Scottish-Canadian Singer/Songwriter DAVID LEASK bounces new songs off historic walls Releasing “THE CLARKE HALL SESSIONS” “Leask brings to his music a compellingly honest baring of the soul.” Toronto Star From historic significance comes artistic magic. When David Leask rented Clarke Memorial Hall, a local landmark where his in-laws first met at a music festival over 70 years ago, his intention was to record video of some live performances for promotion and web content. (Check them out at www.clarkehallsessions.com) Juno-nominated audio engineer Dave Vanderploeg brought in some studio recording gear to capture the beautiful acoustics of the century old community hub. Armed with just an acoustic guitar, along with Juno Award-winning musicians Justin Abedin (Jack Soul) with his electric guitar and Sean O' Connor (NOJO) with a whistle, flute and a couple of saxophones, they set out to capture a group of songs, raw, live and in the moment. Most of them were recorded in one freewheeling take. As they listened back to the afternoon's performances, it dawned on everyone that some magic had been captured. These 12 tracks became David's 5th full- length release, "The Clarke Hall Sessions". Crackling with unrepeatable spontaneity and creative energy, this collection includes 7 previously unreleased songs, 4 reinterpretations of fan favourites and a cool Celtic-flavoured cover of Van Morrison's "Into The Mystic". In what could be described as David's "Trinity Sessions", the music captures not just his diversity and quality as a songwriter but his essence as a highly seasoned performer who has played more than 2,500 shows since moving to Canada from his native Scotland more than 20 years ago. As David puts it, "Nowadays we live in a world where most of the music you hear is created with multiple overdubs, many hours of edits & fix ups. This one was made in the moment, captured entirely live in one take (save for one song where I forgot the lyrics and had a rare second take that I could cut from.)" Lending special significance to the recording session, Clarke Hall is where David's wife's parents met 72 years ago when her mother was singing in the Peel Music Festival. Her father, a Port Credit boy, caught sight of the beautiful 17 year old Toronto girl singing "Little Boy Blue" and made a point to come back to see her at the Gold Medal Concert the following day. The rest as they say is history. "The hall has a great atmosphere both acoustically and historically. There's a sense of ghosts, personal and otherwise, in the place," David notes.