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FYI

Jerry Leger: Halfway 'Til Gone- feat. Don Stevenson

Two acclaimed roots rockers team up on a melancholy track featuring sweet vocal harmonies.

 Jerry Leger: Halfway 'Til Gone- feat. Don Stevenson

By Kerry Doole

Jerry Leger: Halfway 'Til Gone- feat. Don Stevenson (Independent): This brand new track is a collaboration between two lifers whose passion for music shines bright. At 35, Toronto roots troubadour Jerry Leger can almost be termed a veteran already, given an extensive discography well into double figures. At more than double his age, Don Stevenson continues to perform regularly, often as a TTC busker. He found fame as a drummer, vocalist and songwriter in legendary ‘60s San Francisco psychedelic band Moby Grape, and is now a Toronto resident and Canadian citizen.


Stevenson adds sweet harmony vocals to this new Leger original. Halfway 'Til Gone has a melancholy tinge reflecting the theme of love on the rocks – “you were tracking in the mud, sneaking in from a room of love.” Leger’s songwriting and vocal performance are typically strong, while the instrumentation and production work of his longtime collaborator, Tim Bovaconti (Ron Sexsmith, Burton Cummings), is first-rate.

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In a press release, Leger notes that “I had this heartbreak song floating around and I wanted to do it with a kind of Everly Brothers feel. I thought Don and I could sing it really nicely together, and thankfully he dug the tune and was into the idea. I thought it would be perfect and comfortable to do it at Tim Bovaconti's studio with Tim producing."

Bovaconti had introduced Leger to Stevenson, and a close musical and personal bond quickly developed.  "If you look closely at some of the photos from my Moby Grape days, I look a lot like Jerry," says Stevenson. "He is definitely from the same vibe and is all about the music. Halfway 'Til Gone has that Leger feeling and hanging out with him and Tim Bovaconti at Tim's Garage studio making music is my idea of fun." 

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Leger recalls, "When I finally got to see Don play, I was first struck by how great and pure he still sounded after all these years; and then by what a great guy he was. I admire that he’s still playing music with the same passion and love that he had for it at my age. We talked, and the more we talked we found we spoke the same language and dug a lot of the same music!”

Jerry Leger has released over a dozen critically acclaimed albums since 2005, including the recent Time Out For Tomorrow (2019), produced by Michael Timmins of Cowboy Junkies and released on his label, Latent Recordings. That release was acclaimed by such publications as Rolling Stone in Europe, Uncut, and American Songwriter. Leger is actually better known in Europe and the UK than the rest of Canada, a situation that needs to be rectified, given his serious talent.

Links

Website - Jerry Leger

Website -Don Stevenson

Facebook - Jerry Leger

Facebook - Don Stevenson

Twitter

Instagram

PR: Tony Bonyata, Pavement PR

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H.E.R.
Steven Moran
H.E.R.
Awards

See Who Was Nominated — and Who Was Passed Over — in Oscars’ 2025 Music Categories

This is the fifth year in a row that one or more non-English language songs has been nominated for best original song.

Diane Warren received her 16th Oscar nomination for best original song on Thursday (Jan. 23) — a tally equaled by only three other songwriters in the 91-year history of the category. Sammy Cahn leads with 26 nods, followed by Johnny Mercer with 18 and Paul Francis Webster, also with 16. Warren was nominated this year this year for “The Journey,” sung by H.E.R. in The Six Triple Eight.

Moreover, this is the eighth year in a row Warren has been nominated, which enables her to tie Cahn for the longest continuous streak of nominations in this category. Cahn was nominated eight years running from 1954 to 1961.

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