Leslie McClure comes from a musical family. Her uncle Scott McClure played with both Russell Smith and Butch McDade in Rich Mountain Tower before it morphed into The Amazing Rhythm Aces. He continues to play in Blues bands in Colorado Springs. Her father, John McClure, played his way through college and graduate school in Southern Rock bands and jam bands covering everyone from The Allman Brothers to The Grateful Dead. John also apprenticed as a studio engineer and eventually developed a home recording studio in Louisville, Kentucky dedicated to recording starving artists. Leslie grew up singing constantly from an early age, surrounded by musicians practicing, jamming, and going in and out of the family’s studio (now called Jonymac Studio). She developed a sharp ear for harmonies and repeatedly found herself invited to sing harmony tracks for several studio artists.

By age 12, Leslie and her father began singing various cover songs in local bars in Louisville such as Jake and Elwoods, Brownings, Clifton Pizza, Cumberland Brewery, and Pat’s Steakhouse. Throughout her high school career her mother, Annie, acted as her booking agent. This family-band dynamic continued when her father was offered a job teaching at Vanderbilt University and the whole family moved to Nashville, Tennessee. Leslie subsequently enrolled in Belmont University where many of Nashville’s musicians-to-be come to ply their wares. She and her father hooked up with various Belmont musicians, including Nathan Dugger (lead guitar), Jonathan Tarleton (dobro), Jeffrey Harper (bass) and Lyndsay Pruett (fiddle) at venues such as McDougals, The End, Bongo Java and Caffeine.