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JERRY LEGER : NOTHING PRESSING
- Nothing Pressing
- Kill It With Kindness
- Recluse Revisions
- Wait A Little Longer
- Still Patience
- Underground Blues
- Have You Ever Been Happy
- With Only You
- Sinking In
- A Page You've Turned
- Protector
Label : Latent Recordings
Release Date : March 18, 2022
Length : 70:04
Review (Written In Music) : Jerry Leger debuteerde in 2005 nog tijdens zijn tienerjaren als onafhankelijk singer-songwriter in de Upper Beaches van Toronto. Een opa die je als kind confronteert met Hank Williams, dat laat onmiskenbaar zijn sporen na. Talloze decennia na de korte glorieperiode van de meesterlijke honky tonker blijft de fascinatie voor de niet zelden in mystiek badende verhalen. De jonge Canadees blijkt evenmin ongevoelig voor The Beatles en Lennon en naast de evidente sporen van Dylan sluipen invloeden van Everly Brothers en Lightnin' Hopkins in zijn oeuvre, ook echo's van de muziek van iconische landgenoten als Neil Young en Gordon Lightfoot klinken door. Dat is overduidelijk merkbaar als je Legers oeuvre overschouwd, naast nevenprojecten zoals als The Del Fi's met Lo-fi rock'n roll en Bop Fi's, poëzie op een jazz getint soundtrack, is er werk onder de schuilnaam Hank Holly Bovendien zijn er een tiental solowerkjes die sinds Michael Timmins zich over de man ontfermde ons bereiken via het Latent label. Na het uit 2014 daterende Early Riser volgde Nonsense and Heartache en voor de Corona periode plaatsten we maar al te graag Time Out For Tommorrow in de kijker. In isolatie tijdens de pandemie publiceerde Leger Just the Night Birds, een poëziebundel er was een gefilmde registratie van een huisconcert met bijhorende soundtrack Songs from the Appartement. Op Nothing Pressing vinden we twee songs terug die Leger thuis op zijn oude Tascam vastlegde, Underground Blues en Sinking in zijn ruwe schetsen folkblues. Nothing Pressing, Protector en Still Patience baden in een identieke intimistische sfeer, producer Timmins voegde ukelele bij de titeltrack en de aanvullende harmoniezang is van bassist Dan Mock. Als drummer Kyle Sullivan de ritmesectie complementeert, wordt uit een totaal ander muzikaal vaatje getapt. Kill It With Kindness en Have You Ever Been Happy schakelen in hogere versnelling en sleuren je mee in de dynamische drive met rauw elektrisch snarenwerk. Dat gebeurt overigens ook moeiteloos bij de overige tracks. De karakteristieke harmonica en gitaarpartijen in Recluse Revisions refereren naar Neil Young, de pedalsteel versterkt het prairie gevoel. Wait A Little Longer, een harmonische duet met Angie Hilts, sluit daar naadloos bij aan terwijl in With Only You de invloed van Lennon maar ook de Fab Four doorschemeren. Jerry Leger voegt weerom een bescheiden meesterwerk toe bij het uitermate aanbevolen oeuvre.
Review (Bluestown Music) : Leger's previous album, 2020's surprise, Songs from the Apartment was a stripped-down lo-fi affair recorded in his home using a cheap 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. 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. It was also a time of personal change and loss in Leger's life. "It was spring of last year that I unexpectedly lost one of my best friends," he says. "I think it's unavoidable that things like that seep in. It's a surreal feeling losing someone close. I wasn't consciously writing with him in mind but I can now hear traces of me dealing with it in a few of the songs. We both shared a love of hitting the record shops and listening to records. He was one of the guys I was making albums for and this album is no exception." However, the lyrics aren't solely focused on this, nor is the album explicitly about grief and loss. "I think lots of things made their way into the words," he says. "At the end of the day, it's just like an author writing a book of short stories. You're drawing from different inspirations, experiences and influences in life." 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.
Review (Tinnitist) : Written during the pandemic, Nothing Pressing isn't the only thing has kept singer-songwriter Jerry Leger busy while off the road. In 2020 he published his first book of poetry Just the Night Birds and made a film for his mailing list subscribers titled The Apartment Show He Never Gave, while releasing what he termed a "surprise" 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 Nothing Pressing - Underground Blues and Sinking In - were also recorded in Leger's home, this time using two Shure 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 (and Cowboy Junkies guitarist) Michael Timmins' ukulele. The other six tracks are prime roots rock 'n' roll featuring his long-time band The Situation (drummer Kyle Sullivan and bassist 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 11 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. Photo by Laura Proctor. Born in the mid-'80s, singer-songwriter Leger came of age in the Upper Beaches area of Toronto. Surrounded by music from a young age, his grandfather first turned him on to 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 19, he cut his first independently released album. In the 16 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 for distribution in the U.K and Europe, leading to extensive touring throughout the continent, opening up a whole new audience for Leger's finely crafted songs. With his next album, 2019's Time Out For Tomorrow, Leger began to receive positive notices in high-profile music magazines. 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 (who play loose, improvisatory rock 'n' roll) and The Bop Fi's (which features 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!).
Review (For Folk's Sake) : Jerry Leger knows how to write a song, and the 11 on Nothing Pressing clearly illustrate a man with a sense of humor, a sense of taste and a sense of just how weird the last two years have been. Though recorded in three different contexts (two songs are basically four-track demos while three more were cut live in the studio with Dan Mock adding harmony vocals, while four others are full band arrangements), settings change but what doesn't is Leger's ability to craft songs that get to the heart of the matter. The end of the pandemic is clearly on his mind during the opening of 'Have You Ever Been Happy?' Bass and drums lead things off while Leger admits that at least some of the nuttiness seems to be ending, "Break in the new world/ But let me keep my job." Like so many of us he realises everything has changed, but it's still nice to be able to rely on the consistency of certain things after the last two years of cocked hat craziness. Angie Hilts harmonies hit the mark as they confess, "Something made me laugh/ But the punchline was me/ Took too long to find out/ What we take seriously / And what's a joke." The times changed and we were forced to look at life much differently. "Old panes/ Open windows/ The keys that we can't find/ And I've got nothing pressing/ taking up my time" Leger admits against the stumming of his guitar and the unexpectedly sweet sounds of Timmons ukulele on 'Nothing Pressing'. The pervading sense of sadness seems to overcome Leger the longer the song goes on. Nothing is what it seems, "We've gotten to the country/ But now I'm going out of my mind." That endless string of days got to be quite haunting. Amped up and rocking out, 'Kill It with Kindness' showcases the band in just 2:19, yet that's all it takes to illustrate how too much time on your hands can lead to a certain kind of sickness. "I've seen what a mind can do/I've been through it before/Takes a grip of your happiness/And shoves you into the wall/I dull it down with alcohol/But then I feel more depressed/So I treat it like my worst enemy/And kill it with kindness." Apparently Leger has been down these roads more than once. Haven't we all? There are points where Leger seems to don a Dylanesque persona, most clearly on 'A Page You Turned'. The band plays in a ragged style reminiscent of The Band. He sings with a sense of defeat setting in, "Bad year, ain't working/ Been thinking about stealing/ Sold everything that I owned/ In our broken home." The despair in his voice, the defeat in his heart have lead him to the breaking point. Jerry Leger knows how to recount going through the wringer. He gives us a chance to feel his pain on Nothing Pressing and make it our own. We all know it and have experienced it. The only difference is that when Leger sets it to music, unlike the album's title, these 11 songs become very personal.