Leigh Nash

Leigh Nash
The Tide, Vol. 2

There are always two parts to a tide.

When we last saw and heard from Leigh Nash, she was allowing her instantly recognizable voice to be swept in alongside longtime heroes and dream collaborators. The very purposeful set of songs on The Tide, Vol. 1 positioned her primarily as duet partner, but also showcased her writing prowess and ability to interpret songs that moved her to her very core throughout her life.     

This time, through another set of half-dozen carefully crafted gems, Leigh’s roles have changed, adding mentor to her set of collaboration skills, reaching out to dream partners who were already fans, alongside continuing to elevate songs, writers and ideals that have meant so much to her during her prolific music-making career.

You can’t leave for grander adventures until the second phase of the tide arrives. Leigh Nash’s new adventures continue on The Tide, Vol. 2.

This isn’t to say Leigh hasn’t been affected by the stillness and changes the past several years have brought on a global scale. Merge that with the introspection that comes with a child leaving for his own adventures in higher education, and Leigh has been dealing with a lot of change in a short amount of time.

“It’s been a huge marker in time, and just kind of flags a lot of things, both good and things you’re like, ‘I really need to work on A, B and C in my life,’” she says. “It’s been a good time for self-reflection and writing new songs and looking to the future in a way that I haven’t afforded myself to do in a very long time.”

Looking to the future can frequently involve revisiting the past, and bringing forward ideas and collaborators that helped shape the creative being one was in the first place.

For Leigh, that idea manifests itself in the nominal title track for these two song sets. “The Tide,” written together with Oscar-nominated songwriter Sam Ashworth, his wife Ruby Amanfu, and Leigh’s longtime collaborator Matt Slocum, deals with isolation and depression, and the helplessness those on the outside looking in can feel, at the same time never wanting to shirk the chance to help, comfort and listen.

The song also represents the first new official Sixpence None the Richer track in more than a decade, with the promise of new Sixpence music to come in the near future.

Leigh looks at revisiting the Sixpence concept not as a step back, but as an evolution of her and Slocum’s creative partnership. “I'm more confident now as a songwriter and just as a presence in the room. I feel more paid attention to,” she says. “And that's not saying that I couldn't have had that all along. It's just not part of my personality to be heavy handed. It's just now I feel I've earned a little more license.”

With that license can come a little more ambition, a certain daring Leigh might not have been willing to exhibit earlier in her career and at her most visible on the global stage. With “Unraveling,” a song that had been sitting in her catalog waiting for the right moment and right partner to emerge, she found both in the form of legendary Tears For Fears vocalist Roland Orzabal

“So sometimes you wait a little while or a couple years or through a pandemic and something even cooler emerges,” Leigh says of the effortlessly romantic track she likens to the combination of Peabo Bryson and Celine Dion on the ‘90s classic “Beauty And The Beast.” “It transcends, it’s beautiful, it sounds classic and it’s everything I wanted it to be from years ago.

“I was kind of born with a curiosity and an innocence about things, even when maybe I wish I wasn’t that way sometimes, because it can be very exhausting,” Leigh laughs. “But this record, this collection of songs really seems to have a sense of ‘you dreamt that a long time ago and these things happened.’ This just feels very timely.”

Both the passing of and rooted in nature of time shines through the majority of The Tide, Vol. 2, especially on “No Pressure,” a duet Leigh shares with Slocum’s teenage daughter, Olive.

“No Pressure” flips the script for Leigh, counterbalancing the role she played on “Never Again, Every Time” on Vol. 1 opposite the legendary Tanya Tucker. This time, Leigh is the veteran presence, with Olive dispelling any idea that Leigh is as cool, important or capable as she might think she is…as teenagers are known to do.

For Leigh, working with the newest generation of Slocum was nothing but a thrill. “I felt very protective because I wanted her first experience getting into a real studio situation to be as comfortable and not invasive or awkward or any of that stuff. And I think she really had fun. I know I did.

“I’m just getting to do things I never thought in a million years I’d get to do,” Leigh beams.

Another role change for Leigh came with the track “Cry,” written by and performed with a newcomer to the music-creation world, the singer/songwriter Villiers.

“I’m always so on board for anyone willing to show a totally different side of themselves. I was so excited to help be an agent to bring that forth,” she says. “He broke down a breakup in a really beautiful way in that song, and it came from a real life breakup he had. I’m just really proud he let me, you know, ring my bell on it.

“My role changes with each song,” Leigh continues. “With Villiers, I felt like I was sort of supporting cast. Similarly with Olive, even though her role in that song is to be the younger me, and she freakin’ aced it.”

The Tide, Vol. 2’s other songs features Leigh celebrating other female songwriters, one she’d worked with decades ago, the other making her name now and Leigh very much wanting to be involved in that current energy.

Leigh first interpreted a Diane Warren song in 2000, contributing “Need To Be Next To You” to a movie soundtrack that year. While gathering songs for The Tide, Leigh reached out to Warren again, who asked her about the songs she was writing and the styles she was interested in tackling these days, and near-instantly came up with a song she thought would be perfect for Leigh’s gifts, “Only The Moon.”

“I still have the original lyrics she handed me,” Leigh says. “It was awesome to be able to have another opportunity to pay homage to this woman’s incredible body of work.

“I sent the finished song to her and she was freaking out,” she continues. “It’s like her songs are her children and she gets super excited about how they turned out, and it’s really a fun thing to be a part of.”

Vol. 2’s final track finds Leigh circling back to the weightiness of the past few years, realizing both practically and personally the help needed in crossing some of life’s myriad finish lines, and finding a creative partner to express that in singer/songwriter Liz Longley.

“I started writing that song, and thinking about how you can let go of things that seem so hard, and while they might seem like minor things, they can tend to pile up,” Leigh says. “I’d just become enamored with Liz’s voice, so I reached out to her, I went over and we finished that song, and I definitely want to work more with her in the future.”

For Leigh Nash, changing roles has always been part of her character as an artist, even when much of that career has been rooted in certain, finite points of emphasis.

“It’s always been a little bit about plucking from parts of my life and my career, plus it very much goes along with my whimsical nature,” she says of those varied roles, “I feel like when your hands are open, there's so much room for things to come back into them. So with letting things go, there's like this rush, if you will, of new and beautiful things. That’s kind of what it feels like. It’s the beginning of one thing and the closing of another.”

The two phases. Again, like the tide.