trace Atkins, Kenny Chesney CD. Eli Beaird on Bass , and Larry Beaird on Acoustic Guitar both accomplished musicians who played back up for top country artists.

LeeAnne has put together a remarkable band and is booking shows which helps boost Tucson local businesses. She is also excited that she has an upcoming music video featuring the fan favorite “I Like To Play With Boys” and the powerful ballad “I’m Always With You”! You can stay up on her through her Facebook or Reverbnation.

If you want something really fun to do this weekend, go see her this Saturday February 18th at Whiskey Tango, 140 S Kolb. She will be the second of three bands performing, taking the stage at approximately 10:15pm. So Tucson Biz beat salutes LeeAnne Savage as a well accomplished artist, local celebrity, and a huge animal advocate. - Tucson Citizen

As a musician, I love music. I made a living doing music for many years. I owned my own business so to speak as a musician. I paid my rent and all my bills and was fascinated that I was able to make a living doing what I loved–music. So today Tucson Biz Beat, which focuses on local small business, art, food, clubs and entertainment proudly salutes LeeAnne Savage.

I recall years ago, I was somewhere and I heard this band playing. I did not think much of it as I was in a hurry and had to be somewhere, but the singer started to belt something out and it caught my attention. I recall stopping in my tracks, turning around and was amazed that I heard that sort of voice coming out of such a small framed woman, and then I realized that day that dynamite comes in small packages, and that was my first introduction to singer, songwriter and musician, LeeAnne Savage.

Tucson not only salutes Savage, we should be proud to have this wonderful artist calling Tucson her home. After all, she is somewhat of a local celebrity. She has had the honor of being the opening act for performers as Lonestar, Belinda Carlisle, Clay Walker, Kool and the Gang, The B-52's, Eddie Money, Jefferson Starship, Blaine Larsen, to name just a few.

This high-energy performing artist successfully performed in and around the western US since 1995 with a collection of high caliber of musicians. Making her home in Arizona, many of her bands were not only very popular with fellow Arizonans, but received high accolades such as several TAMMIES (Tucson Arizona Music Awards) for Best Band, Best Musician, Best Vocalist.

So many of you are wondering, well where this amazing singer is and how come you have not been privy to hearing her. That is because In 2007, LeeAnne decided to remove herself from performing and touring to focus solely on her songwriting. It was during this time that she rediscovered her passion and love for country music. As LeeAnne honed her songwriting craft, her songs became more lyrical, with the emphasis being on the story line itself. She decided to infuse the genres she loved to create a blend of her favorite musical stylings. When asked as to the genre of her CD, it is referred to as “Alternative Country Rock Pop” as many music genres are represented in this offering.

In July 2010, LeeAnne went to Beaird Studios in Nashville, Tennesee and recorded all music tracks for her recently released CD, “To The N9nes”. The list of musicians who accompanied her was a who’s who of the recording industry, and included the likes of Eddie Bayers on Drums, who was the first call session player. Michael Rojas on Keyboards, who was the first call session player named Academy of Country Music’s Piano/Keyboard Player of the Year in 2010. Dan Dugmore on Dobro and Steel Guitar who was the former player for Linda Ronstadt’s band for 14 years and James Taylor’s band for 11 years. Russ Pahl on Steel and Rhythm Guitars who played on CDs such as Rascal Flatts, Gretchen Wilson, Montgomery Gentry, andMiranda Lambert. JT Corenflos on Lead and Rhythm Guitars and played on Carrie Underwood, Trace Atkins, Kenny Chesney CD. Eli Beaird on Bass , and Larry Beaird on Acoustic Guitar both accomplished musicians who played back up for top country artists.

LeeAnne has put together a remarkable band and is booking shows which helps boost Tucson local businesses. She is also excited that she has an upcoming music video featuring the fan favorite “I Like To Play With Boys” and the powerful ballad “I’m Always With You”! You can stay up on her through her Facebook or Reverbnation.

If you want something really fun to do this weekend, go see her this Saturday February 18th at Whiskey Tango, 140 S Kolb. She will be the second of three bands performing, taking the stage at approximately 10:15pm. So Tucson Biz beat salutes LeeAnne Savage as a well accomplished artist, local celebrity, and a huge animal advocate. - Tucson Citizen

F. Scott Fitzgerald said there are no second acts in American lives, which is debatable. But there certainly can be multiple chapters. Singer-songwriter LeeAnne Savage's career is a good example.

A veteran of more than two decades in Tucson music, Savage took home the honors at this year's Tucson Area Music Awards for Band/Entertainer of the Year and, for her To the N9nes, Best New Release. She also was honored as the top country artist.

