JERRY LEGER : DONLANDS

  1. Sort Me Out
  2. I Was Right To Doubt Her
  3. I'll Stay
  4. Three Hours Ahead Of Midnight
  5. The Flower and The Dirt
  6. Wounded Wing
  7. You Carry Me
  8. I Need Love
  9. Out There Like The Rain
  10. Slow Night In Nowhere Town

Label : Latent Recordings

Release Date : October 27, 2023

Length : 38:36

Review (Written In Music) : Donlands is de naam van de buurt in Toronto waar zich het tot studio omgebouwde theatergebouw bevindt en Jerry Leger in spontane opnamesessies tien tracks opnam, ondersteund door de ritmesectie van The Situation met bassist Dan Mock en drummer Kyle Sullivan. Het duo figureert al sinds de begindagen als Leger’s backingband in de studio op langspelers als Nonsense And Heartache, Time Out For Tomorrow en Nothing Pressing, Alan Zemaitis verzorgt het toetsenwerk dat Leger’s gitaar en piano escapades aanvult. Gitarist James Mckie is er niet meer bij hij wordt tegenwoordig gesignaleerd bij Cowboy Junkies, de frontman Michael Timmins is na een jarenlange samenwerking evenmin te bespeuren. Een bewuste keuze, Leger zocht naar een atmosferische sound, die destijds langoureuze slijpers als I’ve Only Have Eues For You van The Flamingo’s en Johnny Ace’s Pledging My Love inkleurde. Klankingenieur Mark Howard, die in de studio vertoefde met The Neville Brothers, Daniel Lanois en Bob Dylan en de productie van werkstukken van Lucinda Williams, Chris Whitley, Rickie Lee Jones en recenter Courtney Marie Andrews in goede banen leidde. Howard beluisterde de demo’van twintig tracks en selecteerde er tien, die kan je nu beluisteren in opgewaardeerd arrangementen die met hulp van Aaron Goldstein tot stand kwamen, het pedalsteel- en steelwerk van Goldstein draagt in het laatste gedeelte in niet geringe mate tot een gepaste melancholische sfeer in de sobere, bijzonder sfeerrijke productie van Howard die het al even voortreffelijke songwerk subtiel laat schitteren. We vertoeven op wonderlijk klaviergetokkel even in de ondefinieerbare, ietwat donkere sfeer die Roy Orbison’s dramatische repertoire destijds uitademende. I Was Right To Doubt Her evolueert op een levendige latin ritmiek en geheimzinnige rondspokende orgelflarden naar een duistere ontknoping. Het toetsenwerk speelt hier een niet te onderschatten rol, zuigende Hammondtonen vergezellen slepende gitaarlijnen in I’ll Stay. De combinatie van melodieus piano getokkel, orgel en gitaarlicks Three Hours Ahead of Midnight komen dicht bij Memphissoul uit lang vervlogen tijden. De knap opgebouwde, poëtische getinte pianoballaden The Flower and the Dirt en Wounded Wing tonen de intrinsieke klasse van Leger om zijn verhalen in een haast tijdloos allure te presenteren.Het lustig opverende You Carry Me herinnert enigszins aan het jaren zeventig werk van Wreckless Eric. Na die energieke oprisping voert een dromerig, op pedalsteel zwevende, smachtende I Need Love in een wat troosteloze mood. Het op ruimtelijk galmende percussie en fraai pianospel geconstrueerde Out There Like Rain wordt weerom verrijkt met die meeslepende steelklanken, die eveneens Slow Night in Nowhere Town elegant naar de uitgang begeleiden. Andermaal meesterlijk werk van Jerry Leger.

