Backroads balladry

Leon Majcen

Won’t ya take a ride with me / On the road dog express / Where living ain’t easy / But life’s the best, sings Leon Majcen on his … album, ‘The Leaving Kind.’ Produced by Pat Lyons (Colter Wall, Sam Barber) and engineered by Sean Sullivan (Sturgill Simpson, Old Crow Medicine Show, Sierra Hull), it’s a collection of rugged and romantic cowboy songs that trod on as earnestly as Majcen himself. “This music thing requires life to move a lot more quickly than it should, and racking up fifty thousand miles a year can take its toll,” he says. “But I wouldn’t trade the chance for anything.” In a wind-worn voice, over unpretentiously plucked guitars, Majcen sings of cheap motels, long highways, tackle shops, sinking suns, cokes, smokes, and postcards—you can nearly hear the dust kicking up around him.

In 2025, Rolling Stone proclaimed Majcen “in the middle of a major career rise.” He’d toured with the likes of Margo Price, Trampled by Turtles, American Aquarium and Turnpike Troubadours putting borrowed spotlight to good use; audiences locked into his backroads balladry, a vagabondish blend of wit and grit frequently compared to Prine. Majcen’s prolific output—four albums in five years—gathered continuous acclaim. His … fifth, ‘The Leaving Kind,’ is out September 4, 2026 on Cloverdale Records.