Earlier this year we did a story on Kaz Nomura, aka PWRFL Power, and during the course of that production I found myself listening to a song written and performed by one of his classmates at Cornish College of the Arts.  She was listed as one of his MySpace friends and from the opening chords of the first song I listened to, "Shooting Stars", I was intrigued.  There was the hauntingly beautiful melody, the hypnotic way she played the piano accompaniment, the lyrics that were both wonderfully communicative and still somehow distant - and then there was her voice.  It was introspective and restrained yet I sensed there was a maelstrom of emotional ideas waiting to burst through.  Welcome to the world of  Jacqueline Leigh.

Jacqueline grew up in Ephrata, WA – a small town with "…18 churches and 3 bars…" on the other side of the Cascades.  When she was just 7 years old her parents sensed there was something special about Jackie and asked the local elementary school music teacher to listen to her sing.  The music teacher agreed that Jackie had a gift.  So began a tutelage and a friendship that survives to this day.  The teacher, Chris Youngberg, cautioned a teen-aged Jackie about the hardships of pursuing a career in music but also encouraged her to give it her best shot.  These days Jacqueline is finished with school and working hard to self-produce her first full-length recording. These are heady times where one can record and even distribute one's own music without much help from a record label.  Jacqueline has the talent and the drive to follow in the footsteps of a Tori Amos or Fiona Apple.  Whether or not that happens is largely out of her hands, but in the meantime Underground humbly asks you to take a few minutes and give a listen to this gifted young musician.