NORTHAMPTON — Beloved and well-respected singer and lawyer Leah Kunkel, who was also a strong advocate for up-and-coming performers, died at Hospice of the Fisher Home in Amherst on Nov. 26, 2024, at the age of 76.

“She’s not gonna get enough press for all the things she did,” said Dave Reid, a retired reporter and Kunkel’s longtime friend.

Kunkel, née Leah Rachel Cohen, was born in 1948 and grew up in a middle-class Jewish family in Baltimore. Kunkel graduated from Smith College as an Ada Comstock Scholar (a student older than traditional college age) in 1988, then went to Western New England University School of Law for her Juris Doctor degree. She also taught at the school for 16 years.

Kunkel lived and worked in Northampton, where she practiced criminal defense and entertainment law in an office on New South Street.

Reid said that Kunkel was known as “a fierce advocate” for her clients — at times, she’d give them rides home, lend them bail money, or stay in contact after their cases ended.

“She was a heck of a lawyer and got a lot of people justice in a system that doesn’t always provide justice, and she was a great friend,” Reid said.

Before her law career, however, Kunkel was part of another world: the 1970s Southern California music scene.

As a singer, Kunkel provided vocals for a who’s-who of musicians, including Carly Simon, Art Garfunkel, Arlo Guthrie, James Taylor, David Crosby and Jackson Browne; she toured with Garfunkel and performed with him on “Saturday Night Live” in 1978. For a time, she was romantically involved with Peter Tork, bassist and keyboardist of The Monkees, who said in a 2007 Rolling Stone interview that the two were still very good friends.

She released her self-titled debut solo album in 1979, then released her second solo album, “I Run With Trouble,” the following year. (Lil Wayne sampled that album’s title song in his 2007 track “Trouble.”)

Kunkel also co-founded the pop-rock band The Coyote Sisters, which included Marty Gwinn Townsend and Renee Armand. The group released a self-titled LP in 1984 and a second album, “Women and Other Visions,” in 2001. One of the songs on their 1984 album made it to the Billboard Hot 100 that year.

Local performing arts

Kunkel was deeply involved with the performing arts scene in the Pioneer Valley, serving as chairperson of the Northampton Center for the Arts, a member of the now-defunct Strident Theatre steering committee, and an occasional performer. At a September meeting of the Northampton License Commission, she jokingly referred to herself as a “recovering musician.”

Ruth Griggs, president of the Northampton Jazz Festival, said Kunkel not only had “a gorgeous, gorgeous voice” but was also very caring. She recalled a story of one of Kunkel’s former defense clients, who came back to her years later to tell her that she’d inspired him to become a musician, to Kunkel’s delight.

“That’s how much she touched people — she inspired people, she lifted them up, she supported them,” Griggs said. “She was very, very selfless.”

Though Kunkel was a singer in her own right, she also had a notable family connection to the music industry — her older sister was “Mama Cass” Elliott (née Ellen Naomi Cohen) of The Mamas and the Papas. Elliott died in 1974 at the age of 32, after which Kunkel raised her daughter, Owen Elliot-Kugell, who wrote the memoir “My Mama, Cass.” In 2022, Elliot-Kugell and Kunkel took part in a ceremony awarding Elliott a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Kunkel was married to drummer Russ Kunkel, who worked as a session musician for artists like Bob Dylan, James Taylor, Jimmy Buffett, and Carly Simon, among many others, and was, for a time, part of the house band at the legendary Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles. The two later divorced, but in 1970, they had a son, Nathaniel, who works as a sound engineer and producer.

A helping hand

Jim Olsen, president of the Northampton label Signature Sounds, remembered Kunkel as a warm, funny person who helped up-and-coming artists in their careers. When a young musician came to Signature with a lot of experience honing their craft but little experience with the music business, Kunkel helped them navigate the contract process, drawing on her own experience as a performer.

“She was just a character,” Olsen said. “She was a great artist who didn’t like to talk about her own work at all but was very supportive of artists.”

Kunkel was supposed to have performed at a Carole King tribute show at the Iron Horse in November but had to withdraw due to illness. Olsen laughed that Kunkel “threatened to bring Carole King” to the show, since she knew her from her ex-husband’s work as King’s longtime drummer.

Olsen also appreciated Kunkel for her work as a public defender, a profession she entered to make up for a shortage of public defenders in Massachusetts. At the time of her death, he said, she had more than 70 open cases, showing her commitment to the mission of her job: “She wanted to make sure these clients wouldn’t fall through the cracks.”

With her death, Olsen said, the Pioneer Valley has lost “both a resource and a friend to the music community and the larger community through her work.”

In the wake of her passing, local arts organizations, as well as Kunkel’s friends and colleagues, have posted loving tributes to her on social media. In a Facebook thread, fellow Ada Comstock Scholars reminisced about their experiences about her and praised her kindness.

June Millington, guitarist and songwriter of the all-female rock band Fanny and co-founder of the local Institute for the Musical Arts, posted on Facebook:

“She was so much to me: a possible bandmate at all times, the best raconteur when in the right mood, intellectual foil, my lawyer, sharer of certain secrets, fellow songwriter, and I believe we served as counterbalances to each other’s moods. Listen, I don’t let a lot of people in. She was in.”

Guitarist Michael Gregory Jackson posted: “Leah was and will remain a bright light, a guiding force in the hearts of many. Leah was funny, insightful, brilliant, kind, warm, strong, tenacious, clear and sensitive. Fly on sister Leah, I miss and love you.”

Singer-songwriter Stephen Bishop posted: “I’m in shock, honestly. It’s hard to imagine a world without her in it. She was kind, generous, and a true friend. The good people seem to be leaving us too soon. Rest in peace, Leah — I love you, you’re my friend for life and will always be in my heart.”

The Academy of Music — a venue right across the street from Kunkel’s old law office — posted its own tribute shortly after her passing. On its marquee, shining out in the darkness, was a message in her honor.

“Leah Kunkel,” it read, “May You Rest in Peace Amongst the Stars.”