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Bluesman Chris O’Leary’s road has been long and winding, rooted in strong working-class values. That foundation is what inspired his latest album, “Blue Collar.”
“I’ve lived the craziest life,” says O’Leary, who will play a show at Fanatics Pub in Lima next month. “Going to war, performing and touring with (The Band’s) Levon Helm, befriending and learning from blues legend James Cotton, now recording for Alligator Records.
“It’s something I’ll never take for granted,” he adds with an appreciative tone.
“Blue Collar” features 11 original songs written and performed by O’Leary. The record ranges from downright mournful, with songs like “Nothing But A Memory,” to wry, comic observations, as on the album’s first single, “Bad Decisions.”
“Bad Decisions” is classic blues fare, suggesting that even ill-conceived plans can, ironically, lead to good stories. O’Leary comically ties some of these experiences to the backdrop of the modern age, referencing going viral on TikTok after losing a drunken fight with a bouncer, for example.
Born in Schenectady in the 1960s, O’Leary grew up with a music-loving father who played “everything from Beethoven to Springsteen,” he recalls.
His father was responsible for getting his son hooked on the blues, most of all. A gift of Muddy Waters’ “Hard Again” album inspired O’Leary to teach himself harmonica by listening to classics from the Chicago music scene.
Following family tradition, he enlisted in the Marines in the 1980s and was deployed on active combat tours in the Middle East. The emotions of those experiences would be expressed through his own songwriting, O’Leary reflects.
After leaving the military in the 1990s, O’Leary quickly found himself working through the Poughkeepsie music scene, a club gig in New Orleans, and eventually “barnstorming” (touring rapidly and extensively) with Helm’s band throughout the United States and Canada.
O’Leary made his recording debut with harmonica on Hubert Sumlin’s “About Them Shoes” in 2003. Seven years later, he released his first solo album, “Mr. Used To Be,” followed by five more.
Even on his sixth album, O’Leary’s creative energies are still working.
“The songs are all personal, all real-life,” he says.
The Chris O’Leary Band will play at the Fanatics Pub on Tuesday, June 16. Tickets are available online for $27. Copies of “Blue Collar” are available for pre-order until the album’s official release on July 10.
Jacob Schermerhorn is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer and data journalist.
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