Press release –
Alt-folk singer-songwriter Leeroy Stagger returns with his poignant new single, “Highlands Leaving,” featuring longtime friend and co-producer Joel Plaskett, alongside acclaimed fiddler Kendel Carson. The track offers another powerful preview of Stagger’s forthcoming album Pilgrimage, due out May 29 via Cordova Bay Records.
Inspired by Alastair McIntosh’s book Soil and Soul, “Highlands Leaving” reflects on the lasting impact of the Highland Clearances of the 1700s, which displaced Stagger’s ancestors from Scotland to Northern Ireland and eventually Nova Scotia. The song explores identity and the lasting impact of colonialism.
Stagger shares, “I wanted to write on the Highland Clearances of the 1700’s that pushed my ancestors from Scotland to Northern Ireland and ultimately to Nova Scotia, Canada. The repercussions of colonialism shake the branches of my family tree and sadly still ring out throughout my home country of Canada today. To know oneself, it is helpful to know where one’s been. For better or worse, we were pushed from our ancestral homes into someone else’s. Violence begetting violence. It’s imperative to me to break these cycles and to honour the beautiful traditions our communities once held so tightly. It was always so strange to me that I felt more at home in Scotland than in my own country; it makes perfect sense to me now. There is a deep ancestral grief for where we once called home.”
What’s The Story about Pilgrimage LP?
Pilgrimage is co-produced with Joel Plaskett and marks Leeroy Stagger’s first release since signing with Cordova Bay Records.
Leeroy Stagger shares about his new album, Pilgrimage, “My search for who I am and where I come from began over a long weekend in Glasgow in 2018—Joel with a glass of whiskey, me without. He mentioned the work of Alastair McIntosh, and more specifically his book Soil and Soul. Alistair’s work shook something deep in me that had previously lain dormant. I had a deep longing to understand the reasons behind my hyper-unconventional career path. My friend Chris Luedecke calls this job ‘a statistical impossibility,’ yet here we are, and by the grace of God, here we go. Finding the connection between my Celtic Highland bardic traditions and a modern-day quest to spread the news through song and build community answered part of the puzzle. Putting those thoughts and feelings to tape helped answer the rest. There would be no better person to shine a light on the path and guide the creative work than my pal Joel.”
What’s The Story About Leeroy Stagger?
Victoria-born songwriter Leeroy Stagger grew up on Vancouver Island, immersed in rural rhythms and the sublime power of nature, before moving to southern Alberta to write songs while surrounded by the relentless prairies, eventually circling back to his hometown. His first bands were immersed in punk ethics, embedding a strong sense of justice and urgency that continues to fuel his journey as a solo artist. Within a few years of commencing his songwriting pilgrimage, one of Stagger’s songs was used twice on Grey’s Anatomy before he turned 25. It’s no surprise, then, that his songs have won awards, honouring his innate affinity for melody, rhythm and integrity.
During this journey, Stagger embraced sobriety and, guided by ingrained principles of open-heartedness and candour—explored in his 2019 memoir Strange Path and across more than a dozen albums—he continues to write songs that capture moments and memories while captivating listeners. That journey of melody and insight continues in 2026 with a new collection of songs, Pilgrimage. Co-produced with Joel Plaskett, it marks his first release since signing with Cordova Bay Records.
Listening to Stagger’s music, one is privy to intimate flashes; he doesn’t dilute the gritty, dark moments endured in the ebon gloom of the soul. Yet his music lifts, fuelled by brutal candour and an unquenchable desire to capture the luminosity lurking on the other side of the shadowed horizon. The songs rove with the acumen of ancient peoples exploring variegated landscapes, goosed along by flashes of old-school punk iconography, kinked chords reminiscent of the harmonies and optimism of the 1960s, and raw, rockin’ rhythms that shake your butt while they stir your mind.
Above all, the music sounds born to soar over those vast, airy prairies where Stagger’s songwriting journey accelerated: open-stringed, open-minded, open-hearted melodies heading toward a wide-open future, bathed in glorious, long light.
He has also built a home studio, producing songwriting gems by artists such as Mariel Buckley, Tim Easton and Pony Gold, and celebrates fellow songwriters weekly on CKUA’s Dirty Windshields Radio Hour.
