Leslie Barkman – An Xperience Interview

Photo by Timothy Reidy

Aged in Whiskey, Rhythm & Chords

by Sara Busone.

Leslie Barkman of Lou’s Blues and The Hammerhead Horns sits down with Sara Busone to discuss WAMM Fest 2026, her many projects, the art of songwriting, and what she enjoys about current performers in the area today.

 

RRX: You just did a big show out in Valatie, right?

LB: Yes, we did.

RRX: And that was in the gazebo in the middle of town, correct?  How was that?

LB: Hot.  It was really hot, but it was lovely.  Because … the thing that I loved most about it was a group of women who got all the dirty little songs that I sang. You know, I love to do metaphor.  (Laughs) 

RRX: I like that. So, you describe your musical styling as Old Lady Blues … can you speak to that a little bit?

LB: Sure … Billie Holiday, Bessie Smith, Wallace … they wrote great songs, and I can identify with them as women writing and the situations that they found themselves in, especially with men.  And they could sell songs.  They knew how to sing a song to sell it, and that’s an art.  And the more you try it, the more fun it becomes.  It’s really fun to sell a song.  You have to absolutely commit to it, which is what those ladies did.

RRX: So you really look at it from a songwriter and performance point of view, almost like the architecture of songwriting.  How would you describe songwriting and performance … what inspires you?

LB: First, a chord pattern … a key … maybe even one note that I – I just sit at a piano and I play with sound.  I’m not that technical.  I don’t know a great deal about music theory.  But I have to have a pattern.  I have to have an idea of where things are going, so if I find something that I think I like … the sound … then I hear a rhythm in it, and I collect thoughts all the time.  So, I have five or six songs I’m working on right now simultaneously, and I’ve got … maybe one verse for each song.  Or maybe I might combine them. But it’s about the rhythm and the chord pattern. Often, I will take a walk after I find a little rhythm in a melody so that I can see how it feels to say those words.  Like poetry, you have to have iteration … it has to be easy to sing.  You have to be able to articulate it.  

RRX: So, the Hammerhead Horns … you joined right after the band formed.  Can you tell me a little bit about that?

LB: During COVID, I had jams in my backyard.  I invited bands to come into my backyard, and invited people in to hear them. And I invited the Hammerhead Horns because one of the first things I did in terms of interviewing people was, I interviewed Mike Kelly.  Then the Man in the Hat, and so he came with Hammerhead Horns into my yard, and they played, and they asked me to sing a song, “God Bless the Baby.”  That was the first song I sang with them in my yard, and then a couple of times they asked me to join them when they were out playing, just for a song or two.  And now they say they can’t do it without me.  

RRX:  Tell me a little bit about the band?

LB: Trombone … Jeff Roberts.  Bob Button on trumpet.  Bob Assini on drums and spoons.  Mike (Kelley) on piano.  I play a little piano, but Mike is a genius on piano, and he plays the bass with his left hand continually while he’s doing all sorts of crazy things with his right.  For me, it’s been an opportunity to focus on selling songs because that’s what my motive in singing a song is: to make sure I identify with that song and make sure I get the message across.  Plus, I love to act sexy … I do.

RRX: That’s very cool. So, you really enjoy the art of performance as well as the writing.  

LB:  I’ve been told I used to perform on the bar when I was three.

RRX: Tell me a little more about that!

LB: Well, I was born in the fifties, so during that time, families went to bars.  Kids played in the parking lot, parents got drunk inside.  Everybody got a pizza.  I have a song about that.  It’s called “Aged in Whiskey,” which I feel like I have been. And then, in school, I was always doing musical things, you know.  When I was raising my children, I was in church being held down by the choir director to not move too much.  

RRX: So there it was!  As a child, you could see it.

LB: Yeah, I just loved it. It’s easier for me to perform for people sometimes than it is to socialize.

RRX: I get that. Do you feel like you have to get in character before and after the show, like you have to shift, or does it just happen naturally?

LB: It happens naturally, and I never feel like I’m in a character.  I feel like I’m just being me.  

RRX: So tell me about your other band, Lou’s Blues.  

LB: Well, I put together a band, Lou’s Blues. Then COVID hit.  It was a real blues band with screaming guitar (laughs) … Joe Lowry (playing) guitar, and I have to tell you there is nothing that makes my heart sing like a guitar.  I just love that sound … makes me feel warm.  And I have a soul, but I’m not a great blues singer in terms of having a rough voice … like Chris (Busone) has a rough voice … he has a really rough voice, and I’d have more like a pure kind of sound.  But I love blues.  

RRX: Tell me a little bit about WAMM. How familiar are you with WAMM Fest?  Have you attended any of the jams?

LB: I went a couple of times.  My schedule didn’t let me do that too much.  Plus, it’s getting hard to carry my piano.  So that’s been my activity lately.  I need a roadie really bad. (Laughs)

RRX: I imagine that’s a lot of gear.

LB: Well, just the piano’s heavy … They don’t usually have a piano set up in places that are having jams.  

RRX: That can be particularly challenging.

LB: Well you know, these guitar players, they forget piano players exist (laughs).

RRX: What do you think about live music in the area right now?  Challenges? Benefits? What would you like to see different?

LB: I’m excited for the young folks because there’s a lot going on for them. Caity Gallagher … Zan … when I was first taking my piano around and going to places, they were there. In fact, Caity came to my house once when she was first starting… I said, “You know, there’s nothing I can teach you, you know.” But she’s wonderful.  And I’m interested in their perspective on things too.  I don’t understand some of the music … I saw a woman dressed in a birdcage singing and, you know, combinations of instruments… I’m very excited about it.   I think that’s wonderful and that people are doing it. I go to these blue jams, and I see young people coming, and they’re wonderful.  

RRX: So you’ve got these great shows coming up, WAMM coming up, you’ve got your different bands … you’re prolific!

LB: I’m trying everything.  My grandmother played piano.  My grandmother recorded me singing when I was a little girl.  She taught me to harmonize.  She let me sit next to her at the piano.  She played for all of our family at parties.  She played anything anyone wanted to sing, and my whole family and friends would just surround her for hours, but lucky me … to sit right next to her.  And I have her dresses from the twenties and thirties!  

RRX: Oh wow! You do?

LB: Yes, I do, and I wore one the other day at Tawasentha Park.

RRX: Oh, you’ve performed there?

LB: Any band would love to perform there.  They have the best sound system.  

RRX: And you’ve got to wear your grandmother’s dress!  They had such great attention to detail and fabrics back then.

LB: Yes, and they knew how to make women’s bodies look good.  I can’t find anything to wear in the store these days.  (People) in fashion need to focus on us old folks, us older people! (Laughs) I just want to thank Hammerhead Horns for giving me the opportunity to focus on these old songs from when I was growing up!

 

Leslie Barkman will be performing at WAMM Fest 2026 at Slidin’ Dirty in Troy, NY on September 20th