Luke's Only Human

Luke's Only Human

Bruce Von Stiers

Luke LeBlanc is a fairly young man, only in his mid ‘20's. But listening to his songs, you'd think he was a well-worn veteran of life's ups and downs.

Luke taught himself to play guitar before he even became a teenager. At age 13, Luke won the Zimmy, a musical award named after Robert Zimmerman (Bob Dylan's real name). Two well received albums followed and then Luke garnered a huge following under the stage name Little Diamonds.

This year finds Luke with a brand new album out. The recording for the album began before the pandemic and was completed sometime later. The title of the album is Only Human. It is being distributed by 145 Entertainment.

Only Human was produced and engineered by Erik Koskinen. He also played electric guitar, bass and pedal steel guitar. Erik has worked on albums for artists such as Becky Kapell and bands like Dead Man Winter along with recording his own music.

John Cleve Richardson played piano, organ and bass on the album along with doing background vocals. John is a Twin Cities musician whose album, Angels, has been well received.

Keri Joy played violin on the album. Besides being a sought after studio musician, Keri has her own album out and regularly plays with her folk group, SisterTree.

Erin Bekkers plays the drums on the album. He is currently the drummer for the band, Midwest Mayhem.

Luke plays guitar, harmonica, piano and organ on the album. He provides all of the lead vocals.

Driving is the song that starts out the album. It is a head-bopping tune with great vocals and terrific guitar and violin music.

Lowry Avenue is about guy who has a record store that nobody goes to anymore. But it's much more than that. It can be a metaphor for holding on the past while the world moves on. And maybe moving on yourself. As a bit of useless trivia, there is actually a Lowry Avenue in Minneapolis. The song has a toe-tapping beat and fluid vocals. There is some really cool violin in the song as well.

The Way It Goes is about being a loner and going his own path. Again, the music is toe-tapping and the vocals are fluid.

Same Blues deals with his life events and the how they didn't turn out like he thought they would. The song has fantastic pedal guitar and sad but fluid vocals.

Mourning someone is what Too Early Gone is all about. It has some great violin and guitar music backing Luke's vocals.

Picking the tempo back up is Water. Trying to find the right combination to make a relationship work is kind of what I got from the song.

The title track, Only Human, is something might make people think of Bob Dylan. The song has a Dylanesque quality with heartfelt vocals and fantastic music.

Good Times Gone has some nice guitar. It's about not letting good life fade away.

Oh My Lordy is a toe-tapping tune about trying to forget her. It has some cool harmonica, great guitar and really decent lead and backing vocals.

Nothing To Lose is the final song on the album. It is has a good acoustic guitar sound backing solid vocals.

Luke LeBlanc's songs take you through life's ups and downs, all with fluid vocals and terrific music. I really liked Only Human, especially the songs Driving, Lowry Avenue and The Way It Goes.

Only Human has now been released and can be found at various music outlets and streaming services.

The official web site for Luke is https://lukeleblanc.com/ He also has a music page on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/lukeleblancmusic/

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