Artists
Eugenia Riot
Eugenia Riot is the nom de plume of Portland, Oregon based singer-songwriter Leigh Jones. The name is taken from her eldest known female ancestor, Eugenia Riot, who was born in the year 1205 in Yorkshire, England. An internationally touring musician with a background in theater, Jones delights audiences with her irresistible stage presence and enrapturing voice. She has spoken at the US Embassy in Ethiopia on Women in Music, was selected with her former band Crow and the Canyon for the American Music Abroad program, and has toured the US from coast to coast since 2010.
Jones grew up in North Carolina and went on to earn a drama degree from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Her time immersed in the diversity of NYC’s music scene sparked a passion for songwriting, and she was eventually lured to the magic of the Pacific Northwest, where she has continued to maximize her versatility as a musician. With her former bands, bluegrass outfit Crow and the Canyon, and harmony-driven folk trio Five Letter Word, Jones moved easily from strings to percussion, occasionally throwing on tap shoes to round out a performance.
Her pandemic-born solo project, Eugenia Riot, explores the crescendos of love, heartache, and the human condition by weaving together words and melodies in a style that is at once idiosyncratic and infectious. Jones’s self-examining songwriting, fortified by indie-rock accompaniment, makes Eugenia Riot’s debut album “Can’t Wait to Miss You” (released May 12, 2023) both gentle and fierce, playful and romantic – an engaging blend of folk, rock, and pop. She had the honor of winning third place in the 2024 Telluride Bluegrass Festival Troubadour Contest.
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