It’s been a few years since Leeroy Stagger graced the stage of Turner Valley’s community hall, so those with tickets to Saturday’s show may notice a transformation in the Lethbridge storyteller.
The roots, rock and pop singer/songwriter is keen to share his journey in overcoming his own mental struggles and becoming more connected to the world in a transformation that is evident in his 2019 albums Me and the Mountain and Strange Paths.
Stagger will perform in the Beneath the Arch Concert Series with his five-piece band Jan. 11 at 7:30 p.m. in the Flare ‘n’ Derrick Community Hall in Turner Valley. He played previously for the concert series several years back with Highway 3 Review, sharing the stage with John Wort Hannam and Dave McCann.
“These last couple of records are about transcending my own struggle and coming out the other end of that and finding the connection in nature and the connection in human beings that I haven’t fully realized before,” he said. “There’s an element of spirituality in the connection of human beings and all walks of life and the connection of nature tied up in both of these records.”
The journey began for Stagger in 2015, a year when depression and trauma came to a head for the singer.
“I was working through those emotions and I had a bit of a breakdown and I realized that I needed to figure out how to be okay with myself,” he said. “Since then I’ve put in a lot of work, done a lot of self-exploration and healing. A lot of stuff has come up about my childhood and trauma that I went through with that.”
For Stagger, the experience was about being honest with himself.
“I’m tired of hiding from that side of my life,” he said. “It’s dark and it’s sad but a lot of people have gone through similar things. I think that I’m healing and being able to talk about it or, at least, communicate that through music.”
Stagger said it’s a struggle many musicians are facing.
“Depression in the arts is at an all time high - suicides have skyrocketed,” he said. “We’ve lost Inuit singer, last week, Kelly Fraser. I’ve been doing research on it, trying to figure out why artists are more susceptible to these mental health challenges. It’s a pretty deep subject. It’s a constant struggle in the arts.”
Stagger said the music industry has changed, requiring singers to be on the road frequently to make the same revenue they made in album sales 10 to 15 years ago. This has been tough on Stagger and his young family.
“The music business has changed so much in the last decade that I think that artists are continually struggling to find their place amongst it all,” he said. “Making a living as an artist at the best of times is tough, but here I am in my late 30s with two children and a lifestyle to maintain while the business is kind of crumbling around us.”
Stagger said he spent several months in therapy and on a spiritual quest of discovering why he is here and the point of it all.
“One thing that has really sat well with me that came through studying Buddhism is the idea that we are all suffering and, coincidentally, one of the first therapists I talked to when I had a breakdown confronted me and said, ‘Maybe this is part of who you are and maybe you just have to learn to live with the suffering,'" he said. “The last three years that’s what I’ve been doing through meditation and therapy. You can hear it in the music.”
Many songs on Stagger’s spring 2019 release Me and the Mountain were developed during a three-week writing residency he spent in Banff in 2017 with 27 other singer/songwriters.
“I was at this weird spot in my career and my life and I went there to just see if I could reconnect with my songwriting and wrote quite a few songs that ended up on Me and the Mountain and a few that ended up on Strange Path as well,” he said. “It was pretty impactful on some of the work I had created out of there. I’ve never spent that amount of time intensely writing, so a lot of stuff came up.”
Stagger is expanding that feeling of connectedness to his audiences, sharing with them his journey, travels and truths behind his songs.
“When we’re all together at a show it’s a fellowship of humanity,” he said. “I want people to feel connected to each other and feel like they have a place to heal through music or through storytelling.”
Tickets to see Leeroy Stagger perform cost $25 for adults and teens and $10 for children aged six to 12. Tickets can be purchased at beneaththearch.ca or at Bluerock Gallery in Black Diamond.
