Jackie Leven

Jackie Leven

Jackie Leven is a Scottish singer-songwriter and folk musician from Kirkcaldy. He starts his career in the late 1960s as a folk performer and first finds wider success with the new wave band Doll By Doll. He also performs with UbuDoll.

Solo work and alter egos

Leven records extensively as a solo artist, releasing more than twenty albums under his own name. He also uses the pseudonym John St. Field for Control and Sir Vincent Lone for Songs For Lonely Americans, When The Bridegroom Comes (Songs For Women) and Troubador Heart. Under his own name, he issues 11 albums from 1994 onwards after a break from music.

Career setbacks and return

In the 1980s, Leven releases two singles under his own name, Love Is Shining Down On Me and Uptown. An unprovoked attack in 1983 leaves him without his voice for a year and leads to heroin addiction. After overcoming addiction, he sets up the CORE Trust, a charity taking a holistic approach to drug addiction, with patrons including Princess Diana. He returns to music in the early 1990s with a series of live shows before issuing his first new solo album, The Mystery of Love is Greater Than the Mystery of Death, in 1994.

Writing, themes and collaboration

Leven’s songs often have a dark, gloomy character, and he describes them as acknowledging hardship and helping people deal with it. He also sets poems and stories to music on his albums, including James Wright’s “A Blessing” on Forbidden Songs of the Dying West and Rainer Maria Rilke’s “Faces” on Shining Brother Shining Sister. His collaborators include poets and authors such as Robert Bly and Ian Rankin, as well as avant-garde musician David Thomas of Pere Ubu. His duet with Ian Rankin includes the exclusive short story Jackie Leven Said.

Death

Leven is born in 1950 and dies in 2011. He dies on 14 November 2011 after suffering from prostate cancer.