Checking In With… Logan Ledger

In times of crisis, it’s more important than ever to check in on your friends and loved ones. Here at XPN, we’re Checking In With our extended musical family to see how they’re holding up during the Coronavirus quarantine…and what music has kept them grounded. Today, Dan Reed chats with Logan Ledger.

When we talked with Nashville singer-songwriter Logan Ledger, he was coping with two massive upheavals in his hometown; the pandemic, of course, and then just before the pandemic, a tornado that touched down just a half mile from his house.

Our conversation finds him moving forward with optimism, though. He talks about finding his people musically, and recording his self-titled album with T-Bone Burnett. He also speaks to the weird feeling of releasing a record when you can’t tour in support of it.

Ledger also shares some of his favorite tunes by Doc Watson and Willie Nelson, and from his own project. Listen and read more in the player below.

 Favorite Song Of All Time: “Deep River Blues” by Doc Watson

“When I was seven or eight years old, my grandmother introduced me to a bunch of older music like Elvis, and Orbison, and The Platters. When I was 11 years old, I got inspired to pick up the guitar, because I saw my dad learning to play it. And through our mutual guitar teacher, I learned about Bob Dylan and Doc Watson and Mississippi John Hurt. I turned into a young folkie around that time. And this song, it’s one of the first songs I play when I pick up a guitar. I guess it’s sort of a loose warmup, not really a routine, more of a muscle reflex.” 

Song That Raises Your Spirits: “Let Me Talk To You” by Willie Nelson

“It was somewhat of a standard, and there’s versions you can find from lots of different people. But Willie’s recording is the best. It’s one of his best recordings, it’s one of the best country music recordings around.”

Song That You’re Most Proud Of Working On: “Nobody Knows” by Logan Ledger

“It’s the end of side A of the record, and I started writing this song in 2016 and it went through a few stages before I got in the studio and cut it with T-Bone. Originally it was a major key, a straight ahead honky-tonk country song, and then it got real minor and mystical. I didn’t finish it before I went in to make a demo to send to T-Bone in Nashville. I went in there and had the first two verses and the chorus, and the last chorus I couldn’t figure it out. With this style of song, each chorus has different words, it’s more of a bridge really, but that’s neither here or there. We were gonna make this demo, I was recording these demos to send to T-Bone, and I figured out what this song needed. So I went into the other room and I came out with this line at the end of the song: ‘Nobody knows where the lonely go, and I I know cause I’m nobody.’ It wraps up the song and turns it on its head.”