A lone figure who’s been to the war of life, battled his demons, and came back to tell its tales with a gentle voice, it’s hard to believe that Dylan Leblanc has touched any darkness at all. A youth spent between the rough streets of Shreveport, LA, and the iconic Fame Recording Studios in Muscle Shoals, AL where his father, country artist James Leblanc, was a songwriter and session musician, LeBlanc’s music is a folk/rock ‘n’ roll reflection of all that the Deep South has imparted to him.
Few artists can claim a four-album career, spanning over a decade, where you can drop the needle on a record without the need to get up and change songs. From his debut album, Paupers Field (2010), featuring the backing vocals of Emmylou Harris on “If the Creek Don’t Rise” (which has 13 million plays on Spotify), to the moody elegance of Cautionary Tale (2016) and 2019’s Renegade with its take-it-or-leave-it anthems, Dylan LeBlanc’s flawless catalog is a collection of lyric-driven songs that braid tales of romance, pain, and heartfelt self-reflection.
It’s a vision that he’s been quietly curating over the last 12 years, building his career one fan at a time, he tells me. “It hadn’t been a walk in the park, that’s for sure,” he says. “I just love music and love makin’ music. I don’t do it for the gains. I do it because I have to, and I absolutely love being creative.”
With the pandemic bringing life to a halt, LeBlanc released the “Pastimes” EP in 2021 as an homage to songs that have made a musical and spiritual impact on him—like J.J. Cale’s “Sensitive Kind”—which reminded him of the dive bars his dad took him to as a child. Featuring songs by Buffalo Springfield, Led Zeppelin, Glen Campbell, Bob Dylan, and The Rolling Stones’ “Play with Fire,” “Pastimes” was self-produced in as few takes as possible for authenticity’s sake. Each song is distilled by LeBlanc’s take on Americana.
Dylan LeBlanc’s top three deserted island vinyl picks he reveals to me are Nick Drake’s Five Leaves Left, Cat Power’s You are Free, and The Rolling Stones’ Beggars Banquet, but these days the father of four doesn’t have time to listen to his collection of “way too much vinyl” as he’s making food for his kids and doing the dad thing, he says. But he does manage to carve out time to write after dropping his daughter off at daycare.
The balance of music and family has quelled the angst LeBlanc has felt for so long. “Having a kid, you don’t have time to worry about what’s going on with you as much. The things I used to nitpick at or little nuanced thoughts that liked to dance around my head don’t take up as much space as they used to because it doesn’t fucking matter anymore,” he says. “I still struggle and have a lot of good and bad days, but I have a lot to be grateful for and in spite of myself, things are going well for me.”
Come this April LeBlanc will be heading into the studio to record his fifth studio album that he’s been writing for the last three years. With a return to his roots—more like Cautionary Tale—the album will be more character-driven with some cowboys livin’ out the late 19th century themes, and addresses the Mexican border crisis. “We are living in some strange times right now and I’d be remiss if I didn’t write some songs about that,” he explains.
Dylan LeBlanc is currently on a farewell Renegade/Pastimes Midwest tour with David Ramirez through mid-March. In June he’ll be playing the Black Deer Festival of Americana in the UK alongside The Pretenders, Bonnie Raitt, and Nathaniel Rateliff. Expect the new album to come out in September of this year followed by a US and European tour.
