Award-winning and critically acclaimed Canadian singer-songwriter David Myles might be an undercover musicologist. Within his eclectic artistic continuum, he’s reverentially explored jazz, blues, pop, holiday music, French pop, rockabilly, country, folk, gospel, and even hip-hop. The through line in his 10-album oeuvre has been strong songcraft—no matter what genre, David has never sacrificed substance for style.
After the painful blow of his father’s sudden passing, David struggled with the push and pull of being a successful musician while being a present and loving husband and father. His focus shifted from free-spirited musical travels to looking inward to the core of his own artistry. The resulting long player is the cozy acoustic, Leave Tonight, his most personal offering to date.
When David made the bold move to search his soul for Leave Tonight, what he discovered is that at his core he’s an unflinching romantic. The resulting collection conjures breezy 1960s West Coast jazz, 1970s Laurel Canyon folk, and the rich emotionality of 1950s crooners records. Leave Tonight exudes an easy charm that recalls João Gilberto, Chet Baker, and James Taylor.
The project was produced by James Bunton and features longtime touring and recording bandmates Kyle Cunjak (upright bass, electric bass) and Alan Jeffries (acoustic and electric guitars). The trio have been friends since high school and have worked together for over a decade. Rounding out the sessions was percussionist Joshua Van Tassel who has played on many of David’s previous records. Leave Tonight highlights the musicians’ intuitive musical reciprocity, and expertise at crafting memorable motifs and elegant support musicality to dynamically enrich David’s compositions.
Today Glide is excited to offer an exclusive premiere of the title track off Leave Tonight. With a vocal style reminiscent of Roy Orbison’s majestic sense of melancholy replete with dreamy harmony vocals, Myles serves up one of the more tender tracks on the album. Though it features minimal instrumentation with acoustic guitar doing most of the work, there is power in the musical simplicity that complements the heartfelt, romantic lyrics. The song showcases Myles’ ability to fuse folk and classic pop sounds with his songwriting and vocals coming front and center. These are accentuated with a lush wave of strings towards the end of the song.
Describing the inspiration behind the song, Myles has this to say:
“‘Leave Tonight’ is about the power of intimacy. The energy between two people. And how that energy can be so powerful the rest of the world just disappears. It’s about wanting that moment to last forever, knowing that it can’t. The world will eventually creep in again but in that moment it doesn’t stand a chance.”
LISTEN:
Photo credit: Mat Dunlap
One Response
Love it! Instantly went right to my Heart! <3 Thank you David! 🙂