“The music of Lee Palmer is perhaps best described as a mix of blues, country, jazz, folk and Americana. But above all it is very good music, Lee Palmer played his songs with conviction. This is an interpreter we believe every word and every sentence.” – Rudolph’s Music Reviews
Having just finished his 5th studio album, there seems to be no stopping this Canadian singer songwriter. Lee Palmer’s previous releases received many positive reviews from critics around the world. He landed in heavy rotation on satellite radio, including being one of the top 10 most played albums for 11 consecutive months, as well as campus and community radio and specialty radio shows.
Lee’s latest release, Horns & Harps, was completed in June of 2018 and will be released in September of 2018. After months of writing and demoing, the record came together quickly over a 2 day session, followed by 1 day of background vocals and 2 days of mixing, all at Jukasa Media Group in Caledonia, Ontario. In the album liner notes Lee mentions the interesting chain of events that made this record a reality. Lee tells the story…
“I really hadn’t intended to do a 5th album. Over the last 2 years I’ve had struggles with my health that led me to transition my marketing business and livelihood over to my son. Oddly enough, if I hadn’t gone through these health issues he probably wouldn’t have stepped up and realized he liked running the company. Anyway, this change in circumstances allowed me to help my daughter get set up with a home in Woodstock, Ontario. Why Woodstock? That’s how far away from Toronto we had to go to find affordable housing…
For the next year I spent half my time in Toronto and the balance in Woodstock. Early on, during that period I wrote the first song for my new album, though a new album was not in the works at that time. I also started dropping by the only local bar with live music and got to know the guys in the house band. I sat in now and then and discovered that the guitarist, Iain McNally had a home studio. We started getting together weekly, which forced me to write. That’s how I write best, with a deadline…
I was forcing myself to do what I love to do as with 4 albums under my belt, I questioned doing a 5th, especially with my recurring visits to the emergency ward. Amongst all that, I rediscovered the joy of playing music again and the songs kept coming. I reconnected with drummer Sean O’Grady who produced my first pro recordings back 20 odd years ago. He recommended the studio and the keyboard player from Jim Cuddy’s band, Steve O’Connor. It turns out Iain and Steve had a history together playing in Susan Aglukark’s band. A further coincidence, Susan’s break out album was recorded at Inception Sound at the same time that I did my first recordings there with Sean, 20 odd years ago. Her soon to be husband recorded my sessions…
The rest of the guys had played with me before. Alec Fraser had worked with Jeff Healey, Steve Strongman and other acts with Sean but it turns out this was their first recording session together. Roly Platt had been on 2 other albums with me and had also worked with Alec and Sean. Turner King had played on my last album in an overdub session. Chris Ayries is new to the Toronto scene and did a great job on the background vocals in a separate session…
All this to say that the album that was never meant to be had a curious chain of events and synergistic elements that led to its creation. The idea of having one day featuring sax and one day featuring harp was a last minute decision and closed the loop on the Horns & Harps experience. All a little crazy but I believe it was meant to be. If I had never moved to Woodstock, none of this ever would have happened. Hopefully you enjoy the music we’ve made as a result.“