Description
As Toronto's music scene has grown in stature on the world stage, singer/songwriter Jerry Leger has been making his own significant contributions. A favourite of Uncut Magazine and Rolling Stone Germany, Leger has also earned the praise of fellow artists Ron Sexsmith and Doug Paisley.
On his new album 'Donlands', Leger has taken a different approach, teaming up with legendary Canadian producer/engineer Mark Howard (Lucinda Williams, Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Neil Young), whose trademark atmospheric sound adds an entirely new dimension to Leger's approach. Named after the street in Toronto's east end where it was recorded, in what once was the Donlands Theatre, 'Donlands' presents Jerry Leger as he's never been heard before.
"Not a lot of people make records like Mark Howard anymore," Leger says. "After I got to tell him how much Tom Waits' 'Real Gone' meant to me, I fell right into the experience. Like all my albums, we recorded 'Donlands' mostly live in the studio with my band The Situation [Dan Mock, Kyle Sullivan, Alan Zemaitis] in a circle--no headphones, just listening and existing, breathing as a whole. To me, it's a record that lives in its own world."
'Donlands' comes to an appropriate close with "Slow Night In Nowhere Town," in which the movie ends and we walk out of the theatre into a steady downpour, unsure of whether to go home or just keep moving. With 'Donlands', he has made an album that stands as one of the peak moments in an already towering body of work.