Vancouver singer-songwriter’s latest EP is her first new music since 2020’s Bring Out Your Dead
After sharing the single “Don’t Get Weird” for Valentine’s Day, Leah Barley today officially releases the EP Awkward & Heartbroken. Along with “Don’t Get Weird,” it contains the new single “Pack My Bags.”
As her first new music since her 2020 LP Bring Out Your Dead, Awkward & Heartbroken finds Leah moving from traditional folk into vintage honky tonk. She doesn’t hold back in expressing her recent romantic frustrations in the lyrics to “Don’t Get Weird,” prompting the song to appear twice in “explicit” and “clean” versions (heads up radio programmers!) Conversely, “Pack My Bags” is a heartbreaking ballad with themes of addiction and manipulation. Listeners will feel the ache and truth in Leah’s storytelling.
Leah explains,
“‘Don’t Get Weird’ pretty much wrote itself after a few very interesting dates I experienced. A lot of love songs are about young love or finding ‘the one,’ but I don’t know of many people sharing how incredibly awkward it is to date in your forties.” She continues, “‘Pack My Bags’ is on the opposite end of that spectrum. It’s about leaving a situation after realizing how unhealthy it is. I know a lot of people who choose to stay in those kinds of relationships in fear of being alone, but I can tell you, being alone and loving yourself is one hundred times better than staying and being an afterthought.”
The crackling sound of both tracks was captured during a live-off-the-floor session at Vancouver’s Flash Recording with producer Jackson Gardner (formerly of B.C. rockers Gleneagle). Supporting Leah is her loyal band consisting of upright bassist Ross Fairbairn, pedal steel guitarist Allan Haley and drummer Tom Tischer, with Spank Williams contributing honky tonk piano on “Don’t Get Weird” and Chaya Harvey adding backing vocals on “Pack My Bags.”
There will be more new music from Leah that she hopes to start working on soon with Jackson Gardner. And if the songs are anything like “Don’t Get Weird” and “Pack My Bags,” then it will surely be more than enough reason to add Leah Barley’s name to the conversation surrounding Canada’s best up-and-coming alt-country artists.
“The songs coming out of me these days have a bit more of a bluesy and outspoken undertone to them so I’m really interested to see what all of that leads to this year,” she says. “I’m feeling more sassy these days and less heartbroken. But I’ll always be awkward.”