To say that Alberta musician Leeroy Stagger's life journey has followed a strange path would be a bit of an understatement. A celebrated artist for nearly two decades and 10 years sober, he gained national attention with Hot Hot Heat and Carolyn Mark and has built a world class recording studio. A lush reflection of his life's evolution, Strange Path is the title of his newest album and book, due out September 13 via True North Records. Leeroy Stagger will tour to support Strange Path throughout North American and Internationally. Tour dates listed below.
Strange Path is the end result of a triple-album's worth of scrapped demos, and a spirit-reviving retreat inwards. It's also Stagger's most ambitious and philosophical creation yet, a veritable self-help book pulled from a lifetime of struggling towards the light and brimming with the hard-won joy at the heart of his recent renaissance. From the appropriately haunted "Leonard Cohen is Dead" and the cosmic reflections of album-closer "The Light" to the hard-edged stomp of "Jesus and Buddha" it's an album of sharp hooks and sharper insights, a statement on loss, forgiveness, pain, faith, The Clash, Gord Downie, love, death, fear, letting go, higher powers, Mother Earth, obsession, redemption, and the path we all walk through life.
Directed by
Brock Davis Mitchell, the video for glam-rock blissed out lead single "
Strange Attractor" draws inspiration from films like
The Favourite and
Marie Antoinette and weaves an experimental narrative with shocking bursts of colour. "Nothing is permanent when you really stop and think," says Leeroy. "The home we live in, the car we drive, the children we raise, the art we make and the skin that we're in. It's precious, impermanent and beautiful. "Strange Attractor" is about the unseen nature of impermanence and the sacredness of the life we live."
In making
Strange Path, Leeroy surrounded himself with some of the best players in the business, including drummer Pete Thomas (Elvis Costello and the Attractions, Elliot Smith, Los Lobos), longtime collaborator Tyson Maiko, Paul Rigby (Neko Case, Garth Hudson, Jakob Dylan), Ryland Moranz andMichael Ayotte. The album was mixed by five time GRAMMY winner Ryan Freeland (Ray LaMontagne, Bonnie Raitt, Rodney Crowell) and Brad Barr of
The Barr Brothers shared producer's chair with Leeroy on four of the eleven tracks.
LEEROY STAGGER | UPCOMING NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES
8/29: Prince Edward Island @ Trailside Cafe
8/30: Halifax, NS @ Halifax Urban Folk Festival
8/3: Montreal, QC @ Petit Campus
9/1: Wentworth-Nord, QC @ Rickks Room
9/4: New York, NY @ The Rockwood
9/5: Marlboro, NY@ The Falcon
9/7: Rhinebeck, NY @ House Concert
9/10: Syracuse, NY @ House Concert
9/11: Burnstown, ON @ Neat Cafe
9/12: Toronto, ON @ The Horseshoe
9/14: Lethbridge, AB @ Lethbridge College
10/13: Los Angeles, CA @ The Mint
10/15: San Francisco, CA @ Hotel Utah
10/16: Sacramento, CA @ Fiest Wines
10/17: Portland, OR @ White Eagle
10/18: Vancouver, BC @ The Fox
10/20: Victoria, BC @ The Capitol
10/21: Parksville, BC @ Bayside Resort
Photo Credit: David Guenther
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