Leeroy Stagger showcasing new album tonight at the Owl
By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on September 12, 2024.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com For 15 years, Leeroy Stagger made Lethbridge his home and tonight he’s renewing old acquaintances with a concert at the Owl Acoustic Lounge.Now resettled back on Vancouver Island where he and his family moved when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, Stagger is on a tour promoting his latest album. With his band, he’s been hitting venues in B.C. and Alberta with another show slated for Fernie tomorrow night. He then will fly east to do a solo tour in Atlantic Canada.
His latest album which was released last Friday has gotten a strong response so far and to Stagger it may be one of his best.
Stagger says a lot of people feel 3 a.m. Revelations is his best record yet “and I think they’re probably not far off. For me, there’s not really one kind of mediocre track.. .it’s a cool record,” said Stagger in a Wednesday phone interview.
The veteran musician/songwriter/producer entirely produced and mixed the recording called “3 a.m. Revelations” himself.
The album “was composed in the wee hours of the morning and I produced it myself, I mixed it myself so I’ve kind of pretty much have my fingerprints over the whole thing which is maybe not the first time but probably the first record of mine I’ve fully seen it through from beginning to end and didn’t really let a lot of other hands on it,” said Stagger.
The record features drummer Pete Thomas on a couple of songs, Thomas who plays in Elvis Costello’s band and who has also played with Paul McCartney and Pearl Jam.
On the record, according to a press release from Tonic Records, Stagger “uses his long term sobriety for muse, muscle, and music.”
“Stagger easily shifts to raucous singalong singles that stick in your head like chewing gum. Tunes like ‘Count to Ten’ (written by PEI’s Dennis Ellsworth), ‘Mediocrity Pill’ (co-written and featuring Bedouin Soundclash’s Jay Malinkowski) and Watermelon Pink are hooky as hell rockers to compliment his more contemplative offerings,” says Tonic.
“With a career that spans more than two decades and having worked with industry luminaries like Danny Goldberg and True North Records, Stagger is full of stories and songs to fill our hearts and minds in this new world we move forward into,” Tonic adds.
Stagger’s in-laws and best friends are still in Lethbridge so he manages to get back to the city a couple of times a year.
“It just feels like a second home to me really,” said Stagger of Lethbridge where his two sons were born.
Response the new album has been “gangbusters. Definitely the biggest response I’ve got on a record in years and rightfully so – I put a lot of energy into the new record. It took about, I think three years and three attempts to make it, and the time and effort was worth it.
“The response has been nuts, the lineup at the merch table to buy the record I haven’t seen it that crazy in years so it’s really cool. It’s a good feeling. The record industry and the music business is a bit of a bummer so when you kind of have victories, it’s a good feeling,” said Stagger.
He’s doing his tour with a four-piece band, slightly downsized from his usual five member outfit.
“Post-COVID everything is so bloody expensive. I usually tour with a five-piece band but we cut it down to a four-piece and it’s kind of the main characters in my scene.”
Half the band is from Lethbridge, including Kyle Harmon and Ryland Moranz who have played with Stagger for more than a decade.
“We’ve got a very good rapport and brotherly love in the band. It’s four really musical people,” Stagger added.
When COVID hit, Stagger had an uneasy feeling in Alberta about riding out a global pandemic here, not that B.C. was any better, he said.
“The leadership at the time was definitely disconcerting” and so he moved west back to Vancouver Island where all his family resides.
While his home island is creative, he says there’s a different work ethic there compared to Alberta.
“I find that the music scene is really, really strong. I think that Alberta actually has probably, to be honest with you, one of the strongest music scenes in the country. There’s great musicians out west and I’d say it’s a bit more diverse in a lot of ways… there’s a lot of diversity here, too, musically but I think it’s a little more worldly out there to some degree. I work on records, I produce records and I think there’s a little more willingness to open up but the work ethic for the musicians in Alberta is unparalleled.” 3
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