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Posts Tagged ‘Singer-Songwriter’

Album – Return to the Bluebird Motel

Posted in Music, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on February 22, 2026| Leave a Comment »

A New Chapter in the Bluebird Series

Return to the Bluebird Motel is the newest installment in the Bluebird series — a collection of albums that follow one voice across confession, clarity, distance, and renewal.

It joins:

  • Night Shift at the Liar’s Club
  • Day Shift at the Heartbreak Café
  • Evening Run at the Bluebird Motel

Together, these records trace a lived-in American journey — told through small towns, long highways, diners, motel rooms, and the quiet realizations that arrive between destinations.

The Road East

In this chapter, the car turns east.

The Pacific has been seen. The illusion has faded. The singer drives with intention, retracing highways across the high desert, through mountain air, along the long plains. A yellow Labrador rides alongside him, steady and watchful.

Memories surface as landscapes change. Familiar places look different in return light. Old emotions settle into perspective. The journey widens the lens.

Each track captures a stop along the way:

  • A dashboard still holding traces of salt.
  • Cold air in Flagstaff under the tall pines.
  • Roadside motels that face the highway and remember passing headlights.
  • A small town that once thrived along Route 66.
  • The Ozarks opening up without question.
  • A lake in morning light.

The Bluebird Motel appears again — not as a destination, but as a remembered place that holds its own quiet gravity.

The Sound of Motion

The album moves at the pace of real travel — steady, grounded, unhurried.

Virtuoso finger-picked nylon-string guitar anchors the songs.
Stratocaster lines speak with clarity and restraint.
Pedal steel carries sustained emotion.
The rhythm section locks in with warmth and confidence.
Close harmonies rise in the choruses like shared understanding.

It’s music built for open roads and open windows.
Driving music with depth.
Storytelling that unfolds in daylight.

The Bluebird Series

If you’ve followed the journey from Night Shift at the Liar’s Club through Evening Run at the Bluebird Motel, this album expands the world and carries it forward.

If this is your first visit, the door is open.

Listen here:
👉 https://bill-leyden.bandcamp.com/album/return-to-the-bluebird-motel

— Bill Leyden

The Liar’s Club

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Just Beyond

Posted in Music, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on February 18, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Just Beyond is a record about how connection begins — and how it deepens.

It starts small. A glass set down carefully. A breath that lingers. Two people standing close enough to notice the quiet between them.

Across eight songs, that quiet opens into something steady and alive.

There’s a hardware store at the end of the day, dust suspended in late sunlight.
A bargain bin with the same squeezy toy in two different hands.
Dogs that recognize each other before their owners do.
A courthouse lawn on a Saturday afternoon.
An evening porch with the windows open and warm air settling in.

The dogs appear again and again — leash to leash, nose to nose — moving toward each other without second-guessing. They become a quiet reminder that instinct often arrives before certainty. While the people measure their steps, the dogs simply know. Their ease becomes the thread that pulls the story forward.

Each moment builds gently on the last. A sentence is spoken. A habit softens. Space turns into presence. What begins in pauses learns to grow. What grows begins to bloom.

By the time the porch light comes on, the story feels complete — not because anything was forced, but because something real was allowed to take root.

This album means a lot to me. It’s about discovering that closeness can unfold naturally, that warmth can deepen over time, and that sometimes the most powerful step forward is simply saying the first word.

Just Beyond begins in restraint and ends in connection — guided, in its own quiet way, by two dogs who were never afraid to walk toward each other.

You can listen to the full album here:

👉 https://bill-leyden.bandcamp.com/album/just-beyond

Thank you for listening — and for being part of the journey.

— Bill

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Evening Run at the Bluebird Motel — The Final Chapter of the Bluebird Trilogy

Posted in Music, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on November 12, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Now streaming on Bandcamp
👉 Listen here

There’s a certain kind of twilight that only happens on the road — that breath between leaving and arriving, when the light turns forgiving and every story feels almost finished.

Evening Run at the Bluebird Motel is the third and final chapter of my Bluebird Trilogy, following Night Shift at the Liar’s Club and Day Shift at the Heartbreak Café.
It’s a cinematic Americana album about release — about that moment when you stop looking for redemption and start finding peace in motion.

From the lonely hum of “Vacancy Sign” to the dawn epilogue “Bluebird Light,” each song carries a little humor, a little heartache, and a lot of light.
There’s laughter in “The Ice Machine’s Lullaby,” memory in “Polaroid in the Drawer,” and motion in “Half Tank of Faith.”
The title track, “Evening Run,” drifts like a waltz into forgiveness — the kind you don’t ask for, the kind that just happens when the road quiets down.

Artist’s Reflection – Bill Leyden

When I started writing Night Shift at the Liar’s Club, I thought it was about other people — the lost, the restless, the ones who couldn’t sleep.
By the time I reached Evening Run at the Bluebird Motel, I realized it was about me learning to let go.
These songs were never meant to fix anything; they were meant to forgive something — the past, the road, myself.

The Bluebird trilogy began in confession, passed through redemption, and ends here in release.
Now the motel is miles behind, but I still see its glow sometimes in the rearview.
That soft neon blue isn’t a place anymore — it’s a reminder that peace can find you anywhere, even on the way to somewhere else.

This record closes a long circle for me — one filled with stories, late-night neon, motel walls, and the quiet company of the open road.
It’s a film for the ears, and I hope when you hear it, you feel that same Bluebird light rising somewhere inside you.

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My First Rodeo – Wry Wisdom in Song

Posted in Music, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 17, 2025| Leave a Comment »

There’s a certain kind of hero who never looks the part. He spills the kibble on his pants, shows up late to the dance, and somehow wins your heart anyway. That’s the spirit running through my new album, My First Rodeo.

It’s a collection of nine songs about life’s crooked lines, where humor and tenderness live side by side. These are stories of small-town detours, unexpected brushes with fame, cheeky misadventures, and the kind of love that finds you in the middle of the mess.

One of the tracks closest to my heart is Late to the Dance. It tells the story of a guy who means well but always gets caught in the details — walking Mama’s dog, fixing her TV remote, listening to her read from Reader’s Digest — until he finally shows up to the dance a little behind schedule. It’s funny, it’s tender, and it reminds us that sometimes the latecomer sees the night in a way no one else can.

The rest of the album follows in that same wry spirit: from the big buckle bravado of My First Rodeo to the comic wisdom of Zip It! to the warm domestic humor of This Calls for Coffee. There are brushes with luck, stories of legacy, and plenty of pedal steel and close harmonies to carry the ride.

If you’ve ever felt like the stumble-bum who somehow stumbles into grace, this album’s for you.

🎵 Listen to Late to the Dance here: Track Link
🎶 Explore the full album My First Rodeo: Album Link

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