JERRY LEGER ANNOUNCES CANADIAN TOUR DATES
NEW LP NOTHING PRESSINGΒ OUT EVERYWHERE NOW VIA LATENT RECORDINGS
Currently finishing up a month-long tour of Europe, Jerry Leger will soon embark on a four week tour across Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island in celebration of his acclaimed new LP Nothing Pressing. All dates are listed below and tickets and more information can be found HERE.
Written during the pandemic, Nothing Pressing isnβt the only thing has kept Leger busy while off the road. In 2020 Leger published his first book of poetry Just the Night Birds, made a film for his mailing list subscribers The Apartment Show He Never Gave, while releasing what he terms a βsurpriseβ album, Songs from the Apartment.
Songs from the Apartment was a stripped-down lo-fi affair recorded in his home using a cheap tape recorder with an internal microphone. Two songs from the current album, βUnderground Bluesβ and βSinking Inβ, were also recorded in Legerβs home, this time using two SM58 microphones fed into his vintage 1981 Tascam 4-track tape recorder. The remaining nine tracks included on Nothing Pressing present Legerβs work in two starkly contrasting soundscapes. βNothing Pressingβ, βProtectorβ, and βStill Patienceβ, are solo acoustic recordings cut live in the studio with little embellishment save Dan Mockβs overdubbed harmony vocals and, on the title track, producer Michael Timminsβ ukulele. The other six tracks are prime roots rock and roll featuring his long-time band The Situation (drummer Kyle Sullivan and bass player Dan Mock). Among the latter songs, βKill It With Kindnessβ and βHave You Ever Been Happy?β have the kind of drive, energy and spirit thatΒ are sure to make them highlights of his future live shows.
Leger often times finds himself at a loss as to explain the source of his songs. He feels hisΒ songwriting, while clearly drawing on experiences filtered through a panoply of influences, often verges on being a supernatural experience. Over the course of the eleven songs on Nothing Pressing, the songwriterβs songwriter engages with questions of existence, mortality, hope, trust, and heartbreak while simultaneously conjuring feelings of isolation, reflection, longing, and gratitude.
NOTHING PRESSING ALBUM REVIEW
Paired with such evocative lyrics are wonderfully crafted melodies, soulful vocals, and the spirit and energy of a mature songwriter, comfortable in his skin and growing as an artist with every release. Nothing Pressing serves a wonderfully refreshing tonic in troubling times.
Born in the mid-80s, singer-songwriter Jerry Leger came of age in the Upper Beaches area ofΒ Toronto. Surrounded by music from a young age, his grandfather first turned him onto HankΒ Williams, constantly playing the youngster a plethora of the honky tonk masterβs greatΒ recordings. Although Williamsβ voice came from another world in terms of time, geography,Β and class, Leger was intrigued by the ways that Williamsβ songs told a story and often conjured up mysterious images in his head. Other seminal influences were slowly added including John Lennon (and the Beatles), Bob Dylan, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Leonard Cohen, Elvis Costello, Neil Young, the Everly Brothers, Tom Waits, and Gordon Lightfoot.
In 2005 as Leger turned nineteen he cut his first independently released album. In the sixteenΒ years since then the multi-talented singer-songwriter has recorded nine additional studioΒ albums as well as one live compilation under his own name. In 2014 he was signed to theΒ Cowboy Junkiesβ label, Latent Recordings, releasing the critically acclaimed Early Riser thatΒ same year. His second Latent release, Nonsense and Heartache, followed in 2017. A yearΒ later the two-album set was picked up by Proper Records for distribution in the U.K andΒ Europe, leading to extensive touring throughout the continent, in the process opening up aΒ whole new audience for Legerβs finely crafted songs. With his next Latent album, 2019βs Time Out for Tomorrow, Leger began to receive positive notices in such high-profile musicΒ magazines as Uncut and Rolling Stone.
A restless hungry spirit, when not performing and recording under his own name, Leger stays busy with a plethora of side projects including The Del Fiβs (loose improvisatory rock andΒ roll) and the Bop Fiβs (Leger reciting his poetry over jazz accompaniment). He has also been known to work under the pseudonym Hank Holly (bonus points go to those who can figure out where that name came from!).
Tour Dates
May 10 β Saint Feliu de Guixols, ES, Las Vegas Music Hall
May 11 β Valencia, ES, Loco Club
May 12 β Zaragoza, ES, Rock & Blues
May 13 β Hondarribia, ES, Psilocybenea
May 14 – Madrid, ES, Fun House
May 31 – Toronto, ON – Paradise Theatre &
June 3 β Berwick, NS, Union Street *
June 4 β Dartmouth, NS, New Scotland Brewing *
June 8 – New Glasgow, NS, Monarch Marina *
June 9 – Moncton, NB, Centre culturel Aberdeen , 2e Γ©tage/ 2nd floor – Fest Re-Flux *
June 10 β Fredericton, NB, The Tipsy Muse *
June 11 β Montague, PEI, Copper Bottom Brewing ^
June 12 β Kingston, NB, “The Cottage” House Show *
June 18 – Hamilton, ON, Mills Hardware *
June 23 – Bracebridge, ON, Bracebridge Hall *
June 24 β Trenton, ON, Old Church Theatre *
June 25 – Ottawa, ON, Red Bird Live *
& Nothing Pressing hometown release show
* acoustic duo shows with Dan Mock on upright bass
^ also with Aaron Comeau on guitar
ArtistΒ Links
Photo Credit: Laura Proctor
