Tune Up - Music Touring Across Scotland

Tours: Roddy Hart and Leeroy Stagger

Sun 4th Nov 2007 - Sun 11th Nov 2007

Regular Music present two of the most gifted young singer-songwriters around, from opposite ends of the earth but sharing a similar musical instincts and lyrical inspiration and above all true quality.

Roddy Hart

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In a relatively short time, Roddy Hart has established himself as an important and influential emerging talent on the Scottish musical scene. At only 26, and with his eyes fixed firmly on re-igniting the merits of classic songwriting, his already prolific work has generated a substantial fan base. Following in the wake of artists like Dylan, Springsteen, Browne, Young and Finn, his guitar, harmonica and piano-driven songs impact on all who hear them and have subsequently earned him much respect from fans and critics alike. A run of sold-out shows and great reviews have him earmarked as one of Scotland's best kept secrets and destined for great things.

Roddy began exercising his own creative ambitions with a series of home-recorded demos, culminating in the 2004 independent Adorno Records release "Home Tapes". Highlighting his inventive use of instrumentation, and demonstrating a talent for honest and intimate songwriting, the album was awarded much radio and press attention. In further recognition of his standing as a promising writer and diverse performer, he was personally invited to open for Kris Kristofferson on his UK tour, and followed this with an appearance at the legendary South by Southwest festival. Soon after he completed a successful boundary-busting five week tour of America, and has recently returned from a short Japanese tour (in support of the Trashcan Sinatras). Having opened for a number of other artists such as Ray LaMontagne, John Prine, Teddy Thompson, Roddy Frame and Kelly Joe Phelps, and strengthening his status at his own solo headline shows, he continues to build on his growing reputation as an exciting and eclectic songwriter and musician.

He recently completed recording his debut studio album, "Bookmarks", aided by funding from the Scottish Arts Council. It is released this spring on Vertical Records.

A unique talent on the Glasgow music scene, Roddy Hart is the rarest of things: a singer/songwriter who continues a long established tradition, yet has found his own voice in the process.

"writes songs that ache with emotion - beautiful, acoustic led, melody-rich pieces...sung in a voice filled with power and delicate fragility. He is a seeking, youthful talent, quite clearly burning with creativity"
Daily Record

"Hart has a distinctive voice and enormous commercial potential...The potential to achieve commercial and critical success on a wide scale is huge, and on this form Hart could well be the next singer-songwriter to do Scotland proud"
Sunday Herald

"[like] a young Willie Nelson or Bruce Springsteen. Great songs...that will restore your faith in songwriting"
Sunday Mail

"With an earthy voice full of character and an impressive array of musicianship on show, Roddy Hart is quite clearly a local talent worth treasuring."
The List

Leeroy Stagger

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The rural outskirts of British Columbia is a place where desperation lurks and the bars are full of broken-hearted dreamers wondering what the hell's happened to them. Raised here by his grandparents and his mechanic-father, it's no wonder that an air of domestic
discord and dreams of white picket fences charge the song craft Leeroy Stagger.

In 1998, Stagger hit Canada's independent music scene like a hurricane. With a voice of ferocious intensity, Stagger howled and screamed his way through several bands in Victoria, BC but it wasn't until Hot Hot Heat took Stagger out with them on a 'cross-Canada tour that he started to mellow out a bit. Stagger, at the ripe old age of 20, had decided to rely less on antics and focus more on his craft.

Stagger was quickly thrust into the spotlight by another high profile Victoria resident, Carolyn Mark. Stagger recalls, "She stuck a guitar in my hand one night at a hootenanny. I'd never played guitar in front of anybody before and it was the most nerve-wracking
thing I'd ever done. But I'm so glad that she did that because it got me to where I am today."

Drawing on country, rock and punk-to-the-foreinfluences, Leeroy reinvented himself as a powerful singer/songwriter and recorded the eponymous Six Tales of Danger EP (2002) with Tolan McNeil (Neko Case). With only 500 copies ever made, the now out-of-print
recording was merely a taster of what lay ahead. That blue collar weekend undertaking turned out a surge of heart rendering lyrics and infectious songs - the EP evolved into an LP and Stagger's debut album Dear Love was released independently in April 2004.
At home, Stagger has opened for Alejandro Escovedo, The Pixies, Joel Plaskett Emergency, Modest Mouse, Evan Dando and many others but it was while performing with Kathleen Edwards that he met Danny Michel. Hailed by the CBC as a Canadian national treasure, Stagger had admired Michel as a songwriter for some time. "Me and Danny kind of bonded and kept in touch over email," says Stagger.

Beautiful House, released in September 2005, Stagger's second album, was recorded and produced by Michel. Seamlessly fusing Stagger's a deep-seeded punk fury with a pop sweetness and back-country cynicism, Beautiful House was eagerly received. Reaction to the album marked it as both an "instant classic" and the "finest alt-country, rock 'n' roll record to come out of Canada in years."

After multiple solo tours across the UK, touring with his band The Sinking Hearts throughout the US and Canada, performing to a jam-packed houses at SxSW and CMJ in 2004, 2005 and 2006 as well as CMW, Pop Montreal and NxNE, Stagger amassed a loud and loyal following. "I've learned that to be a success, you have to tour your ass off," he says. By sticking to this deeply rooted D.I.Y. ethic, Leeroy has garnered a devoted legion of fans and reams of international critical acclaim.

A limited edition EP, Tales From the Back Porch, followed in April 2006. Featuring performances by Tolan McNeil, Diona Davies (Luther Wright) and Sarah Rhude (Po'girl), Tales From the Back Porch serves as Stagger's "basement tapes" recording, consisting of five songs plucked from Beautiful House and re-recorded in a purposefully rough-around-the-edges manner.

"I'd been on the road solo for months and was just itching to get back into the studio," explains Stagger. "None of the new songs were ready for that step yet so Tolan came up with the idea of re-recording a few songs. So I called around to some of my friends and we just got together on a weekend and had a great time."

September 2006 saw Stagger return with Depression River, Stagger's fifth release in as many years. Produced by John Ellis (Be Good Tanyas, Barney Bentall, Long John Baldry), the album highlights Stagger's ability to find drama in the banality of
everyday life. From full out broken beer bottle rock to the aching ballad of a broken hearted dreamer, Stagger's new album is a whiskey-soaked, full-bodied recording of a powerful singer-songwriter that is only just starting to come into his own.