A dishwasher who used to dance, and wrote a song called River

Before Leon Bridges sang a note in public, he studied dance. At Tarrant County College in Texas he took hip-hop as a first-year elective, then joined the Velocity Dance Company and tried ballet, modern, African and jazz. He thought of becoming a choreographer, and has said that dancing prepared him for the stage.

Born in Atlanta and raised in Fort Worth, Todd Michael Bridges grew up in a religious home where secular music was forbidden, though he secretly kept an Usher album. After he became religious at eighteen, he threw away his R&B records and began writing Christian songs, the first called “Conversion”. He first used the stage name Lost Child, then settled on Leon Bridges after people said he looked like the actor Leon Robinson. After seeing the band Texas Gentlemen, he decided to write a “river song”, which turned into “River”.

In 2010 he left college to support his mother, working as a busser and a dishwasher. Then in 2015 came the album Coming Home, a revival of 1960s soul, with songs such as “Better Man”, “River” and the title track. After that he moved forward in time: Good Thing drew on 1980s quiet storm and 1990s neo soul, and Gold-Diggers Sound on 1990s and 2000s R&B. Both received Grammy nominations for Best R&B Album, and his single “Bet Ain't Worth the Hand” won Best Traditional R&B Performance.

Other songs, including “Bad Bad News”, “Beyond”, “Smooth Sailin'” and “Texas Sun”, show him moving between styles. He also acted, playing Gil Scott-Heron in the Neil Armstrong film First Man. His fourth album, Leon, brought folk and country colours. The thread is a voice that sounds older than he is, and the habit of treating each album as a new room to explore.