James Leclaire offers you shelter from life’s storm in his passionate and comforting new single and video Come On In — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
Singing in the grizzled, relatable voice of somebody who’s been there, the Manotick, Ont., roots-rocker throws open a metaphorical door on the title track from his latest album, reassuring us that what lies within is a sanctuary where we can recharge our batteries until we have the strength to make another run at life:
“Warm yourself from the cold
Shield yourself from the wind
Dry yourself off from the rain, my friend
Oh, it’s time to come on in
Don’t feel shame
Don’t feel sorrow
When the sun sets, life will restart tomorrow
When you’re strong, you can try again
Come on in.”
“Come On In depicts a person helping someone close to them who has hit rock bottom,” the singer-songwriter says. “They are inviting them into their home to heal, refresh and recharge. It’s uplifting, hopeful and encouraging, yet painful and relatable. We all need a person who can talk us off that ledge and breathe life into us when we feel as though we are on our last breath.
“The only thing here is that I wrote it in a time when everything was fine. Therefore, for it to help others but when I came to record it, I was in a difficult spot and in turn my own words helped me.” You don’t need a degree in armchair psychology to deduce that Leclaire is singing both about and to himself here. Come On In was recorded during a fraught period that saw the sudden end of his 23-year marriage — and effected an unexpected sea change in his approach to writing.
“My sorrowful songs were always written from a fictional place, or as a witness to others’ pain,” he says. “Now it was my sorrow, my pain, my wound, and it caused my pen to bleed ink and my guitar to cry chords.”
It was a flurry of activity that amassed a hefty backlog of 68 songs. Leclaire has been releasing one per month over the past 10 months, with the release of Come On In supplying the final piece in the puzzle of his first album in nine years (and fourth overall).
The new material was produced, engineered, mixed and mastered by Phillip Victor Bova at his Bova Sound in Ottawa, with a stellar supporting cast of guest musicians that included Bova on bass, guitarist Kevin Breit (Norah Jones), harmonicist Mickey Raphael (Willie Nelson), Juno-nominated guitarist / pianist John Fraser Findlay and his longtime friend, drummer, guitarist and vocalist Michael Hunter.
To say they’ve been a busy bunch is to put it mildly. Of that aforementioned 68 new songs, a full 38 were captured for posterity between the start of 2020 and the end of 2023. And the rest are fully written and ready to go when you are.
Watch the video for Come On In above, check out the rest of the album below, and call on James Leclaire at his website, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.
