May 24, 2026
This week's Mulligan Stew podcast features our own
Leeroy Stagger. He's the host of Dirty Windshield Radio
Hour on Saturdays on CKUA Radio.
His latest album is about to be released. It's
called Pilgrimage.
Leeroy found inspiration by reading Alister
McIntosh's brilliant book "Soil and Soul."
"I wanted to write on the Highland
Clearances of the 1700s that pushed my ancestors from
Scotland to Northern Ireland and ultimately Nova Scotia. The
repercussions of colonialism that shake the branches of my
family tree and sadly still ring out throughout my home
country of Canada today."
"It was always so strange to me that I felt more at home
in Scotland than in my own country; it makes perfect sense to me
now. There is a deep ancestral grief for where we once
called home."
Key to these songs and the entire album is the partnership
Leeroy entered into with East Coast legend Joel
Plaskett. They played, wrote and produced together.
Joel suggested to Leeroy that they use his
Tascam 388, an old 1/4" 8-track machine.
Joel convinced me on the magic, and I started to see
the humanness of tape, in all of its warm and unpredictable
glory."
"At this point, we have to ask ourselves what kind of
world we want to live in. Digital isolation or a community
forward offering of storytelling, of truth in the natural world, of
something tangible and real; a bit of the old ways."
[caption id="attachment_32453" align="alignnone"
width="512"]
Leeroy
Stagger -Pilgrimage[/caption]
Leeroy
Stagger -Pilgrimage[/caption]Pilgrimage might just help us find
it