Nashville-based singer/songwriter Andrew Leahey works in the storied tradition American roots rock, alt-country, and classic pop. A rock & roll songsmith in the tonal lineage of Petty and Springsteen, Leahey began coming into his own as an artist in the early-2010s, fronting his band the Homestead. Temporarily sidelined by a 2013 brain tumor, the singer/guitarist bootstrapped his way back to health and artistic redemption, returning with a vengeance to release 2016's triumphant and Skyline in Central Time and its more rock-driven 2019 follow-up, Airwaves.
A native of Richmond, Virginia, Leahey's career began as the frontman for rock/new wave-inspired combo Hobson's Choice, which he formed in 2001 while attending the University of Virginia. The group fared well regionally, releasing their lone independent album in 2004 before splitting up a year later. Subsequent moves to New York City and Ann Arbor, Michigan, found Leahey developing both his career as a music journalist and as a performer. After trying his hand singing choral music at Juilliard, he complemented his Midwestern tenure by forming a new band, the Opera House, who performed around Michigan between 2009 and 2011. Leahey then moved on to Nashville, where he quickly found his footing and assembled the crew that would become his primary backing band, the Homestead. Released in late 2011, Andrew Leahey & the Homestead's self-titled debut found its leader putting all of the pieces in place, delivering hard-hitting, heartfelt roots rock packed with melody and soul. As an artist and bandleader, Leahey began to establish himself, touring relentlessly and building a national fan base.
By the summer of 2013, with a newly released EP, his career seemed on the verge of a breakout, though physically, his health was inexplicably deteriorating. Frequent migraines, sudden hearing loss, and unexpected issues with his balance were soon revealed to be the result of a brain tumor on his hearing nerve. Without extensive surgery, Leahey would most certainly lose his hearing, his balance, and possibly his life. He elected to have the 12-hour procedure, then entered a lengthy recovery period during which he was unable to perform. Disaster averted, Leahey's lease on life was brighter than ever before, and he began writing with a renewed spirit. Working with producer and Wilco-founder Ken Coomer, he and his band recorded their follow-up, Skyline in Central Time, a vigorous set of rock & roll road anthems brimming with vitality. The album was released by Nashville's Thirty Tigers label in the summer of 2016. Leahey and his band hit the road hard over the next year or so, notching nearly 200 dates in support of the release. Returning to the studio with producer Paul Ebersold, he refined some of the Americana tone of his previous release, emerging in 2019 with the streamlined rock & roll of Airwaves, an album deeply rooted in the FM radio sound of Leahey's childhood.
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