Hunter Americana singer/songwriter Ben Leece will perform songs from his upcoming debut album at the Grand Junction Hotel next Friday.
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No Wonder the World Is Exhausted, set for release this Friday, is a songbook of deceptive depth and emotional scope.
The album title came from an off-the-cuff remark Leece heard in his local record store, which he visits with the borderline-addict frequency of any great music tragic.
The proprietor, Chris Dunn, was losing patience with his iPhone. “No wonder the f---in’ world’s exhausted!” roared Dunn.
“From that moment this album was never going to be called anything else,” Leece said.
The former Delta Lions member spreads his wings on No Wonder the World Is Exhausted as a deft and poetic lyricist of eagle eye and forked tongue.
It’s the work of a writer who wrote songs on his father’s Maton before he properly learned to play, an early teen in Kamilaroi country on a small farm in Quirindi.
Now based in the Hunter, the songwriter asserts “there’s no overall theme to the record”. But there are threads one can tease.
Nothing is quite as it seems in the ten tracks, such is their layers and nuances. The hidden details reveal a collection of dualities and dichotomies. For example, the two meanings of the album’s title. Is the world in a state of collective weariness, or are we exhausting it of what precious little it has left to offer?
These are reflective songs of robust melody and literary finesse, painting the picture of a man under the lens of his own microscope.
No Wonder the World is Exhausted was engineered, produced and mixed by ARIA award-winner Shane Nicholson.
Nicholson performs extensively on the album. Also among the A-list band are pedal steel guru Jason Walker, drummer Pete Drummond, renowned fiddle player Luke Moller, and vocalist Katie Brianna.
No Wonder the World is Exhausted is bound to continue Leece’s organic rise through the ranks of Australian music, following debut 7” single ‘Trace’ in 2017, which snagged him “Alt-Country Song of the Year” at the Independent Music Awards.
Leece was also in the Top 15 finalists in the Americana Music Prize of Australia. Expect more accolades to follow. Because the world may be exhausted, but it’s about to wake up to Ben Leece.
