Say hello to Leslie Eliel

Because the song "Heart of the Heartland" remains such an important song for The Brothers Four I wanted you to know its co-author better. I am including some songs from her album, "Shakedown." (available at https://www.cdbaby.com/cd/leslieeliel along with a newer song that also includes her husband, Greg Scott.

In her own words, here is Leslie Eliel:

I had the pleasure of meeting Mark in a room full of songwriters. I was showcasing my just-drafted and lively "What's a Cowgirl Do When the Men Are on the Range?" (a title since shortened, through popular reference, to "The Cowgirl Song"). "She takes her shirt off," is the way the chorus answers the question, but I like to think it was my clever turns of phrase that caused Mark to introduce himself afterwards to ask if I would be interested in some collaborative writing.

We began meeting with pen and coffee in hand to explore ideas, and what emerged was a poignant story song about the loss of the family farm. In fact, two versions emerged. We both liked them both, but Mark slightly preferred the one with the hook and title "Heart of the Heartland," and I slightly preferred the hook and title "Time to Be Planting Again."

My preference was very personal; the premise of the song had emerged from a detail from my own family history, an image inspired by my father, a farmer/rancher who had handled himself with great dignity when the actions of a corrupt finance official led eventually to the closure of our own family ranch and farm operation. I liked the emphasis being on the microscopic, the personal courage it takes to start over, more than on the macroscopic allusion to what was happening in the Big Picture of the family farm.

So with mutual blessings, we recorded two versions of the song. Though a few minor differences appear in the verses, the main difference is between the choruses, the "heartland version" being:

The HEART OF THE HEARTLAND
That beats in a woman and man
Tonight breaks in still one more place
In the HEART OF THE HEARTLAND

and the "planting version" being:

Where is the fruit of our toil?
And what are we gonna do now?
All he knows in that warm trembling wind
Is it's TIME TO BE PLANTING AGAIN

I love that there are two versions out there, love that we broke the rules that way, love the respect and support that that choice represented. There was never of moment of contention about it, and it warms me to hear the Brothers Four sing it with their rich harmonies, to know that it has been sung in the Land of the Rising sun, and to hear how my name sounds on YouTube in the Japanese translation! My version of the song can be found on my album Shakedown, available at CD Baby.

In the songwriting we discovered how much fun it was to sing together, especially when Mike McCoy joined us, with his inimitable growly voice which I just loved. We worked up several songs and performed several times. Over time this song connection turned into professional connections and potlucks and a friendship that just deepened so beautifully when it expanded to include Pat and her girls and many of their friends.

Eventually our lives took right turns, as lives do, and we kind of fell out of touch. But I am still so fond of the whole gang, and was thrilled to reconnect a couple of years ago, with my husband Greg Scott now part of the constellation. Greg, a longtime singer/songwriter compadre, and I are making music now (there are occasional announcements on our rather neglected blog, 2songwriters.blogspot.com). My "day job" is a refinement of the massage therapy I used to do, a kind of specialized work in trauma therapy, and I edit and create books in that field (and others) as well. But nothing is like making music, and I will always look forward to the musical reunions with Mark and Pat, even if they only happen once a decade!