Leave it to Andrew Leahey — frontman of Andrew Leahey & the Homestead, lead guitarist for Elizabeth Cook, longtime singer/songwriter, and award-winning music journalist — to become a cornerstone of America's busiest music community.
Hailed by Rolling Stone for their "celebratory mix of sharp storytelling and fist-pumping rock & roll swagger," Andrew Leahey & the Homestead are a classic band for the modern age, rolling a decades-spanning wealth of influences — the highway-bound hooks of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, the sweeping guitars of George Harrison, the concise power-pop of Cheap Trick, the piano craft of Harry Nilsson — into a contemporary sound. Over the course of four studio albums, they’ve become hometown heartland-rock heroes in Nashville, celebrated for their own performances as well as their all-star benefit shows — curated by Leahey and featuring collaborations with artists from across the musical spectrum — that raise money for Nashville-based non-profits and global social rights organizations.
Collaboration has been a consistent thread throughout Leahey's career. Raised in Virginia on a mix of rock & roll and classical music, he initially made his mark as a classical vocalist, winning national awards as a teenager before singing with the Juilliard Choral Union in New York City as a young adult. By 23 years old, he had already performed at world-class venues like Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. "Those rooms were amazing," he says, "but I missed playing with the bands I'd formed during high school and college. When you're a classical singer, you're executing someone else's music with precision, and you perform the same song the same way every time. Rock & roll is more adaptive than that. It allows you to be flexible: to react to the crowd, to the unique acoustics of the room, to the context of the world on any given night. To me, classical music felt like a monologue, but rock & roll was more like a conversation. And why would I want to talk at people when I could talk with them instead?"
The conversation continues with Leahey's newest project, American Static. It's an expansive double album, recorded with bandmates Jay Dmuchowski and Dan Holmes — both of whom also appeared on Andrew Leahey & the Homestead's international breakthrough, Airwaves, in 2019 — and stocked with the widest-reaching music of the group's career. Released in two volumes, American Static bounces between Oasis-sized rock bombast ("Caught Like A Fire"), lyric-driven Americana ("Stay Awake"), and Beatles-inspired classic pop ("Sign of the Times"), its diversity glued together by a band that has never been afraid to blur the boundaries between genres. Leahey, who wrote all 18 songs, showcases his multi-instrumentalist skills throughout both volumes, from the amplified guitar riffs that drive "Hot House" to the upright piano that stands at the center of retro-minded ballads like "Hanging Heavy" and "Carry a Weight."
Much of the music that comprises American Static, Vol. 1 (released in October 2021) and American Static, Vol. 2 (released in May 2022) was debuted during the Homestead's multi-year "Live & Online" livestream residency, which found the band playing more than 55 weekly shows throughout the Covid-19 era. "We knew we couldn't play the same songs week after week and expect our audience to keep showing up, so we forced ourselves to fill each show with new material," says Leahey. "We worked up more than 400 covers — everything from Bruce Springsteen to Benny Goodman — and began playing the original songs I’d been writing since we released Airwaves. As the weeks piled up, so did the new material." Those shows became a Thursday night tradition for thousands of fans, landing Leahey a spot in the Top 40 of Pollstar's Livestream chart along the way. By the time "Live & Online" came to a close, the band's livestreams had been watched by more than 100,000 viewers.
For Leahey, it wasn't the first time he'd turned to music to maintain a sense of perspective during a health scare. Years earlier, he'd been diagnosed with a brain tumor that rested on his cochlear nerve, jeopardizing not only his hearing, but his survival, too. The life-saving operation to remove the tumor took 12 hours; the recovery took more than 12 months. When Leahey returned to the road, he did so with a renewed purpose, crafting rock & roll anthems — including his first Top 50 Americana radio hit, "Little in Love," which appeared on his 2016 debut album Skyline in Central Time — that celebrated life, longevity, and everything he'd previously taken for granted.
Years later, it’s that same sense of purpose — entwined with twin electric guitars, stacked vocal harmonies, keyboards, and expansive production from Jon Estes (Steelism, John Paul White) — that powers American Static.
"This project came together while we were all stuck at home," says Leahey, "I certainly felt like a static American, shut indoors for more than a year. But there's a real sense of movement to that title, too. Imagine a radio dial that's being turned, with static occurring between stations. That static is simply the noise you have to hear before you find something better. To me, American Static represents both sides of the coin. These albums are immobility and transition — about the things that linger in our way, and the paths we take past them."
PRESS
"His LP, Airwaves, is a celebratory mix of sharp storytelling and fist-pumping rock & roll swagger. . .For Fans of: Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, Ryan Adams."
- Rolling Stone
“Over the ensuing years, the Virginia native has allowed most of his rootsy Americana layers to fall away, championing instead the great rock and pop of the 1960s and particularly the '70s as his musical foundation.”
"This is contemporary American roots-rock at its finest, championed by an ensemble that’s easily among the best of their breed."
“Andrew Leahey, the man who might just be the heir to Tom Petty.”
“He’s a kind of heartland hero, a dedicated rocker whose work brings quick comparisons to Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, the Black Crowes and others that share their inspiration with savvy, swagger, grit, and passion.”
“‘Keep the Car Running’ captures the band in full Cheap Trick mode, with Leahey, who also plays lead guitar in Elizabeth Cook’s band, slashing at his instrument and singing in an urgent tenor. It’s unrelenting rock for uncertain times.”
“Built to rattle the cheap seats and honor the FM dial of [Leahey’s] youth… Airwaves earns its rightful place in the heartland rock canon.”
“Leahey has captured rock ‘n’ roll in its purest form, a band full of buddies wailing on pawn shop instruments in a garage, those thundering chords shaking grout dust off the cinder blocks, singing about girls and dreams and good times. It’s the sound of hope — for big stages and packed arenas, but also for nights that go on forever and friendships that never shatter and drift.”
“Leahey and his band, the Homestead, command Airwaves with an atmospheric heartland style reminiscent of the likes of Tom Petty or Bruce Springsteen. . .effortlessly capturing an undeniable blue-collar sound.”
“In "Airwaves"…Nashville rocker Andrew Leahey laments being part of "the last generation raised on FM" -- and specifically on album-oriented rock radio. That tells you a lot about the rest of the album, a heartfelt homage to Leahey's rock heroes such as Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, R.E.M. and others."
- Billboard
"Sonic allusions to Memphis rock legends Big Star and Leahey's all-time favorite, Tom Petty."
- CMT
“He’s a gifted wordsmith and melody maker, and an ace guitarist.”
- WMOT.org