It is said that the cells in your body replace themselves every decade or so. After 11 albums, two EPs and 17 years as a singer-songwriter, Leeroy Stagger has been wondering if maybe the soul works the same way. Ten years sober, with two kids, he’s so far removed from the hard-living twenty-something who started on this musical path that they aren’t even the same person.

Strange Path is the name of Stagger’s newest album and book, and it outlines his unexpected route from the BC punk scene to southern-Alberta singer songwriter. It is the end result of a triple-album’s worth of scrapped demos, record label rejections, and an inward retreat towards his artistic core. Hey Hey! (Song For Gord) lays down a rollicking retrospective of life and love, as Stagger is ready to learn as much from success as he does from heartbreak. The barroom piano, the folk-rock pocket, and the lyrical catharses are all here, as Leeroy Stagger presents the road-wisdom he's pulled from a lifetime of struggling towards the light. Hey Hey! (Song For Gord) brims with the hard-won joy that sizzles at the heart of his recent renaissance, and sparkles with the sweet love of life itself.

This song is featured on our CHILL NEW Songwriters playlist.