Chuck Leah is an old-soul Texas troubadour with a voice like a distant stare.

On new album Band of Ghosts, released Oct. 16, he bottles genre-straddling, wanderlust Americana with innate musicality and startling sincerity.

Leah describes Band of Ghosts, his seventh album, as “a stroll from Texas to Louisiana.” But it takes a meandering route through the Arizona desert (“I Lost Her in Tucson”), Hollywood (“LAX”), and Nashville (“Memphis”).

Delicately tense violins usher in standout album opener “Eugenie,” a profound tale of longing steeped in New Orleans street imagery. “I lit my Camel in the rain,” Leah sings, his timbre textured like crumpled parchment. “And it hit my body like sugar cane.”

Elsewhere, the driving yet breezy “I Lost Her in Tucson” wistfully recounts the pursuit of fleeting love, while rousing closer “Azure” is a worldly mélange of country, Cajun and blues propelled by robust rock drumming.

The sounds and snapshots from a lifetime of travel palpably inform Band of Ghosts, both through overt lyrical brushstrokes and in its less tangible, genre-straddling aura. In just nine semi-autobiographical songs, Leah traverses folk-rock, country, Cajun, jazz, blues, Tejano, MexiCali and rock ‘n’ roll without ever letting the stitching show.

In 2022, Leah released Little Darlings featuring Corey Stoot (electric guitar); Aaron Sterling (drums); Kurt Baumer (fiddle); Oliver Steck (accordion); Becca Byram (piano); Joe Savage (pedal steel); and Leah on (acoustic guitar, bass, and vocals). The song was recorded at The Power Station, NE and Studio Hill Austin. Produced by Chuck Leah and Gerhard Joost. Little Darlings would be the first single for the album Lolo, Montana.

Lolo, Montana (2023) features the all-star band: Grammy Award Winner Larry Campbell (Bob Dylan, Levon Helm) on acoustic, electric, and baritone guitars, fiddle, and mandolin; Aaron Sterling (John Mayer, Taylor Swift) on drums and percussion; and Emmy Award Winner Jeff Victor on piano, Hammond B3 Organ, Mellotron, Fender Rhodes, accordion, and Wurlitzer.

Additional guests include Grammy Nominated singer songwriter Linda Chorney on backup vocals on the title track Lolo, Montana; Jenn Bostic returns with a powerful duet on Hold you like the Devil; Becca Byram backup vocals on Wild like the Wind, Burning Bridges, and Dancing in your Sleep; Karina Nistal backup vocals on Orchids and Nothing from Nothing; and Jody Quine on Boomtown.

Multi-Instrumentalist and longtime collaborator Scott Eric Olivier on electric guitars, octave guitars, and lead guitar on Burning Bridges and serves as one of the record’s producers. Which also includes Grammy Award Winner Gerhard Joost, Grammy Award Winner Barry Rudolph, Grammy Award Winner Kitt Wakeley, Greg Scelsa, Evan Bakke, and Chuck Leah.

Recorded and Mixed by Bakke at The Power Station, NE. Mastered by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound, Nashville,TN.

Chuck Leah at The Power Station NE, with Evan Bakke. Photo by Kevin Condon.