Leslie Woods

Raised in Knoxville, Tennessee, Leslie grew up with music. Her father and grandfather both played guitar and sang in the old mountain style and her mother sang bawdy honky tonk songs during the long trips they made to Louisiana where they spent a good deal of their summers. Somewhere along the way the sleepily swaying car, the sultry heat of Louisiana and the murder ballads all bled together in Woods' mind.

Listeners are often at a loss to categorize her haunting and erotic music, more often finding comparisons in film and literature. Leslie's songs draw on the rich tradition of southern gothic writing. The moniker, "Appalachian Gothic" is more a reference to Flannery O'Connor than music.