LOGAN LEDGER - s/t LP

A songwriter from San Francisco who’d been biding his time playing pickup shows in east Nashville honky tonks, Logan Ledger was all of a sudden signed to Rounder Records, and recording with an all-star studio crew that included Marc Ribot, known for working with Tom Waits, as well as drummer Jay Bellerose and bassist Dennis Crouch. Along with T Bone Burnett, this is the same band that played on the Grammy-winning Album of the Year-winning Raising Sand by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. Also joining the sessions was guitarist and pedal steel player Russ Pahl, heard most notably on the records of Tyler Childers.

To this end, Logan Ledger’s long-anticipated debut album has arrived, though perhaps under slightly strained conditions, and with some delay, though no worse for the wear musically. Saving Country Music first warned the public of Logan Ledger’s emerging talent back in September of 2018, with a debut album expected sometime thereafter. But more time was allotted to allow Ledger’s name recognition and tour capacity to develop for this release. Now Coronavirus has quashed Leger’s tour plans once again, or at least delayed them until mid summer. But the album has finally been allowed to see the light of day.

“Vintage” is the only way to fairly catalog this self-titled release, with the influences of classic country, traditional pop, mod, and even a little early psychedelia appearing throughout these eleven tracks. If you’re thinking country, think more of Jim Reeves or early George Jones, and less Waylon Jennings. Think The Byrds meet Nashville. This is a refined style of roots music, perhaps more suitable for the intimate theater than the honky tonk, but still and raw and real from the emotional experience.