Review (Folk Radio UK) : Since making his debut in 2005, the Vancouver-based singer-songwriter Jerry Leger has released a further 14 albums, variously solo or as side projects. For his latest, Donlands, he’s teamed with legendary Canadian producer Mark Howard, whose trademark atmospheric sound has brought an entirely new dimension to this album named after the street in Toronto’s east end where it was recorded, in what once was the Donlands Theatre. This new incarnation of his sound is first heard in the opening Sort Me Out, which, sharing a shuffling weary musical mood with 500 Miles, has him evoking an echoey falsetto as he sings about seeking to recapture love and faith (“I gave it all away/Then I wanted it back”) when you’re lost (“You can’t win/When you don’t know/What you’re fighting for/Journey of a bullet/Reason for a scar/And the way we are portrayed/What’s real, who’s to say”) in a supportive relationship (“here you are right on cue/To sort me out”). A somewhat less positive relationship (“When her alarm went off this morning/She had already split/And I thought things were going/Much better than they were”) fuels the staccato waltzing I Was Right To Doubt Her with its organ and percussion creating a border country desert ambience where life in a dead end town (“a sleepy kind of city/And a stubborn set of rules/The local closes at eleven”) sees the narrator’s lover being drawn back to earlier arms (“I was not her first man/And I would not be her last/I was caught up in what I wanted/And what she wanted was in the past”). Brushed drums, twanged guitar, organ-backed slow waltztime sway also underpins the loss that informs I’ll Stay (“It’s lonely on the bottom/And death at the top/They’ll be singing your praises/When the story is hot/And I’ll be here missing/Those good days we knew”), except this time he’s the one with leaving in mind and finding reasons not to (“This time next Friday/I’ll be dancing up a storm/To a band I’ve admired/Ever since I was young/The singer was shaky/And the band dodgy too/But they still swing for the fences/With nothing to lose/Tell me/You want it this way/Give me one reason and I’ll stay”). Piano and organ sustain the mood on the mid-tempo country soul Three Hours Ahead Of Midnight, again about looking to cling on and pull through (“Take my hand and we’ll see this through/Just like paper in the wind/Pushed into what we could do/But now we’re resisting… Don’t you break down on me/While we have some joy left/Before they take me from your reach/And you won’t know where I went”). Introducing pedal steel into the mix, the slow walking The Flower And The Dirt is a terrific ballad of aching loss and regret for another doomed (“My bad habits returned/So you too gave them a go/But they didn’t fit you right/Just made you feel worse”) relationship (“When we decide that it’s over/And the red curtain drops/The spotlight starts fading/And the people file out/You can have the glory/And I’ll take the hurt/You were always the flower/And I was always the dirt”). Sharing a similar scenario (“In the worst of years/Said it was best to leave me be/Where she had to go/I couldn’t be following/So, goodbye to what we knew”), there’s more heart-wrenching on the piano ballad Wounded Wing which plays its story in a sepia cinematic narrative (“The whistle blows/But the work ain’t done/Looking down to see/Another town crumbling…She waits for the siren/That waits for the door/In walks the killer/And in comes the hound/One waits for the hammer/And waits for the ground”). There’s a jarring musical shift with You Carry Me as fuzz bass gives a choppy funky psychedelic pop groove, though lyrically it remains in familiar established territory (“I don’t want you to wait for me/But I don’t want you to go”), before calming down for the dreamy early hours feel of the piano, upright bass and pedal steel shaded mental and emotional exhaustion of I Need Love (“I’m lonely and scared/I’m not equipped as I thought I was/To let my body stand bare/And survive every shot…I need love/To brace me up/Strength from the heavens/Just won’t be good enough”). Moog synth bubbles like a mud pool throughout the pedal steel keening slow march Out There Like The Rain with its gospel undercurrents and lyrics that address addiction (“She was out there like the rain/But didn’t tell a soul/Using anything to ease the pain”) and economic inequality (“somewhere there’s a crack in the wealth/And the poor just keep on losing”), with the rain a blessed relief from the heat as the song turns into a metaphor of faith in “Seeing what/Was at the beginning/Before the rain”. It ends, with the entire band adding vocals, steel and a wearied pace with more cinematic imagery in a Slow Night In Nowhere Town (“Stabbing cigarettes in a metal ashtray/Picking fights and standing your ground/But the only thing there is the mirror and you”) with themes of creative impasse (“Another coffee on a breathtaking day/But have nothing to talk about/Things drying up in my writing pen”), decline (“Main drag was once a parade/Now it always looks closed down”) and stasis (“Gloves worn through the fingers and palms/Me and Bert stuck on Thirteen Down/I’ve seen this movie a thousand times”), but still with a faint ray of light (“Snake bit/But I ain’t dead…One lone dancer and a mirror ball/She’s the only soul around I’ve found/Pours me another when the song is done”) as it fades away on the repeated title refrain. An introspective journey through anxieties, fears, loss, need, loneliness and love; while Donaland’s is not always the most uplifting of listens, it’s assuredly one of Jerry Leger’s finest works.

Review (Americana UK) : Jerry Leger has long been considered one of the best Canadian songwriters, and he has worked with many of his fellow countrymen, most notably the Cowboy Junkies. It might surprise some that his latest record, ‘Donlands’, is also his 14th. That isn’t the only surprise though, because while Jerry Leger’s songs remain on the confessional side of things, he has indulged his musical fantasies with the help of producer, engineer and Daniel Lanois cohort, Mark Howard, who has worked on records by Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Willie Nelson, and Lucinda Williams and countless others. The sound that Jerry Leger wanted is a modern take on the reverb-drenched records of the ‘50s and ‘60s while still retaining simple arrangements. The result is a sound that invokes the film noir music of the ‘40s and ‘50s, which brings even deeper darkness to Leger’s songs without obscuring the carefully crafted lyrics. For those of you who may be curious about the title, it is simply the name of the Toronto street that ‘Donlands’ was recorded in. The opening track ‘Sort Me Out’ has Leger reflecting on his relationship with his therapist over a simple back that features electric piano and is inspired by the late great Johnny Ace. Jerry Leger switches to piano for ‘I Was Right To Doubt Her’ which examines addiction and channels Tom Waits and maybe a bit of Willie Nelson’s Teatro. The benefits of perseverance are at the heart of ‘I’ll Stay’ with Leger on electric guitar and accompanied by prominent organ. ‘Three Hours Ahead Of Midnight’ is possibly Jerry Leger’s favourite song on ‘Donlands’ as we move to country soul territory. Pedal steel helps emphasise the country in ‘The Flower And The Dirt’ which invokes the spirit of Hank Williams. Sadness imbues the piano ballad ‘Wounded Wing’ but it is an uplifting sadness. The electricity is turned up on ‘You Carry Me’ which is Leger rocking out with a fuzz soundscape. The electricity is turned off for ‘I Need Love’ which is a classic pop ballad. Moog synth mixes with pedal steel on ‘Out There Like The Rain’ and evidently producer Mark Howard suggested the words be spaced out to help emphasise them. We could be in film noir territory on ‘Slow Night In Nowhere Town’ with its imagery of neon lights and empty streets. While Jerry Leger’s songwriting skills have never waivered, his decision to work with Mark Howard has added another dimension to his music which should not only please his fans, but also bring in potential new ones. Being successful as a confessional songwriter is a hard trick to pull off when the reason people listen to music is to ultimately be brought out of themselves and be uplifted. The lyrics and soundscapes on ‘Donlands’ are certainly dark, and this may be as dark as Jerry Leger has ever been, but the whole album also manages to be an uplifting experience for the listener, and a lot of that is due to Leger’s vocals. He may have been influenced musically by Tom Waits, but his vocals show the shadow cast by Johnny Ace.