Band: Jerry Leger
Album: Nothing Pressing
VÖ: 16.03.2022
Label/Vertrieb: Latent Records/ Bertus
Webseite: https://jerryleger.com
Man macht absolut nichts falsch, wenn man Jerry als Songwriter der alten Schule bezeichnet, der viel Wert auf eine zu erzählende Geschichte legt, gepaart mit musikalisch traditionellen Einflüssen von Hank Williams, John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Lightnin' Hopkins, Leonard Cohen, Elvis Costello, Neil Young, Everly Brothers, Tom Waits bis hin zu Gordon Lightfoot.
Have You Ever Been Happy Videolink
Quote Jerry zur vorliegenden Single.
"The opening line ("break in the new world but let me keep my job") is hopeful, it's actually quite a hopeful song. I like to think that real happiness involves being respectful, appreciative and considerate. The words have these deeper layers and questions but Angie Hilts singing with me really lifts it up to a nice place. It's just fun and fortunate to play rock 'n' roll with my friends and we've all needed some fun these days." - JL
Quote Colin Medley, video director
"The concept for this video was simple: show everything leading up to a standard music video type performance, without really showing the performance at all. I think we were all feeling like making something fun and casual, and showing off the sense of camaraderie among friends who haven’t been together in a while. The clincher for me was when Jerry mentioned he lived across the street from a bowling alley. From there it came together in about 5 seconds."
- Colin Medley, director
Bio JERRY LEGER (gekürzte Zusammenfassung)
Jerry Leger deutsch
Im Jahr 2005, als Leger neunzehn Jahre alt wurde, nahm er sein erstes unabhängig veröffentlichtes Album auf. In den sechzehn Jahren seither hat der multitalentierte Singer-Songwriter neun weitere Studioalben sowie eine Live-Compilation unter eigenem Namen aufgenommen. Im Jahr 2014 wurde er vom Cowboy Junkies-Label Latent Recordings unter Vertrag genommen und veröffentlichte im selben Jahr das von der Kritik hochgelobte Early Riser. Seine zweite Latent-Veröffentlichung, Nonsense and Heartache, folgte im Jahr 2017. …… In der Zeit, in der er wegen der Pandemie nicht unterwegs war, hat Leger 2020 seinen ersten Gedichtband Just the Night Birds veröffentlicht, einen Film für seine Mailinglisten-Abonnenten gedreht, The Apartment Show He Never Gave, und ein, wie er es nennt, "Überraschungsalbum" veröffentlicht, Songs from the Apartment. ……
Songs from the Apartment" wurde in Legers Wohnung mit einem billigen Kassettenrekorder und einem eingebauten Mikrofon aufgenommen und war eine schlichte Lo-Fi Angelegenheit. Zwei Songs des aktuellen Albums, "Underground Blues" und "Sinking In", wurden ebenfalls bei Leger zu Hause aufgenommen, diesmal mit zwei SM58-Mikrofonen, die in sein altes 4-Spur-Tonbandgerät von 1981 eingespeist wurden. Die übrigen neun Tracks auf Nothing Pressing präsentieren Legers Arbeit in zwei stark kontrastierenden Klangwelten. "Nothing Pressing", "Protector" und "Still Patience" sind akustische Soloaufnahmen, die live im Studio aufgenommen wurden und nur durch Dan Mocks Harmoniegesang und - beim Titeltrack - durch die Ukulele des Produzenten Michael Timmins verschönert werden. Die anderen sechs Stücke sind erstklassiger Roots-Rock'n'Roll mit seiner langjährigen Band The Situation (Schlagzeuger Kyle Sullivan und Bassist Dan Mock). Unter den letztgenannten Songs haben "Kill It With Kindness" und "Have You Ever Been Happy?" die Art von Schwung, Energie und Temperament, die sie sicher zu Höhepunkten seiner zukünftigen Live-Shows machen werden. …. Im Laufe der elf Songs auf Nothing Pressing setzt sich der Songwriter mit Fragen der Existenz, der Sterblichkeit, der Hoffnung, des Vertrauens und des Herzschmerzes auseinander, während er gleichzeitig Gefühle der Isolation, der Reflexion, der Sehnsucht und der Dankbarkeit hervorruft.
Gepaart mit solch aufrüttelnden Texten sind wunderbar ausgearbeitete Melodien, gefühlvoller Gesang und der Geist und die Energie eines reifen Songwriters, der sich in seiner Haut wohl fühlt und mit jeder Veröffentlichung als Künstler wächst. Nothing Pressing ist ein wunderbar erfrischendes Tonikum in unruhigen Zeiten.
Jerry Leger Bio : Nothing Pressing
by Rob Bowman
Born in the mid-80s, singer-songwriter Jerry Leger came of age in the Upper Beaches area of Toronto. Surrounded by music from a young age, his grandfather first turned him onto Hank Williams, constantly playing the youngster a plethora of the honky tonk master’s great recordings. Although Williams’ voice came from another world in terms of time, geography, and class, Leger was intrigued by the ways that Williams’ 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 sixteen years since then the multi-talented singer-songwriter has recorded nine additional studio albums as well as one live compilation under his own name. In 2014 he was signed to the Cowboy Junkies’ label, Latent Recordings, releasing the critically acclaimed Early Riser that same year. His second Latent release, Nonsense and Heartache, followed in 2017. A year later the two-album set was picked up by Proper Records for distribution in the U.K and Europe, leading to extensive touring throughout the continent, in the process opening up a whole new audience for Leger’s finely crafted songs. With his next Latent album, 2019’s Time Out for Tomorrow, Leger began to receive positive notices in such high-profile music 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 Fi’s (loose improvisatory rock and roll) and the Bop Fi’s (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!). Making the most of his time while off the road due to the pandemic, 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 “surprise” album, Songs from the Apartment. In between all that activity, Leger also cut a handful of one-off singles. One of those tracks, “Halfway ‘Till Gone” recorded with former Moby Grape member Don Stevenson, turned the Replacements’ Tommy Stinson into a fan!
Songs from the Apartmentwas a stripped-down lo-fi affair recorded in Leger’s home using a cheap tape recorder with an internal microphone. Two songs from the current album, “Underground Blues” and “Sinking In,” were also recorded in Leger’s 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 Leger’s work in two starkly contrasting soundscapes. “Nothing Pressing,” “Protector,” and “Still Patience,” are solo acoustic recordings cut live in the studio with little embellishment save Dan Mock’s overdubbed harmony vocals and, on the title track, producer Michael Timmins’ 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, “Kill It With Kindness” and “Have You Ever Been Happy?” have the kind of drive, energy and spirit that 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 his 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 songwriter’s songwriter engages with questions of existence, mortality, hope, trust and heartbreak while simultaneously conjuring feelings of isolation, reflection, longing and gratitude.
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.
