SONG PREMIERE: Leroy From the North Carries 70s Blues-rock Swagger on “Youngblood”

Photo credit: Skyler Barberio

Toughen Up, Leroy From The North’s full-length debut, is a soundtrack for road trips with the radio cranked high, the FM dial caught somewhere between the country and classic rock stations, the sounds from both channels bleeding together into some new frequency. It’s a sound rooted in California cool and old-school southern stomp, like a velour tracksuit with a cowboy hat. Some people call it Americana. Others call it country-rock. Leroy From The North just call it music. Produced by Grammy nominee Eric Corne, it will be released on June 16th.

Toughen Up is a snapshot of a three-piece band on the rise. Overdubs are kept to a minimum. Studio trickery is virtually non-existent. What you hear is the honest chemistry of three musicians who’ve spent years sharpening their craft onstage, in the writing room, and in the recording studio, where Toughen Up was largely recorded in a series of live takes. The album’s opening track, “Youngblood,” combines humor and hellraising in equal doses, with Wulfmeier singing about a doomed relationship over harmonized guitars and anthemic hooks. “Homemade Crosses” is a built-for-speed southern rocker about a young man being shipped off to war, while the tongue-in-cheek “Top 10” takes a jab at the cliches of the modern-day music industry. None of the tracks take themselves too seriously but Toughen Up is a seriously good time.

On an album filled with groove, grit, and guitar, it’s Eli Wulfmeier’s songwriting that elevates and electrifies Toughen Up. He isn’t just the band’s guitar-playing singer. He’s a genuine storyteller, too, conjuring up a world of pawn shop customers, flophouses, clueless radio executives, and blue-collar workmen at the end of their ropes. Rooted in melody and muscle, Toughen Up finds Wulfmeier making the jump from hotshot sideman to celebrated front man. 

Today Glide is premiering the standout track “Youngblood,” a song brimming with that thick and fuzzy 70s rock and roll swagger. Fans of acts like Patrick Sweany, Marcus King and The Black Keys will find plenty to love here, with Wulfmeier’s cooly defiant vocals swimming over a soundtrack of stomping blues-rock. Wulfmeier lets his psychedelic guitar flourishes slice through the fog to make for an impactful work of rock greatness.

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