He also didn’t want to re-do the old songs; he envisioned a focus on originals.
The band’s first full album — which Leach said will be released “around the beginning of next year” — will feature 11 tracks, with nine of them being originals.
“My wife Miranda and I do a lot of the songwriting,” Leach said. “[singer-songwriter] Jim Lauderdale wrote one, and our Mandolin player, Josh, wrote an instrumental as well.”
Leach is joined in his band by singer and wife, Miranda Leach; Josh Gooding, on mandolin; Brandon Masur, who picks banjo; and JT Coleman, who supplies the bass. The band is based in the mountains of Eastern Tennessee.
They can’t wait to get out there to perform again, and Leach said he “would like to see a year from now, maybe a hundred dates on the books.” He hopes to grab the existing bluegrass audience, but also would like to attract a new, youthful audience willing to give bluegrass a listen.