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I read a book called the Music Lesson by the famous bass player Victor Wooten. It made me very curious about deepening my relationship with music and with mystery. That curiosity lead me to “Vixcamps”, a five-day “Spirit of Music” camp west of Nashville that changed my relationship with music forever. It sent me, after 8 years since my last recording, on a journey “Underneath” - a creative adventure to hunt down and record an eclectic and colourful group of songs that seemed to want to hang out together.  I was very blessed to have the amazing Juno Award-winning Justin Abedin come on board and help me produce this record, as well as Grammy-winning Chad Carlson who mixed the record. It might just be my most eclectic record yet and it’s a bit of a crazy ride. Listen to the record and check out some extra video content here.  Meet you in the music!

In 1980, after losing a leg to cancer, Terry Fox began an epic cross-country journey to raise money for cancer research. After 143 days and 5,373 kilometres (a marathon a day), Terry was forced to stop the run outside of Thunder Bay, Ontario. The cancer had appeared in his lungs. Terry passed away on June 28, 1981. He was only 22, yet his selflessness, his compassion and his tenacity were superhuman and belied his years. As an immigrant from Scotland, I didn't know much about the Terry Fox story but the more I learned about this amazing young man, the more compelled I was to capture his story in song. As I was writing the song, I kept coming back to Terry's unique "foxtrot" double hop I had heard on a documentary. So I incorporated the unique cadence and began building my recording around the sound of Terry's running. The result is "Run Fox Run", a song that has travelled on the inspiration of Terry Fox to “Terry Fox Runs” as far away as Vietnam, Taiwan and India. "His spirit runs farther and stronger each day....." Listen to the song here

We’ve got a couple of shows coming up and would love to see you out there:

Sunday, Jan 18 · 3–5pm

Red Clover Ale Co — Brandon, VT

https://redcloverale.com/

Saturday, March 28 · 6–8pm (CANCELLED)

Shelburne Vineyard — Shelburne, VT

https://www.shelburnevineyard.com/

Swing by for some Django-era jazz, good drinks, and a relaxed afternoon/evening. Hope to see some familiar faces.

My third record, "Tightrope of Dreams", was an album reflecting on the high wire of dreams I had pursued in a career making music, and balancing the influences of my Scottish homeland and my new home in Canada. I think the group of songs, and particularly the title track and album cover, capture this journey. Musically, it is an interesting hybrid between Canamericana and Celtic roots. The album has a couple of songs, "Five Minutes" and "Strong In Broken Places", that were winners in the Unisong and International Songwriting Competitions respectively. The record was mostly tracked at Puck’s Farm and became a collaborative production, working with engineers Keith Mariash and then Michael Banton-Jones. If you are someone who is interested in album liner notes, check out the “Behind The Song” story segments on the lyric and credits pages and listen to the record here.

L to R - Sean O 'Connor, Drew Birston, David Leask, Keith Mariash, Mark Mariash, Steve O'Connor

Ancestors’ Eyes has a family theme throughout the album and is a musical look at some of the people who have influenced my journey - a lover, a mother, a father, a grandfather and a great-grandfather. The title track is the perfect centrepiece, capturing a startling discovery about my own ancestor.

 Not long after moving to Canada, I read a book about the legend of Prince Henry Sinclair. This Scottish adventurer travelled with an Italian navigator named Antonio Zeno, and a party of two hundred men from the Orkney Islands to Guysborough, Nova Scotia in 1398 - 90 years before Columbus came to the shores of North America. From Nova Scotia, they explored the land and waterways traveling as far as Massachusetts. It is understood that they came in peace and made no claims upon the lands of the Mi’kmaq people with whom they lived. Indeed, the legends of these indigenous people recount their harmonious relations with the visiting Earl of Orkney. It may be that their peaceful approach to the new land and its people contributed to them being overlooked by the pages of history. I was fascinated by this story, perhaps because of my own journey across the Atlantic some 600 years later and wanted to write a song about the legend. The song "Prince Henry”, co-written with Kristi Magraw, was released on a limited edition EP called “In The Blood”, along with an an earlier demo version of Ancestors' Eyes.

 That recording was circulated amongst the Sinclair Clan and eventually made it overseas to the UK where it reached Niven Sinclair. Niven had devoted a lot of effort publicizing Prince Henry Sinclair's story and was so moved by the song that he phoned me. After discussing the Sinclair story, Niven drew attention to my own surname, Leask, and mentioned that there were a lot of Leasks on the Orkney Islands. He offered to search my own ancestry through his contacts. I was absolutely flabbergasted when Niven faxed me evidence to show that a Thomas Leask was very close to Prince Henry and in all likelihood sailed with him to the new world. Niven concluded his fax by saying, "There's a reason you wrote this song, for what is born in the bone is not lost in the blood." It sent shivers down my spine and this experience of discovery inspired the song "Ancestors' Eyes.”

There are some fine musicians featured on the record including Troy McLaggan, guitar; Mark Kelso, drums; Jon Goldsmith, piano and B3 organ; Todd Lumley, accordion; Suzie Vinnick, background vocals; Collin Barrett, bass; Loretto Reid, tin whistle and John Johnson on sax.  It was engineered and mixed by the late, great Michael Banton-Jones who was nominated for a JUNO for his work on the tracks “Halfway to Heaven” and “Take Me In.” 

We had fun working on the cover design using the image from a 100 year old portrait of my wife’s great-grandfather and, with designer Todd Lumley's creative genius, managed to pull together what I think is a pretty dramatic looking cover. You can listen to the record here.