Jim Lauderdale w/ guest Mac Leaphart

JIM LAUDERDALE

“JIM LAUDERDALE IS A CONSUMMATE ENTERTAINER, A SHARP DRESSED MAN AS WELL, A TERRIFIC SONGWRITER AND A GREAT SINGER."– GEORGE STRAIT

“HE’S MY FAVORITE PART OF AMERICANA MUSIC” – KETCH SECOR, OLD CROW MEDICINE SHOW

“HE’S A MAN OF GREAT STYLE, AN EXCEPTIONAL SONGWRITER AND TREMENDOUS SINGER” – ELVIS COSTELLO“JIM LAUDERDALE COULD EASILY BE CALLED A RENAISSANCE MAN. HE’S A GREAT SINGER, GREAT GUITAR PLAYER AND THERE’S NO WAY YOU COULD MISS HIS WORK AS A SONGWRITER.” – RICKY SKAGGS

AT ANY GIVEN TIME, YOU’RE LIKELY TO FIND JIM LAUDERDALE MAKING MUSIC, WHETHER HE’S LAYING DOWN A NEW TRACK IN THE STUDIO OR WORKING THROUGH A SPONTANEOUS MELODY AT HIS HOME IN NASHVILLE. AND IF HE’S NOT ACTIVELY CRAFTING NEW MUSIC, HE’S CERTAINLY THINKING ABOUT IT. “IT'S A CONSTANT CHALLENGE TO TRY TO KEEP MAKING BETTER AND BETTER RECORDS, WRITE BETTER AND BETTER SONGS. I STILL ALWAYS FEEL LIKE I'M A DEVELOPING ARTIST,” HE SAYS. THIS MAY BE A SURPRISING SENTIMENT FROM A MAN WHO’S WON TWO GRAMMYS, RELEASED 34 FULL-LENGTH ALBUMS, AND TAKEN HOME THE AMERICANA MUSIC ASSOCIATION’S COVETED WAGONMASTER AWARD. BUT FORTHCOMING ALBUM GAME CHANGER IS CONVINCING EVIDENCE THAT THE NORTH CAROLINA NATIVE IS ONLY CONTINUING TO HONE HIS CRAFT.

OPERATING UNDER HIS OWN LABEL, SKY CRUNCH RECORDS, FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 2016, LAUDERDALE RECORDED GAME CHANGER AT THE RENOWNED BLACKBIRD STUDIOS IN NASHVILLE, CO-PRODUCING THE RELEASE WITH JAY WEAVER AND PULLING FROM SONGS HE’D WRITTEN OVER THE LAST SEVERAL YEARS. “THERE'S A MIXTURE ON THIS RECORD OF UPLIFTING SONGS AND, AT THE SAME TIME, SONGS OF HEARTBREAK AND DESPAIR—BECAUSE THAT'S PART OF LIFE AS WELL,” HE SAYS. “IN THE COUNTRY SONG WORLD ESPECIALLY, THAT'S ALWAYS BEEN PART OF IT. THAT’S REAL LIFE.”

LAUDERDALE WOULD KNOW: HE’S BEEN A VITAL PART OF THE COUNTRY MUSIC ECOSYSTEM SINCE 1991, WHEN HE RELEASED HIS DEBUT ALBUM AND BEGAN PENNING SONGS FOR AN IMPRESSIVELY LONG ROSTER OF COUNTRY MUSIC GREATS. “WHEN I WAS A TEENAGER WANTING TO BE A BLUEGRASS BANJO PLAYER, I NEVER WOULD HAVE IMAGINED THAT I WOULD GET TO WORK WITH PEOPLE LIKE RALPH STANLEY, ROBERT HUNTER, LORETTA LYNN, GEORGE JONES, EMMYLOU HARRIS, ELVIS COSTELLO, LUCINDA WILLIAMS AND JOHN OATES ,” HE MUSES. “GETTING TO WORK WITH THEM INSPIRES ME GREATLY TO THIS DAY, AND I KNOW IT ALWAYS WILL.” ,” HE MUSES. “GETTING TO WORK WITH THEM INSPIRES ME GREATLY TO THIS DAY, AND I KNOW IT ALWAYS WILL.”

FROM ROLLICKING GUITAR RIFFS ON “THAT KIND OF LIFE (THAT KIND OF DAY)” TO THE SLOW, SWEET HARMONIES OF “I’LL KEEP MY HEART OPEN FOR YOU,” GAME CHANGER SHOWS OFF LAUDERDALE’S INGENUITY AS A SINGER, SONGWRITER, AND PRODUCER—WHILE REESTABLISHING HIM AS ONE OF AMERICANA’S MOST STEADFAST CHAMPIONS. "COUNTRY MUSIC IS CONSTANTLY EVOLVING, BUT I'LL ALWAYS HAVE A SOFT SPOT IN MY HEART FOR STEEL GUITAR AND A TELECASTER," HE SAYS. "I HAVE DONE MY JOB ON THIS RECORD IF PEOPLE WHO LOVE CLASSIC COUNTRY FEEL LIKE THEY CAN PUT IT ON, OR HAVE IT IN THEIR COLLECTION, AND IT WOULD FIT RIGHT IN."

