Well Australia is in for a treat in January with the entirely unexpected and unbelievable announcement that GRAMMY Award-winning R&B, neo-soul songwriter and record producer Leon Bridges will be headlining A Day On The Green.
Having just released his fourth studio album Leon, Leon Bridges is riding the touring high at the moment taking the geographically grounded album across the states.
“It’s going to be a well oiled machine by the time we get to Australia,” Bridges confirms.
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The last time Leon Bridges touched down in Australia was in 2022 for the Boundless Tour which saw him play concert halls across the country in the most prestigious, intimate and acoustically engineered venues. Taking to the open stage spaces of wineries for A Day On The Green will test the translation of his new tracks but Bridges’ has all of the right ingredients in place for an unforgettable show.
“I have a new band from the last time I was there and, man, it will be interesting to bring these songs that are a little bit more intimate to that setting but I think it is going to be received well for sure.”
An album six years in the making, Leon was the precursor to live structural change with the best in the business required to service the songs and their stories.
“I just felt like I needed to start with a clean slate for everything and I just wanted to find some of the best musicians in the game and I think I’ve done that,” Bridges explains.
“This album was all about returning to simplicity in the music and production but some of the songs are deceptively simple and you definitely need some top tier musicians to be locked in and play well live.”
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Bridges has always maintained a separation of touring and studio, ensuring that the people that he works with on an album are first-rate for recording the intricate elements of his music vision, and that the live band are able to make the finished product shine on stage. For Leon, the lineup of studio players were premium.
“My touring band and my studio band are always a separate thing. I was lucky enough to work with this guy, Ian Fitchuk who is a good friend of mine and I discovered him through Kasey Musgraves music and he curated some really rad musicians and we all went down to Mexico. This guy named Nick Bockrath, from Cage the Elephant, who is one of the best guitar players in the world [played on the album], and I was so lucky to be surrounded by some really awesome people.”
The contributors were tasked with bringing to life a sound that represented and did justice to the Leon Bridges story and his unique musical DNA. Crafted across three albums of Coming Home (2015), Good Things (2018) and Gold-Diggers Sounds (2021) which have earnt him GRAMMY nods and wins, the identity of Leon Bridges has always been a melting pot of influence revealed through a sophisticated sewing of instrumentation. Leon leans into a different vein of Bridges’ blood.
“There is always this pursuit as an artist of what’s the next hit and I had to come to grips with the fact that Leon is the hit, Leon is the genre and also seeing this void in pop music of ‘where is the integrity?’. I think it was very intentional to get back to the storytelling and make music with no frills.”
The storytelling on Leon sees Bridges create a sonic memoir of the places, people and presence of his hometown of Fort Worth in Texas that shaped his youth, his history and ultimately his heart.
“It’s little snapshots of my experience. One of my favourite artists, Van Morrison, has an album called Astral Weeks and I love that he incorporates geological places that are unique to him and I wanted to bring the listener into my world. When I think of one of the places I love the most it’s my hometown of Fort Worth (Texas) and it’s one of those places that gets overshadowed and not talked about a lot so I wanted to essentially put my city on the map.”
Laced in nostalgia, Fort Worth has remained unchanged in Bridges eyes; the landmarks of his youth still present, centring him when he is caught up in his whirlwind career.
“That’s what I love about it. I never really had a reason to leave my city and it’s my place of refuge and it’s nice when I come back and just go back to some of those places and stomping grounds that I used to go to; it keeps me grounded. I love the feeling of nostalgia of going back to those places. I very much still frequent a lot of those places. It’s cool going back to those places that I went to before I transitioned into the music thing.”
Whilst the essence and atmosphere of the town remain the same, the treatment of Bridges has ever so slightly swayed with his status in the town now elevated.
“I’m the hometown hero. Prior to me it was some country artist from the 40’s and 50’s who made it out there so it’s unprecedented for an R&B guy with a guitar to make it out of the city.”
The musician in question was Townes Van Zandt, credited as one of the most influential alt-country artists in history. Aside from the geographical relation, Zandt and Bridges share a string of similarity on Leon with the country roots of the town and Bridges upbringing wrapped around the record.
“It’s very much ingrained. I grew up on 90’s and 2000’s R&B and my folks put me onto blues and the motown soul thing and when I picked up the guitar some of my peers in the open mic scene put me onto country music. It’s always one of those things that has been a subconscious thing but I also love that it sets me apart in the industry. It’s very few and far between to find that mixture of R&B and country and folk and blues in music. It’s what makes it unique.”
“I always say ‘damn, I really want to make a country album, I really want to make a country album’ and I think this album is not all the way country but there are certainly elements in there, so it snuck up on me without even setting out to make it a country album,” he laughs.
Throughout the process of creating Leon, Leon Bridges was able to simplify and revert back to what he loves. To quote one the album tracks, Bridges now finds himself in a “peaceful place, having found something that no one can take away”.
“Absolutely – life still has its ups and down but honestly I’m grateful to have had longevity as an artist and it’s cool that people are still checking for my music and it’s still resonating with people. Also I can say that I am content. I cannot complain – I am blessed by everything that is going on and blessed by the people in my life and blessed to be alive. I hope this album really cements my name in music history.”
The Leon Bridges name is already cemented but Leon puts a stamp on it.
Witness it served up live at his appearances at A Day On The Green. He will be joined by Glass Beams and Maple Glider. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased here.
