Arlee Leonard
Honey Island Swamp, Louisiana
I know Arlee because of a walk. Most tinyboatsession musicians I meet because another musician recommends them. On this particular evening, I made my way into the Bywater from, with a beer in hand, mosieing my way to a backyard party to raise money for a lost canoe. I was going to meet Phoebe of The Greek Band, whom my friend Wolfie (who I know from Driftwood John of the Mississippi River), said might want to do a tinyboatsession.
In the Bywater on a corner of Burgundy Street was a lavender house, trimmed in purple. A woman with silver curly hair and dressed in turquoise swept the front of the house into exceptionally neat piles. I complimented her on the work and we began to chat.
One of my missions in New Orleans besides researching a book was to find musicians for tinyboatsession. It turned out that Arlee had been a Jazz singer her whole life. She’d lived all over with significant chunks in California, New York, and New Orleans. Her performing and entertaining took her abroad all over Europe, North America, Africa, and even on some ships.
Arlee had recently made her way back to New Orleans after many years away to help with her parents towards the end of the pandemic. They had been living in the lavender house with purple trim for many of the 40 years they had been busking and performing in New Orleans. Arlee convinced them to do a tinyboatsession and you can see them here: David and Roselyn.
Arlee has an album called ‘Wild Honey,’ so when I told her there was a place just 40 minutes away called ‘Honey Island Swamp,’ that was where she wanted to do her tinyboatsession. We rowed into the swamp and we found wonderful flowers and large nesting white birds. Arlee sang them and me some songs about nature, water, and boats. @lionrev