Austin Hartley-Leonard

Austin Hartley-Leonard began as a solo singer/songwriter in Austin, TX. His first demo earned him an invitation to the SXSW Music Festival. Soon after, he started looking for other musicians to round out the band, and the group St. James Inc was born. The band went on to see success in the Austin music scene and was invited to perform at the Austin City Limits Festival.

After releasing the “8 Hours” EP in 2006, St. James Inc performed at the Lollapalooza Festival in Chicago and then relocated to Los Angeles, where they continued to see great success. You can hear their tunes in the film “Moving McAllister” and the hit show “Men In Trees” on ABC.

After meeting producer Charles Newman (The Magnetic Fields, Tim Myers, AM) in Los Angeles, the two began work on Austin’s debut solo record “Franklin Ave” in December 2007. With Mother West labelmates The Bowmans adding a sprinkling of harmonies, Doug Pettibone (Lucinda Williams, Tift Merritt) on pedal steel and guitar, Carrie Rodriguez on fiddle, Matt Ramsey on guitar and vocals, and members of Brian Wright’s Waco Tragedies as the backing band. Recording was finished at Mother West NYC in March 2008. Austin played 5 shows at SXSW 2009 including a slot on The Hotel Cafe Showcase night.

Austin has been commissioned to write a number of commercial television spots, the most recent of which being the theme for a nationally aired campaign for Troybilt Inc. His song "I Found You" was recently featured in an episode of CBS's "The Ghost Whisperer," another song on the NBC show "Chuck", and the song "Heart Attack" from his album Franklin Ave can be heard in the new Steve Buscemi film "Handsome Harry."

You can catch Austin every month at Hotel Cafe in Hollywood, and other venues around southern California. He will soon be heading back into the studio to work on a new album to be released in Summer 2010.