SPILL NEWS: LEEROY STAGGER FEATURES JOEL PLASKETT AND KENDEL CARSON ON NEW SINGLE “HIGHLANDS LEAVING”

LEEROY STAGGER FEATURES JOEL PLASKETT AND KENDEL CARSON ON NEW SINGLE “HIGHLANDS LEAVING”

CORDOVA BAY RECORDS

Alt-folk singer-songwriter Leeroy Stagger returns with his poignant new single, “Highlands Leaving,” featuring longtime friend and co-producer Joel Plaskett, alongside acclaimed fiddler Kendel Carson. The track offers another powerful preview of Stagger’s forthcoming album Pilgrimage, due out May 29 via Cordova Bay Records.

Inspired by Alastair McIntosh’s book Soil and Soul, “Highlands Leaving” reflects on the lasting impact of the Highland Clearances of the 1700s, which displaced Stagger’s ancestors from Scotland to Northern Ireland and eventually Nova Scotia. The song explores identity and the lasting impact of colonialism.

Stagger shares, “I wanted to write on the Highland Clearances of the 1700’s that pushed my ancestors from Scotland to Northern Ireland and ultimately to Nova Scotia, Canada. The repercussions of colonialism shake the branches of my family tree and sadly still ring out throughout my home country of Canada today. To know oneself, it is helpful to know where one’s been. For better or worse, we were pushed from our ancestral homes into someone else’s. Violence begetting violence. It’s imperative to me to break these cycles and to honour the beautiful traditions our communities once held so tightly. It was always so strange to me that I felt more at home in Scotland than in my own country; it makes perfect sense to me now. There is a deep ancestral grief for where we once called home.”

Pilgrimage marks Stagger’s first release with Cordova Bay Records and finds him reuniting with Plaskett. The album includes the earlier double single “Swimming Back To You” and “Lost In The Flood,” released this past January, and also features “Fiddler’s Daughter,” which received an official video premiere via Americana UK.

In support of the new album, Stagger will embark on an extensive tour, with additional Canadian dates set for May before heading overseas for shows in the UK and Germany this summer. Stay tuned for the arrival for Pilgrimage on May 29.

Tour Dates

May 13 – Pictou County, NS – Scotsburn Firehall
May 14 – Charlottetown, PEI – Trailside Music Hall
May 15 – St. Andrews By The Sea, NB – Paddlefest
May 16 – Sackville, NB – Yes Indeedy (I Do) Music Festival
May 17 – Halifax, NS – Carleton (w/ Dennis Ellsworth)
May 19 – St. Catharines, ON – The Warehouse
May 20 – Collingwood, ON – Studio 79
May 22 – Huntsville, ON – Canvas Brewing Co.
May 23 – Toronto, ON – Cameron House (Backroom)
May 24 – Erin, ON – The Busholme
May 27 – Sainte-Anne-du-Lac, QC – Radis Noir
May 28 – Wakefield, QC – The Black Sheep
May 29 – Ottawa, ON – House Concert
May 30 – Lost River, QC – Rickks Room
May 31 – Montreal, QC – Casa Del Popolo

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