Who the heck is Leda? Here is how we got our name “Sweet Leda”:

Back in the day, Jaime and I started dating. He thought I was so swell that he brought me over to his parents’ house (Don and Dorothy, stepdad and mom). Dinner with the fam was not typical. First of all, Don was a freak of nature! The stuff he came up with in the kitchen was just crazy. Homemade sauces, new colors, crazy food combinations.
Secondly, their cozy warm house is in the middle of the woods, so it was so beautiful to just be there. Trees, flowers galore, deer, and a farm next door.
Thirdly, after dinner, what did they do? They jammed in the living room! Don was a musician and played in bands when he was a kid. (One of them was called Loose Fish and they even opened for Root Boy Slim once or twice, which was Ron Holloway’s band.) He had a huge binder full of songs that he’d written. So after dinner, Don would play guitar and sing, Jaime would play the bass, and Dorothy would play some percussion. The wine and music lasted for hours.
Jaime told Don that I sang in choir in highschool and college, so Don invited me to sing. I chose “Fever” (kind of an odd song to sing to my boyfriend’s parents, but whatever. I sang it with my a cappella group Faux Paz in college!). And there it started…a family band was born.
What should we name ourselves? It’s quite a decision. Don is funny with words. Meaning, he doesn’t remember them. I gave him a CD by a band called Ida; I knew he’d love it (the album is called “I Know About You”). Rich harmonies, intense songs, heartfelt. Don could never remember the band name Ida. He’d say “hey, let’s listen to that CD…ummm Leda. Loda? Lida? Leda?”
So…that’s where we got our “Leda.” We thought we made it up. (We didn’t even realize right away that Leda is actually a character from Greek mythology. And Don and Dorothy didn’t even realize that in their upstairs bathroom hung a picture of a woman holding a swan, with the caption “Leda”. Wild, huh?)
So, should we call ourselves just “Leda”? Or “Leda’s ___”? We decided on “Leda’s Charm”. Because whenever we had band practice, we cooked a wonderful dinner first, and carried around our wine glasses, each adorned with its own wine glass charm.

Meanwhile, Jaime and I were also playing in a band called Bittersweet (the one with Don and Omar). We were finding that it wasn’t quite the right name for us, so a name change would be necessary. As this was happening, our stepdad Don became sick with cancer. He fought a good fight for almost a year. Sadly, the cancer won and took our Donny. (Our song “No Time But Today” is about this experience.) I sent out a band email to let everyone know the sad news. Jaime remembers me using the phrase “Good-bye, Sweet Leda.” I guess it stuck in his head. And there we have it–Bittersweet was then changed to Sweet Leda. It’s a way for us to honor and remember Jaime’s stepfather, and remember his music.

We do still have copies of our Leda’s Charm album. If you’d like one, let me know!

I would really love for people to hear about Don, and know that Sweet Leda is in part, a tribute to Don and his music. So please pass this along, or even just paraphrase it to a friend.

Thank you for reading. Hugs!

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