Caught in the Carousel

Leeroy Stagger

Depression River
Boompa Records

Armed with a Steve Earle-worthy snarl and an eye for the heartbreaking details, Canada's Leeroy Stagger is the new poet laureate of the North American heartland. Filled with dead rock stars, dead brothers, dead wives and drunks getting drunker (it seems in Stagger's songs everyone is either drinking or they're dead) the singer/songwriter's fourth album is an unyielding look at how things between people fall so apart so badly. That being said, lyrically Depression River is a rather grim affair, but thanks to influences ranging from The Replacements to Merle Haggard to Ryan Adams, it all sounds pretty damn good. "Saskatoon" is a world-weary rocker, "Tired Of Being High" chronicles an addict uncoiling, and the title track is a bluesy rave-up that finds Stagger unflinchingly suggesting, "...we're gonna look inside the hearts of evil men." There are rootsy mid-tempo ballads ("Payback"), rueful country gems ("Jealous And Drunk") and the punchy "Wish You Were The Trees" which showcases Stagger's playful side ("If I was a car/I'd drive myself crazy/Drive myself crazy with you"). Stagger's strength may be his blunt poeticism (on "Best Mistake" he sings: "I'd ask you to marry me but I know you'd say no/Plus you're datin'/Mr. So-and So"), but his secret weapon is his tremendous sensitivity. Amidst the jangle and swagger of "Lay Down Your Guns" he recalls the death of Elliot Smith: "And we killed ourselves in October/Because we couldn't stand the pain/And Elliot put a knife right through his heart". It's only a single crushing moment on an album made up of millions more, but it's here where Stagger reveals that when sad things happen to other people, he identifies with them so deeply, they feel like they're happening to him, too.

—Alex Green