B-Side Guys

The trumpet arrives like a declaration of freedom. Savanna Leigh’s “for your entertainment” begins quietly with acoustic guitar, but that restraint doesn’t last—the track builds into something triumphant, horns swelling as the Nashville singer-songwriter articulates what it means to stop white-knuckling your way through life. At 25, she’s made an EP about the collision of all the selves we try to keep separate, and this title track functions as the thesis: loosening your grip isn’t giving up, it’s how you actually find freedom.

The production mirrors the lyrical journey from control to release. Those initial acoustic strums feel contained, manageable, the sound of someone still trying to hold everything together. But as the arrangement expands—synths layering in, drums adding weight, those trumpet solos finally breaking through—it becomes clear that expansion is the point. Leigh’s vocals carry confessional weight throughout, arriving (as Atwood Magazine noted in their premiere) like truths too heavy to keep inside. There’s optimism here, but it’s earned rather than assumed, the kind that comes from choosing to embrace chaos instead of resisting it.

The EP follows a deliberate circus theme, with each song tied to a specific carnival element. The tightrope walker gets her moment elsewhere, but “for your entertainment” captures the entire show—the overwhelming collision of different acts and attractions, the vertigo of too much happening at once. Leigh chose this framework intentionally, explaining that turning 25 felt like watching the separate compartments of her life (personal, romantic, work, spiritual) crash into each other. The merch design—a mannequin head topped with a carousel—visualizes that exact sensation of parts spinning out of control.

What makes the track work beyond its metaphorical framework is Leigh’s willingness to sit with the discomfort of that loss of control before finding beauty in it. She’s writing about self-discovery, heartbreak, resilience, and the difficult process of letting go—themes she’s been exploring throughout her career, including on last year’s “reminders of you” project that she’s been touring alongside artists like Jonah Marais and Ashley Kutcher. But here, recorded in East Nashville, she’s pushed further into articulating what comes after recognition: the actual practice of loosening your grip and discovering that freedom exists on the other side.

For someone whose live performances are known for creating intimate atmospheres where audiences feel they’re witnessing private moments, “for your entertainment” represents a fascinating contradiction—it’s her most public declaration yet about learning to stop performing control and just live in the messiness. The circus isn’t just happening around her; she’s finally letting herself be part of the show.