Americana Artist Chuck Leah Pens a Love Song 100 Million Years in the Making
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NASHVILLE – With one boot firmly planted in the past and the other somewhere in the future, Americana troubadour Chuck Leah is offering a new album that pays tribute to one of his favorite subjects: The distant past.
Leah, who in addition to being a lifelong singer/songwriter works as a paleontologist at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, has a true “old soul” and a soft spot for stories from the heart of America. His eclectic career, which includes a collection of thematic songs, has elevated Leah to one of the country’s favorite Americana recording artists.
The new album pays homage to a timeless love story about a paleontologist in Wyoming’s so-called “dinosaur country” who meets an Arapahoe woman “dressed in beads and a buckskin skirt” after checking into an overnight inn.
Although the bones the region is named for date back 165 million years, the origin of this song began in the late 1800s, near the tiny Wyoming town of Medicine Bow.
Back in those days, paleontologists once used a road near an Arapahoe village to transport dinosaur bones via wagons to Medicine Bow, where they were then transported by train to exhibitions in New York, said Leah.
“My inspiration came from the dinosaur dust from this legendary house of bones,” said Leah, adding that the song revisits folklore as the paleontologist reveals his hopeless love for the Arapahoe woman he met on the road to Medicine Bow.
Musically, his new album carries Leah’s signature blend of roots, folk, and windswept storytelling. His voice, as weathered as the Wyoming plains, delivers the title track with the quiet conviction of a man who has dug both in the earth and deep into his own heart.
The searing melodies that envelop this rustic love song give it a feel that it was excavated from the tundra itself rather than simply being written.
“Some people write love songs in a weekend,” Leah says with a wry grin. “This one took the earth about a hundred million years to produce,” the singer/songwriter said.
For what some critics are calling Leah’s best work, he was joined in the studio by an A-list team of producers and musicians, including recording and mix engineer Brian Vibberts, a seven-time Grammy® Award winner who has worked with Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Aerosmith and many others.
Emmy® Award winner Jeff Victor returns to work with Leah on piano, Hammond B3 organ, Mellotron, accordion, and Wurlitzer. Aaron Sterling returns drums and percussion, Grammy® Award winner Shawn Camp is featured on acoustic guitar and Joe Savage handles the pedal steel. Scott Eric Oliver, a multi-award-winning instrumentalist, also performed on the album.
The orchestration was performed by Grammy® Award winner Nathalie Bonin on violin and Tess Remy-Schumacher on cello with backup vocals by April Henry, Kris Angelis, and Annemarie Picerno.
“The Road to Medicine Bow” was recorded at Blackbird Studio in Nashville and East/West 2 right here in L.A. The tracks were mixed at Sunset Studio 1 and mastered by Joe Bozzi at Bernie Grundman Studio in Los Angeles. Additional recording was performed by Patrick Conlon and Christina Giacona at AMC@UCO Studio A.
“These are great friends,” said Leah of his contributors. “It always sounds better when you make music with your friends.”
“The impact of this record could be amazing,” said producer Greg Scelsa, “and it could just take Chuck over the top onto a plateau that he’s not seen yet.”
Music critic David Nicholas Somlo agrees, saying Leah’s lyrics “are at once heart-wrenching and hopeful, rolling out as naturally as tumbleweed across a windy plain.” Though there are a few tracks that lighten up the mood as well.
In addition to “Medicine Bow,” the new record contains six new Americana songs, including “Homa Hills,” “1018 (See Me),” “Broke Foot Blues,” “Matter of Time,” “I Don’t Know How To Say Goodbye” and “My Beat-Up Truck.”
“I’m in a good place in my life right now, artistically and just in my life,” he said. “... the people that I love and the people that I’m around, I couldn’t ask for anything better.”
“As a boy, I just always wanted to record songs and be creative,” said Leah. “I wanted to come up with unique ways of writing and arranging,” he said.
With this new album, Leah hovers very near to the pinnacle of his craft.
“The Road to Medicine Bow” is now available on all streaming platforms. In addition, thousands of vinyl albums are currently being pressed for physical distribution.