Concert Reviews (227)

• July 2, 2025
• Colleen Johnson
• 726
• 0

(photo credit: Brooke Jennings)

While The Rockwell in Somerville has become more of a standing-room-only venue when it comes to live shows, one artist changed that when she came to town recently. While the opening band for Savanna Leigh’s show definitely didn’t have a sitting-room energy, the few who arrived a few minutes before the set set the tone for the rest of the room to flow into seats for an incredibly intimate black-box theater performance. Sandwiched in between two rock acts, Leigh’s set had everyone in the room swooning. Be it her cover of Keane’s “Somewhere Only We Know” to a slew of her originals, Leigh’s performance mesmerized the room. 

Clad in dark purple and pink lighting throughout the set, Leigh balanced banter with beauties of tracks from her most recent single, “Cut to the Chase” to yet unreleased material with her set closer, “For Your Entertainment,” Leigh soared through her performance to the applause of the room after every track. In introducing the former, Leigh sweetly said, “Does anyone know about attachment styles in the room?” cueing a massive applause, then continuing, saying, “That’s all I needed.” 

Leigh discussed it being her first show since March, meaning a several-month break between shows, but that energy wasn’t evident during her performance. Besides Leigh talking about how her guitar was out of tune and chatting through it as she tuned it, the crowd was even awed at that. With her debut full-length album on the horizon, the future is bright for Leigh. 

Just a few minutes after her set finished, I sat down with Savanna to talk about how she felt the show went, her latest song-writing work, including some shout-outs to those she’s been working with, and much more! You can find our chat below, and I strongly suggest checking out Savanna Leigh’s massive catalogue of work. She is already five EPs deep, so there is plenty to dive into!

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New England Sounds: Just from watching the set, I know this is your first performance or live show since the March tour? 

Savanna Leigh: Yes, we did a little acoustic park pop-up thing in LA, so I guess it’s not, but it is like the first official back on the road show. 

NES: Then I caught a little bit of the opener, people were standing, they were rowdy but then everyone was sitting for your show. So nice, so polite, and clearly loving your performance. How did you think the show went? How are you feeling about the show?
Savanna: I feel good. Yeah, we had no idea who the opener was going to be until we got here, and what they were going to sound like. And they were super sick, (Dalton Moon) I was sitting in the green room, being like “Oh my goodness, my sound is nothing like that,” which is totally fine, I just didn’t know what was going to be the vibe. But I was telling the girls (her photographer/part of her management,  who were both at the show) when we got here, that the way it’s set up is very Nashville, it’s very songwriter listening room-esque. So it was cool! I think it was really fun. The only downside is that my electric guitar is just out of tune. But I think, as my photographer told me in the green room, that she thinks it makes it sound cool, that it’s intentional. We’ll go with it. 

NES: And then when it comes to the live performance, you’ve written five EPs, you’re far into this project, you’ve released so much music. You mentioned that I’m sure it’s already done, or you may not be able to say, but your first full, packaged album is on the horizon. Maybe how do you curate these sets? You want to feature the new, but how do you choose it? How do you plan these sets? 

Savanna: That’s a great question. I definitely love new music because I feel like I’m at a stage where I’ll tour, and some people in the crowd may know a song or two. But no one’s like really pissed if I don’t play something old or something new. They kind of just want to hear me for the first time. I’m normally winning over someone’s crowd because I’m opening a lot for people now, which has been really amazing. It just gives you more freedom to pick and choose whatever you want. But yeah, the first half of the project is completely done, in terms of writing, and so is the second, but we are just kind of in talks about what’s going to be on the second half. Because it is so far away that I may out-write myself this year, and that’s kind of the goal. As a writer, I want to make something better, but the first half, Act One, is complete; from the two acts, it’s packaged. So we’re kind of, yeah, pushing that right now, focusing on that in all the live shows. But yeah, it’s hard to choose, I mean I have songs that I cut tonight where I was just like, oh no, and then I just went over in my set on that last song. So yeah, you just have to roll with it, every night’s different. 

NES: Exactly, and you’re in Tennessee now? How has that been living in Nashville? How do you think that’s been influencing your sound? Being an artist and being around that community. 

