Leeroy Stagger
An alternative country singer/songwriter hailing from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, Leeroy Stagger pens songs dealing with life's challenges and questions that are literate but down to earth. As befits an artist who got his start in punk rock, Stagger's early albums, such as Dear Love (2004) and Depression River (2006) had a scrappy sound that emphasized the rock part of roots rock. But his songs became more thoughtful with time, and he developed a smoother but still emphatic approach best heard on 2010's Little Victories and 2017's Love Versus.
Born and raised in British Columbia, Leeroy Stagger first cut his teeth as a musician singing with punk rock bands in Victoria, leading groups like the Graveyard Sluts and the Staggers. These bands made enough of a ruckus to earn the attention of Hot Hot Heat, who invited Stagger on a Canadian tour in 2002. After this trip through his homeland, he eased himself into a country-influenced style, beginning with the Six Tales of Danger EP in 2002. Stagger's first full-length album, the rough-hewn but impassioned Dear Love, appeared in 2004, and was followed in 2005 by Beautiful House. "Just in Case," an album track from Beautiful House, appeared in a January 2006 episode of the popular TV series Grey's Anatomy, giving him major exposure in both Canada and the United States. The timing was good, as Stagger's third album, Depression River, was released just a few months later, and the album became a critical and commercial breakthrough. As Stagger's success grew, so did some bad habits, in particular a growing taste for alcohol. While mapping out his fourth album, Stagger got sober, and the journey was chronicled on 2009's Everything Is Real, released on his own Rebel Tone label. Only a year later, Stagger was back with Little Victories, which was issued on Rebel Tone in Canada and on the Megaforce-distributed 00:02:59 imprint in the United States.
The Canadian indie label Gold Lake Records teamed with Stagger to bring out Radiant Land in 2012. The prolific artist followed with Truth Be Sold in 2013 and Dream It All Away in 2015. The venerable Canadian label True North signed him, and his first album for his new sponsors, 2017's Love Versus, was also the first he would record in his own fully equipped home studio. It may have been made at home, but the record boasted some heavy hitters as backup, including Neko Case's guitarist Paul Rigby and Pete Thomas, the drummer for Elvis Costello & the Attractions. As Stagger set to work on his next project, he ended up writing and demo'ing enough material to fill three albums, and the tunes became the basis of two full-length long-players. Me and the Mountain came out in May 2019 and focused on the roots-oriented side of his musical personality, while Strange Path, which was released the following September, found him experimenting with more adventurous and personal themes along with production and arrangements that showed the influence of contemporary pop.
© Stephen Thomas Erlewine & Mark Deming /TiVo
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Me and the Mountain
Blues - Released by Rebeltone Records on 17 May 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Strange Path
Blues - Released by True North Records on 13 Sep 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tales From The Back Porch
Blues - Released by True North Records on 18 Apr 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Radiant Land
Blues - Released by True North Records on 15 May 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Love Versus
Blues - Released by True North Records on 7 Apr 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Everything Is Real
Blues - Released by True North Records on 28 Apr 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beautiful House
Blues - Released by True North Records on 27 Feb 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Dream It All Away
Blues - Released by True North Records on 5 Dec 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Black Teenagers
Country - Released by Tonic Records on 19 Jun 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Solo Acoustic
Blues - Released by True North Records on 29 Apr 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Strange Attractor
Alternative & Indie - Released by True North Records on 2 Aug 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Deeper Well
Blues - Released by True North Records on 6 Sep 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Strange Attractor
Blues - Released by True North Records on 7 Jun 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Little Victories
Blues - Released by True North Records on 1 Jan 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Truth Be Sold
Blues - Released by True North Records on 6 Apr 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
I Want It All
Blues - Released by True North Records on 14 Feb 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hey Hey! (Song For Gord)
Folk - Released by True North Records on 17 Oct 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
River Rats / Chop Wood, Haul Water
Country - Released by Tonic Records on 11 Oct 2023
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ventura (For Neal Casal)
Country - Released by Tonic Records on 25 Jun 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
More Love Than Money
Country - Released by Tonic Records on 17 Sep 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo