Leeroy Stagger, John Wort Hannam and Dave McCann are excited about beginning the fifth annual Highway 3 Roots revue which ends in Lethbridge, Dec. 9 at the Slice.
“We’ll be travelling together. That’s the best part of it. They are funny guys. They keep me in stitches,” said Stagger, who thinks the Highway 3 roots revue is a great way to cap off another busy year. Three of the shows, which officially began in Red Deer, Nov. 29, had already sold out before the tour began.
They are playing 10 shows all over Alberta, which is actually fewer than they usually play on the Highway 3 Roots Revue.
“John has a baby and I’ve got a baby on the way. We’ve been away from home a lot this year, especially me and John, so we wanted to stay close to home,” Stagger said.
In addition to spending time with Hannam and McCann, Stagger also enjoys the opportunity to listen to their songs.
“ It’s just a chance to get out and listen to them. I’m a big fan of John’s and Dave’s too,” he continued.
“It’s also great to be able to play my songs acoustically for full houses,” he continued.
They are also getting used to playing together on each other's songs.
It helps that Stagger worked with John Wort Hannam’s new CD, one of many he was working on this year.
“It’s been busy, but it’s been a good year,” Stagger said. He just brought his band back from Europe, touring in support of his latest CD “Radiant Land”, finished recording a CD in Portland with Los Lobos’ Steve Berlin and another partial album Evan Eushenko and Kyle Harmon.
“We weren’t in our right minds for that, but there are six songs that we might put out as an EP and give it away,” he said.
“Artistically I feel at the top of my game. I’m writing so much, the biggest challenge will be finding an outlet for releasing all of that music. That will be the big challenge for next year,” he said adding the new baby will be the priority for him.
“I also want to tour next year. But me and my wife and the baby will probably tour together,” he said.
He has also done several albums with other musicians including John Antoniuk, John Wort Hannam and Indio Saravanja, just to name a few.
He just finished a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund a new album with his other group, EST (Tim Easton, Leeroy Stagger and Evan Phillips) and is working on a tour with them for next year.
“ I think I also get some of my early albums back. I’d love to be able to re-release ‘Depression River,’ I’ve been playing some of those songs and they love them over in Europe,” he said.
He will likely be playing some of those songs as well as some brand new songs during the Highway 3 Roots Revue tour.
The tour ends at the Slice, Dec. 9 at 8 p.m.. Tickets are $20.
