When a global pandemic brought the world to a halt in 2020, Andrew Leahey got creative. He launched a weekly livestream concert series, “Andrew Leahey: Live & Online,” from his living room, playing to thousands of viewers every Thursday night and earning a spot in Pollstar’s Livestream chart. He also played lead guitar on Elizabeth Cook’s Aftermath, a critically-acclaimed album produced by Butch Walker and released that September. Most importantly, he continued releasing new songs of his own, from “Keep the Car Running” — a larger-than-life tribute to the power of the FM radio dial, praised by Rolling Stone as “unrelenting rock for uncertain times” — to the heartbreaking Alzheimer’s ballad, “New Memories (4202 Franklin).” COVID-19 might have canceled Leahey’s touring plans, but it couldn’t keep him from working.
As a frontman, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, contemporary guitar hero, and award-winning music journalist, Leahey knows what it means to push through a life-threatening health scare. During the years leading up to Skyline in Central Time‘s release, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor that stubbornly sat on his hearing nerve, jeopardizing not only his hearing but his survival, too. The operation to remove it took 12 hours; the recovery took more than 12 months. When Leahey returned to the road, he did so with a renewed purpose and perspective, crafting rock & roll anthems that celebrated everything he previously took for granted.
Glide is proud to premiere “Until There’s Nothing But Air” a Tom Petty Wildflowers downbeat blues ballad lullaby. Leahey has a vivacious knack for creative hooks and song construction, a burgeoning song playmaker for dicey times.
“For me, the whole song revolves around the C maj7 chord in the verse. I love major 7 chords; there’s no better way to create a sense of longing than to use a chord that is literally unresolved. The slide guitar reminds me of George Harrison, the arpeggios in the chorus remind me of the Jayhawks, and the bass line in each verse — which was played by my producer, Jon Estes — sounds like something you’d hear on an indie record far cooler than my own.”