RESPECTING THE PAST DOESN’T MEAN HE’S NOT BREAKING NEW GROUND. “WE’RE ALL WE’VE GOT,” A CO-WRITE WITH MARY GAUTHIER AND JAIMEE HARRIS, OFFERS A TIMELY MESSAGE ABOUT HEALING TORN RELATIONSHIPS AT HOME AND ACROSS THE WORLD. AND “FRIENDS AGAIN,” A GRINNING NUMBER ABOUT REKINDLING A FRIENDSHIP, IS FRESH AND FORWARD-LOOKING. AT EVERY TURN, LAUDERDALE’S COLLABORATIVE SPIRIT AND GENUINE LOVE FOR THE CREATIVE PROCESS REVEAL THEMSELVES IN THOUGHTFUL, WELL-CRAFTED SONGS SURE TO STAND THE TEST OF TIME. "WHEN EVERYTHING WORKS RIGHT, IT'S JUST MAGICAL TO BE ABLE TO HEAR THEM BACK," HE SAYS. "YOU FEEL, AT LEAST FOR THOSE THREE-AND-A-HALF MINUTES, LIKE LIFE MAKES SENSE.”

MAC LEAPHART

Mac Leaphart struck gold with 2021's Music City Joke, a record that found the award-winning songwriter cracking the Top 40 on the Americana charts, hitting the road with a full band, and earning a spot on nearly a dozen best-of-the-year lists. He wrote the album in Nashville, where hundreds of solo gigs and writers’ rounds had already sharpened his wry version of American roots music. Once Music City Joke found a national audience, though, Leaphart began spending more time outside of town, packing venues from Amarillo to St Louis.

"I was playing long shows with the band, trying to create the best set possible," he remembers. “That's where this new album came from. It came from me wanting to fill the holes in my setlist. It came from me wanting to write songs that were built for the stage.”

He's talking about Motel Breakfast, an album that unfolds like the rowdy, amplified cousin to Music City Joke. Produced by Brad Jones, it's a collection of songs that match Leaphart's salty songwriting with plugged-in performances from a band of Nashville A-listers. Inspired by the greasy cool of the Rolling Stones, the primordial rock & roll of Chuck Berry, and the storytelling of Billy Joe Shaver, Motel Breakfast turns a new page for an artist who's been running the roads for 15 years.

“It’s an upbeat honky-tonk rock & roll record that doesn't skimp on the craft or stories," says Leaphart, a South Carolina native who kickstarted his career playing the state's Lowcountry bar scene. Not long after his first solo record, Line, Rope Etc, arrived in 2009, he moved to Nashville. There, he launched a recurring songwriter's night called the Southpaw Social Club and strengthened his own writing chops, too, penning songs for other artists' albums as well as his own.

Records like Low in the Saddle, Long in the Tooth and Lightning Bob followed, along with increased responsibilities as a family man. Leaphart had become a husband as well as a father since his career began, and he began spending more time at home, prioritizing family life over music. When he was named a winner of the prestigious Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk Competition in 2018, though, his career received a kickstart. That momentum propelled the creation of Music City Joke, an album inspired by — and worthy of — personal heroes like John Prine and Guy Clark.

Two years after Music City Joke's release, Leaphart headed back into the studio with Brad Jones. Joined by Fats Kaplin, Matt Menefee, and other musicians, they tracked songs like "Rock & Roll Hey" (a loose, lean country-rocker, caught halfway between Exile on Main St. and a front-porch pickin' party), "Shake a Leg" (whose tale of whirlwind romance is driven forward by Kaplin's fiddle, Carey Kotsionis' harmonies, and Leaphart's rasped vocals), and "Ain't No Pistol" (a barn-burning bar-band anthem featuring guitar leads from Kenny Vaughan). Each song was tracked within an hour of Leaphart presenting it to the band, a move that emphasized first instincts and fiery, collaborative musicianship.

"I'm a real big fan of how Jerry Jeff Walker's albums sound," Leaphart explains. “They sound like a bunch of guys rolled out of bed, hungover, then stumbled into a studio and pressed record. I'm always going for that laid back vibe. I want it to be real loose and fun.”

Motel Breakfast is an album for roadhouses, dive bars, and half-lit crowds who want to have a good time, but also want to listen. If the bulk of the album conjures up images of Leaphart and company onstage, sweating their way through a rough-and-tumble set of American roots music, then the record's title track takes place the morning after the gig. It's the sort of morning that road-worn musicians know all too well, where the thrills of last night's show have all faded away, and all that's standing between you and another five-hour drive is a free motel breakfast. "Motel Breakfast" finds its narrator asking himself some hard questions, wondering if all those highway miles have really added up to anything. He ultimately rededicates himself to the long haul. "They got waffles in the lobby shaped just like Texas / Life is good, let's go get some breakfast," Leaphart sings, delivering one of the best couplets in his entire catalog before leading the band through one last chorus.

There are more miles ahead. More songs to sing. More motel meals to eat. Mac Leaphart has been there before, and he's not pumping the brakes anytime soon. As he sings in Motel Breakfast's title track, “It’s a long hard road, but it’s a good long ride.”

- Andrew Leahey
Contributor to Rolling Stone, American Songwriter, & Country Weekly