Off The Record Live: Leah Turner Brings Latin Heritage to Latest EP ‘Lost in Translation’

With the release of her latest six-song EP, Lost in Translation, Leah Turner is changing things up by bringing a piece of her Latin American roots to country music.

Born to a rodeo champion father and a first-generation Mexican-American mother, Turner combines the two backgrounds on her latest offering —a process she found natural, given that country music and the Latino culture both put an emphasis on the value of faith, family, and hard work.

“I feel like I am showing a hundred percent of who I am,” she says of the new EP on a recent episode of American Songwriter’s Twitch show, Off The Record Live. “I’m really being able to bring my full A-game in a sense of unapologetically myself. And I’ve always been apologetically myself, I’ve always stood in my truth, I am who I am, always, but to actually be able to put this into my music, is such a love for me. It’s such a part of me. To be able to put all parts of me in is really incredible.”

As to why Turner chose to call her new EP Lost in Translation, she says, “I feel like if we start looking at the heart as humans versus looking at the outside, we would probably find that we have a lot more in common with people than we think that we do.”

She adds, “So I just wanted to do that, bringing two worlds together and hoping that people have open minds and open hearts and allow the chemistry and the vibes to be felt and to speak and not letting anything get lost in translation because it’s different.”

Discussing everything from her upbringing on a ranch in California to her parent’s marriage, her fashion choices, diversity in country music, cowboys, and more, the Off The Record episode shows viewers a different side to Turner, at just the right time in her career.

“Timing is everything. I think that if you don’t look a certain way or you’re different, sometimes being different scares people,” she said. “I know that I look blonde hair, blue-eyed and white, but you get to know me…,” she laughs, “Mexican to the bone. Sometimes it makes people uncomfortable and there are not the friendliest people out there when something is different. It’s time for the change and to be a part of diversity, it’s an honor for me to represent a culture that has been represented in country music for a very long time. It may be uncomfortable for people to see things they are not used to, but I guess it’s time to get uncomfortable.

“I feel like I’m really being able to be my 100 % authentic self,” she adds.

After performing 2 songs from her EP, “Once Upon A Time In Mexico” and “Vaquera and the Cowboy,” Turner wants to give fans something from the EP to take away with them.

“Be comfortable in the skin that God gave you, stand in your truth, it’s OK to feel that sexuality and want those wants and those needs, wherever that moral compass takes you., she says. “And look at the heart. Always look at the heart because when you look at the heart, nothing will get Lost in Translation.”

Lost in Translation is available now, check it out here. Watch the full interview and performance below:

Lost in Translation Track Listing:

1. “Once Upon A Time In Mexico” (Jesse Frasure, Leah Turner) 
2. “Wax On the Table” (Skip Black, Leah Turner)
3. “Vaquera and the Cowboy” (Lamont Coleman, Leah Turner) 
4. “Vaya Con Dios” (Josh Ronen, Kylie Sackley, Leah Turner)
5. “Lost In Translation” (Micheal August, Evan Coffman, Leah Turner)
6. “Where Did All The Cowboys Go” (Andy Albert, Adam James, Leah Turner)

Photo by Ford Fairchild