Jerry Leger has become a regular here at The Influences. The prolific Canadian songwriter just keeps releasing brilliant record after brilliant record. His latest Donlands is no exception. Leger and his band made a pit stop in Utrecht during their last tour and joined me at Mailmen studios – a couple of hours after I filmed Stephanie Struijk‘s session – and played I Was Right To Doubt Her and a rendition of The Drifters’ I Count The Tears. Leger recorded a solo session and a band session before, but this session is my favourite of his – so far. Because there’s no way this is the last.

Good news for all the European visitors here: Jerry Leger will return to our side of the Earth in May 2024. Find all the tour dates here. Leger wrote about his influences and his most recent record for The Influences, read that below.

“I’ve always been drawn to heartache songs.”

“A lot of my biggest influences include artists and music I’ve heard all of my life. I Count The Tears by The Drifters is a song that I’ve always known. My Dad would play a Drifters greatest hits compilation and I honestly can’t recall my first exposure to them. The oldies stations, 1050 Chum in Toronto and Oldies 1150 out of nearby Hamilton, Ontario, would have played this song as well.”

“I Count The Tears was written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, who also wrote other amazing tunes such as This Magic Moment, Save The Last Dance For Me, Little Sister and many others. I love the lyrics (“I have counted all your lies, all your alibis / I’m a guy who believes just what he hears.”) and emotion in this song. Musically, it has a very cool bridge too.”

“I’ve always been drawn to heartache songs, which is probably why I write a lot of them myself! Other influences I first listened to as a kid include The Beatles (and solo Lennon), Bob Dylan, Hank Williams, Everly Brothers, Neil Young, Roy Orbison, Velvet Underground, Leonard Cohen, Tom Petty and more. This was thanks to those oldies radio stations, my parents, my grandparents and my brothers. Gradually through my teens I got into Elvis Costello, The Clash, Gordon Lightfoot, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Tom Waits, Thelonious Monk, just so many. Going into my twenties, I discovered John Prine and I found out about Gram Parsons, which led me to Gene Clark, which led me back to The Byrds.”

“In recent years, I’ve added amazing artists like Lucinda Williams, Warren Zevon and Nick Lowe to my list of influences. I also admire fellow Canadian and friend Ron Sexsmith, who has been a great supporter of mine since nearly the beginning.”

“I wanted the sound of the album to live in the same world as records from the fifties.”

“This is a song off of my new album Donlands (listen to it!). I wanted the sound of the album to live in the same world as records by The Drifters, Johnny Ace, The Platters, Everly Brothers and a lot of other fifties recordings. I wrote the song in a more folk ballad kind of way but I like where we took it. It’s about someone falling back into old habits.”

Photos

Keep watching

Thank you for watching and enjoying this session. You’ll probably like some other sessions from The Influences’ archive too, like these earlier ones by Jerry Leger.