Leo Rondeau

Leo Rondeau plays country music with a songwriter’s brain and a honky-tonk heartbeat. Raised in North Dakota’s Turtle Mountains and now based in Nashville after years in the Austin scene, Rondeau writes plainspoken songs about busted relationships, restless characters, hard living and the small victories that keep people moving.

Musically, he sits somewhere between classic country, honky-tonk and Americana, with enough swing to keep a dance floor moving. His songwriting carries echoes of Townes Van Zandt, Hank Williams and Jimmie Rodgers, but there’s also humor and a stubborn streak of optimism running through the darker stuff.

This isn’t slick Nashville country. Rondeau’s music feels more at home in a packed Texas dance hall—steel guitar, boots on the floor and lyrics good enough to make the people sitting at the bar turn around and listen.