Leslie Mendelson

with special guest Molly Thomas

September 14 | 4 PM

OLIVETTE RIVERSIDE PAVILION
1069 Olivette Rd. Asheville, NC
BYOB, BYOC (chair)
$25-Kids are free!

With her enchanted voice and evocative songwriting, Leslie Mendelson has won the hearts and minds of both an adoring fanbase and fellow artists alike. No less than Jackson Browne has declared, “Leslie's melodies are timeless. They reach me way back in my youth somewhere. I hear traces of Burt Bacharach and Carole King, and hooks and passages that remind me of the pop songs I grew up hearing on the radio,” while The Wallflowers frontman Jakob Dylan shares: “Voices like Leslie’s can get away with almost anything. Along with being a great songwriter, this leaves her with few if any peers.” 

“Leslie is one of these very rare singers who can combine elegant precision with the soul and emotional resonance of a deeply moving writer and performer,” concludes producer, Peter Asher. "She has a remarkable voice and one we need to hear.”   

Molly Thomas’ latest album proved to be the biggest challenge and accomplishment of her 30-year music career. In the midst of recording, she was T-boned at an intersection and incapacitated for five months. Many of the songs were written before the accident, and their messages of resilience, hope, and self-revelation proved to be just what she needed to get through. Now, healed and with her wit intact, Thomas calls her latest album, Tumble Home.

Thomas’ cinematic folk sensibility melds Americana earthiness with symphonic grandeur. She’s a prodigiously gifted violinist who sees the big picture with her songs, bringing forth her heartfelt narratives with richly expressive instrumentation from her background as a string player. Thomas is also a dynamically expressive vocalist who can effortlessly sweep up from the dreamy to the dramatic.