Savannah: Well, I’m from Florida, Tampa, grew up there. The music there is just diverse in general. Like you just hear everything, but I did grow up, going back and forth to Nashville. Just because of my family members who did music, and just creative people in my family, on all sides, especially my dad’s side. So yeah, I grew up listening to country, and then I went to Nashville, and I went really pop. Because I was trying to make sure I didn’t really fall into a lane that didn’t feel authentic. But then, pop to me really didn’t feel that way either. But yeah, I mean it’s influenced me in terms of just organic instruments and using real instruments on everything. I really, really care about that. At the beginning of my projects, I didn’t care as much about that. And now, I would say, it’s influenced me to at least sort of get back into my countryside, in terms of like storytelling writing, which has been the focus with organic instruments. But then, also, my voice itself is still very much so indie pop. So, just combining the two worlds, I feel like is what this project feels like now, which is great. 

NES: Well, country is changing too. I just saw that the Grammys have decided to now have, next year, Traditional Country Album of the Year, but also Modern Country Album of the Year. I mean, Post Malone is making country music, and Beyoncé just won a Grammy for country music. You played a lot of the new songs tonight, including one you mentioned didn’t have a name for yet. How have you been going about the writing? Is it all solo? Do you have people that you sometimes work with? How do you approach the writing process? 

Savannah: My writing process has changed a lot. This project is a lot of me writing most of it, I would say, but my collaborators that I’ve worked with on this project specifically are really good friends of mine. I’ve been in Nashville for about six years, so yeah, I feel like I did the speed dating writing style at the beginning. Which was fun and I learned a lot, but this last project, I really wanted to narrow it down and work with people I was really comfortable with, and who I thought shared the same kind of goal in this. But yeah, I definitely have great collaborators. Matt Martin is my producer on this whole project and a writer as well on it. And then a few friends like Cece Coakley, Fran Litterski, and good friends of mine, yeah. I’m trying to think if there’s someone else I’m missing; there probably is. Ethansroom is another writer who’s on this a bunch. There’s someone I’m missing, so let me get there, because I don’t want to miss someone like that. Cece, Fran, Ethan, there’s someone, oh, Nick Cozine, so sorry, there are just so many. But yeah, I do a lot of writing solo, Josie Dunne (claps)! That was it! I can’t forget her, that’s my “Cut to The Chase,” girl, and we’ve been writing a bunch still. So yeah, I write a lot alone, and then I bring in something and kind of craft it from there. 

NES: Perfect, then you just talked about it, but “Cut to the Chase” is your most recent single. In the writing with Josie, how did that process go for you? How was that working with Josie on the song? 

Savannah: It was a lot more fun. I feel like I write a lot of serious music. I take music really seriously, so I feel like it translates into more heavy lyricism. But that song was meant to be funny, and I think it is. Like I listen to it, and I laugh at myself. I don’t know, I haven’t had a lot of fun in a session like that in a long time. And it felt very effortless. We wrote it kind of fast, which is always a good sign. And yeah, I don’t know, I just wanted to have something that kind of felt anthemic, and still have a deeper meaning behind the song. But even with the deeper meaning, like listening-wise, it’s an easy listen. And that was kind of the goal, but yeah, we just laughed. Like, I have voice memos from the day, and it’s hilarious. 

NES: It sounds like it was a fun, easy energy. 

Savannah: For sure!

NES: Then you’ve already done the US, you’ve toured the US multiple times, so this isn’t unique. But as you kind of amp up for this first full-length album, as cheesy as it may sound, maybe some hopes or goals going into these next few months? 

Savannah: Yeah, I always have goals. Maybe too many. I definitely would like to headline at some point, when it makes sense. Yeah, share the music with people in that way. I haven’t done a headline show since last year, when I performed my Nashville EP show, so it will be special to do that again. And then yeah, hoping for the fall to just have another longer tour. I would love to go out for another month or so. I was talking about this with my manager last week. I feel like it’s just really easy as an artist to kind of block off time instead of doing three shows here, four shows here, two shows there. It’s just kind of nice to compartmentalize. Be like, ‘Okay, I’m going out for a month or two, then I’ll go home and get into writing mode or whatever.’ See friends and family, that kind of thing, so I’m hoping for that in the fall. And just for everyone to hear the music, as many people as possible.