Younger sister of uber-vocalist and super celebrity 'Mama' Cass Elliott. Wife of numero uno all-star rock drummer Russ Kunkel. Session vocalist extraordinaire (she provided ALL the backing vocals for James Taylor's huge JT album and remains the only female singer to ever sing back-up for Art Garfunkel). Songwriter and master interpreter. Leah Kunkel is all these things and more!Schooled in the Greenwich Village folk scene where she hung with Fred Neil and John Sebastian, her life was changed by the arrival of The Beatles (wasn't everybody's?) and the international success of her elder sister's band The Mamas & The Papas. Leah visited Cass in Los Angeles and soon found herself among the new generation of Hollywood pop songwriters. She soon
signed to Trousdale Music (home of P F Sloan and Steve Barri amongs others) and married old flame Russ Kunkel in 1968. She continued writing and demoing into the '70s as well as cultivating a career as an in-demand session vocalist, contributing to records by Jackson Browne, James Taylor, Art Gunfunkel, Dan Hill, Carly Simon and big sister Cass. In 1979 she released her first self-titled solo set, produced by (and featuring) husband Russ and featuring Jackson Browne on back-up vocals. It contains songs by The Bee Gees, John Phillips and Stephen Bishop alongside her own compositions and boasts a sleeve note by Art Ganfunkel. Its 1980 follow-up, I Run With Trouble, features songs by Jimmy Webb, Chip Douglas and Judy Henske as well as a guest appearance by Graham Nash and a sleeve from the lens of renowned photographer Duane Micheals.
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