Released early this year, To the N9nes is Savage's second album, following 1997's Neptune Amor, a document of her days fronting such popular dance-rock groups as LeeAnne Savage and Her Dyn-O-Mite Party Band and Shockadelica.

Born in Missouri and raised in Illinois, Savage moved to Tucson in 1987. She hadn't really performed much before moving here. "Music was much more a fantasy to me as a child," she says. "I was painfully shy. My singing into the hairbrush was the extent of it, although I was in a choir in school."

After settling in the Old Pueblo, Savage sang with several groups—Secret Lives, White Rabbit, Vital Signs and Reform School—while developing her skills and style. She also was tapped to fill in temporarily for the lead singer of a Los Angeles-based band called the Game, which turned into a two-year commitment to touring with that act.

When she returned to Tucson in the mid-1990s, Savage built bands that became some of the most-popular club draws in Tucson, in large part due to her explosive singing and playfully sexy presence onstage.

After a while, though, she grew weary of having to play so many cover songs and not being able to concentrate on her original songwriting.

"I had released Neptune Amor, and we were playing a combination of originals with high-energy covers," she says. "We had built up an audience with this style of party rock and soul, and we were paid very well. But I was growing frustrated, because when we would perform originals, the audience wasn't with us. There were a couple of originals they would respond to—people still ask me to play 'I Want Barbie's Doll' or 'Don't Wait Up.'"

But, most of the time, she says, the audience's attention drifted when Savage wasn't playing Prince, Madonna or INXS covers. "They would stare blankly at us; they couldn't relate. There was no connection."

She notes that over the course of a music career that has waxed and waned, and is now surging again, it has been challenging to establish a performing persona and then break it down. Audience expectations can be a tricky thing. For instance, she never downplayed her sexuality onstage during the '90s—and she certainly understands the complexities of branding and image—but that was only one aspect of who she is.

"I'll just say this: When you're a performer, you go onstage and assume a certain personality to command the attention of audience," she says. "And I think, for me, that persona sort of evolved in that environment to be very much a strong female presence, a very dominant presence, sort of the hostess of the party for any given night.

"But I always was a small-town Midwest girl at heart. And when I was singing onstage and looking at girls who were 16 with fake IDs in the audience, thinking that if I had a daughter, she would be their age, I started to rethink the message I was putting out there."

She also started to rethink who she was as a musician. "There is the tendency to pigeonhole music, and sometimes that doesn't allow a performer to explore all the facets of who she is," she says.

Whether she's playing pop or country or rock, Savage says she is still the same person, but the perspectives of outside observers can sometimes be confining. "It's not the music or the artist or the songwriter that puts limits on what you do, but it's everyone else in the music business who wants to put a label on you for the ease of recognizing what you do."

Savage took the initiative and gave herself the time and opportunity to grow as an artist. From about 2000 to 2006, she rarely performed live, sticking to the occasional private party or corporate gig. During that time, she became a real estate agent and a fitness instructor.

Country-influenced pop and rock music, especially when it had a strong songwriting foundation, always bubbled in the back of Savage's musical consciousness.

"I grew up in the Midwest on country music. Then I took a break from it, and I got into the music of Aerosmith, Styx and Boston," she says. "And as I started pulling out of the club scene, when I was writing, there were these very strong storylines there, which is a large part of country. As much as you maybe try to get away from what you know best, it's inevitable that you go back to it, and when you do, you find yourself."

Around 2005, she found herself writing the songs on To the N9nes, which lean toward the heartland-born country pop and twangy rock often associated with John Mellencamp, one of Savage's musical heroes.

Lyrically vivi - Tucson Weekly

"Love, in all its forms is the unifying theme, with songs about everything from flirtation (I Like To Play With Boys), deep romantic commitment (Say I Do), parental bonds (I'm Always With You) and even love of community (Midwest Small Town)"... - Tucson Lifestyle Magazine

"Love, in all its forms is the unifying theme, with songs about everything from flirtation (I Like To Play With Boys), deep romantic commitment (Say I Do), parental bonds (I'm Always With You) and even love of community (Midwest Small Town)"... - Tucson Lifestyle Magazine

The LeeAnne Savage Band is the 2012 TAMMIES (Tucson Area Music Awards) winner of FIVE catagories this year, including:

Entertainer of the Year

Country (Rock) Band of the Year

Songwriter of the Year

CD Release of the Year ("To The N9nes")

Female Vocalist of the Year
- Tucson Weekly