Leeroy Stagger is no stranger to positive press, having earned strong notices from critics for most of his 11-album career.
But now the Victoria native has paired his longstanding critical acclaim with a chart run that saw him place near the top of the Spotify charts in Canada last month. I Want It All, an upbeat single from his April 7 release Love Versus, hit No. 2 on Spotify’s Canada Viral 50 chart, and cracked the Top 10 on the iTunes Singer/Songwriter chart.
Good news for Stagger fans: a tour brings the Lethbridge-based singer-songwriter to Vancouver Island for three shows this week. Stagger and his band will perform Wednesday at The Queens in Nanaimo, Thursday at the Waverley Hotel in Cumberland and Friday at Sugar nightclub in Victoria. All dates on the Island are with Juno Award nominees The Harpoonist and the Axe Murderer.
Stagger recorded Love Versus at Rebeltone Ranch, the studio in the home he shares with his wife and two sons, with Victoria producer Colin Stewart. The album is Stagger’s first release on True North Records. Guests on the record include guitarist Paul Rigby (who has played with everyone from Neko Case to Matthew Good), singer-songwriter Joel Plaskett, singer-keyboardist Kathryn Calder of the New Pornographers, and decorated drummer Pete Thomas, who has played with Elvis Costello, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt and Buddy Guy, among hundreds of others.
Stagger admits to showcasing a newfound sense of positivity on the record. “I feel like something has changed in my songwriting over the last couple of years and like a nice wine, it seems to be getting better with age and time,” he said.
“I decided to do some soul searching, and what it really came down to was I just realized how grateful I am to have all of the things that I have.”
For more on Stagger, visit leeroystagger.com.
Vancouver Island favourites Doug Cox and Sam Hurrie are leading a decorated group of performers under the Mighty String Thing banner this week, including a highly anticipated performance on Friday at the First Church of Christ, Scientist (1205 Pandora Ave.).
In addition to Cox and Hurrie, the Mighty String Things features Grammy Award winners Max and Josh Baca, Juno Award nominee Celso Machado, and Maple Blues Award nominee Cecile Doo Kingue. Tickets for the Victoria performance are $30 at Eventbrite.ca.
The group also performs Wednesday at the Legion Hall, 331 Main St. in Tofino and Thursday at the Sid Williams Theatre, 442 Cliffe Ave. in Courtenay.
For more information on the group: mightystringthing.com.
Acoustic renditions of traditional jazz and blues will be on tap Saturday when Vancouver’s The Burying Ground and Victoria’s The Capital City Syncopators band together for a show at Hermann’s Jazz Club (753 View St.).
It will be a musical throwback. The Capital City Syncopators play Prohibition-era gypsy jazz and western swing, while The Burying Ground specializes in bluesy string-band music. The Capital City Syncopators features Reuben Weir, Avram McCagherty, Matt Pease and Don Cox, who will be well-known to Hermann’s regulars for their work in other groups.
Tickets are $20 at hermannsjazz.com.
Fans of Brooklyn indie-folk act Woods have pushed their show at the Copper Owl on May 25 to sold-out status, a nice tip of the hat to a group on the verge of breaking out to a wider audience.
Love is Love, the band’s anticipated new album, is due April 21. Their horn-laced new single, Bleeding Blue, was released to rave reviews this week, setting the stage for bigger buzz in the coming weeks. Victoria gets in on the action early; Woods’s show at the Copper Owl — featuring opening acts Golden Daze, Wired to the Sky, Ryan Boldt and Evan Cheadle — is one of just four Canadian dates on their itinerary (the others are Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal).
For more on the group, visit woodsist.com.
Some of the same players who brought the very successful Tom Waits tribute to the Hermann’s Jazz Club stage have put together another tribute night at the View Street club — this time in honour of some of the great singer-songwriters from the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s.
Kelly Fawcett, Brooke Maxwell and Aaron Watson from the Waits tribute will be joined Thursday by Rachelle Reath and Todd Sacerty for An Evening of Songs of Hope & Despair. The musical tribute will focus on the classic work of John Prine, Lyle Lovett, Willie Nelson and Townes Van Zandt, among others.
Showtime is 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $10.
An exhibit of paintings by Victoria-bred, New York City-based artist Noah Becker gets underway Saturday at Trounce Alley Gallery (616 Trounce Alley).
Becker, who is also a noted saxophonist with an extensive history in Victoria’s jazz community, will be showcasing an array of his oil-on-linen paintings — large and small — made between 1991 and 2010.
To learn more about the exhibit, which runs through April 22, contact the gallery at 250-217-8320.
A world tour by The New Pornographers will wind down in Canada through the fall, with a stop at Sugar nightclub (858 Yates St.) announced for Sept. 28.
The Vancouver-Brooklyn band, which features Kathryn Calder of Victoria, will be touring to support Whiteout Conditions, the seventh album from the Juno Award-nominated group.
Tickets for the show at Sugar are on sale now for $35 at Lyle’s Place (770 Yates St.) and Ticketfly.com.
Opening act is Born Ruffians.