Olaf Growald
Leon Bridges
Some bands, musicians, artists, etc. possess a clear admiration for place — the environment in which they grew up, currently live, or happen to be when creating a new work of art. Like the Red Hot Chili Peppers regularly dropping “City of Angels,” “Los Angeles,” or other clever colloquialisms representing Southern California; Wilco diving into allusions and direct references of hometown Chicago; or a plethora of artists — Billy Joel, Simon and Garfunkel, and Talking Heads to name a few — crooning about New York; a location, especially one that has had a profound impact on an artist, can be a powerful muse. And such musicians, through their songs, become some of their cities’ most prominent ambassadors.
Fort Worth has one such Billboard-topping, Grammy Award-winning musician who proudly represents the city he’s called home since the age of 2 — Leon Bridges. Before his star skyrocketed, he would regularly busk in front of Avoca Coffee on Magnolia Ave. and famously recorded his first album in a studio above the former Shipping and Receiving, a previous hotbed for local music. And his first album, Coming Home, would be an unmitigated hit, with critics and music aficionados dubbing the Fort Worthian the second-coming of Otis Redding.
While Bridges now, understandably, splits his time between Los Angeles and Fort Worth, his family remains in Cowtown and the multi-platinum artist is a regular figure about town — Leon sightings happen regularly, and he’ll even do the occasional pop-up show. Again, the homesick artist has never neglected his roots.
On that note, his previous efforts would give the occasional shout-out to his hometown, his live performances would have a Fort Worth backdrop, and his initial doo-wop fashion sense evolved into a funk-meets-Western hybrid that's become an ideal representation of the city. But his new album, Leon, which today hit Spotify, record stores, and a horde of other streaming services, doesn’t just place Fort Worth as a backdrop — the city is front and center.
In fact, it’s not a stretch to call it a concept album.
One of Leon’s stand-out tracks, “Panther City,” marks Bridges’ most outwardly nostalgic tune to date. A clear ode to his childhood growing up in Fort Worth’s Southside, the acoustic-driven song is a Millennials glossary of memorable terms like Nintendo 64 and Little Debby and touches local places like Hillside, Cannon, Pinky Street (where he got his “first taste of love”), and Rosedale — with “all the crackheads and prostitutes.” Bridges even works in his beloved Community Center, a place he regularly cites as an important part of who he has become. The United Community Center is one of the main beneficiaries of his Big Good philanthropic endeavor with former TCU head coach Gary Patterson.
Other references to the city are sprinkled throughout the album’s 13 tracks. It’s a veritable I Spy of Fort Worth-isms and childhood memories. He twice sings about the Trinity River, makes mention of Texas barbecue, Texas summer nights, cruising Cadillacs, hometown girls, and his mother and father — both of whom still call Fort Worth home.
Most of the songs stick to the mid- to slow-tempo range, for which we can’t fault the singer considering it’s typically his bread and butter, and there’s an overarching sense of longing — for simpler times, for peace, for love.
Naming the album Leon is no doubt apropos. There’s a sense of catharsis and a discovery of identity within each track. Perhaps reading too much into it, Leon feels almost therapeutic. This is not a collection of songs from a twenty-something crooner finding his voice, this is the album of a well-seasoned star who’s been on a journey of self-discovery and might even be on the tail-end of said journey.
On Leon’s first single, “Peaceful Place,” Bridges sings about finding such a place despite trying times. “I used to walk on the darker side, rain in my eyes,” he sings in the first verse, which later gives way to, “I feel at home anywhere I go, spirit in my soul … I’m in a peaceful place.” Like all peaceful places, it’s a nebulous area that lives in Bridges’ mind, but if his his new album grants a crystal ball into his thinking, Fort Worth plays a part in such peace.
Listen below:
