After having outgrown HRM’s house concert circuit, and one opening slot with Joe H Henry in April last year with us, Ottawa’s James Leclaire, is now ready to headline his own show at The Carleton on Wednesday, October 8th at 7 PM. Tickets are $20 + HST.
Like everyone, James Leclaire has had his share of challenges. He was an energetic and creative child who was always daydreaming and displaying his imagination through acting and drawing. That, of course, was challenging for James’ academics. He struggled in school, except in art class, in which he excelled. His imagination really sparked when, at 16 years old, a friend put a guitar in his hands. Right from the start, James didn’t take lessons and didn’t want to learn other people’s songs. He wanted to write his own songs, create his own characters and tell his own stories. Although a happy individual, he enjoyed writing about life’s struggles. James would pull from experiences that he saw happen to people around him. Stories of love, determination, cheating, abuse, and heartache.
While still passionately writing, recording, and performing his own music, James’ storytelling skills, along with his evolving drawing abilities, lead him to a successful career as a Storyboard Artist. His hard work paid off. From there, in 2007 he ended up co-founding Jam Filled Entertainment, an animation studio that now has 700 employees with offices in Ottawa, Toronto and Halifax.
Shortly after the release of his third solo album in 2015, These Weights, James took a long hiatus from recording and performing music for personal reasons…Reasons he now regrets. But in January 2020, James was slammed with the biggest challenge he had ever faced; his 23 year marriage came to a shocking and devastating end. How did James make it through? James dug deep and wrote songs that were from a place he had never been before. He wrote with new eyes, new ears, and new emotions. His songs now became personal as opposed to observational.
That healing process, along with new experiences and eventually a new relationship, caused James’ song writing well to overflow with material that has amounted to a staggering 68 songs.
James headed into the recording studio with and recorded with producer, Phillip Victor Bova. The new recordings boast the talents of guitarist Kevin Breit (Norah Jones), drummer Ed Toth (Doobie Bros), guitarist/pianist John Fraser Findlay (Juno nominee), harmonicist Mickey Raphael (Nelson/Dylan/Young/Stapleton, etc) and other talented local musicians.
The first single, Things That I Said, was released Aug 4th, 2023 followed by a song a month until the well goes dry. But with the down-pouring of inspiration he has felt since the 2015 damming, the flood of new material will not recede for a long time.