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Leahey’s uncompromising attitude and renewed passion for his music have a whole lot to do with his staring down the prospect of an untimely death—or possibly the loss of his hearing—earlier this decade. Requiring brain surgery to remove a life-threatening tumor from his hearing nerve, the odds of the latter were an anxiety-inducing 50 percent. “Driving to the hospital with my wife the morning of the operation, I put on Lightning 100 in Nashville. Petty's 'A Face in the Crowd' was on the radio, and it hit me hard—the production was so enveloping, and I was really cognizant of the different instruments coming from the left and right speakers. It was a gorgeous, lush, layered sound. I wanted so badly to be able to wake up after the operation and still hear music with the same appreciation I had in that moment.” 

 Thankfully for Leahey, the procedure was a success, his hearing was unfazed and, after a long recovery, he remains cancer free. The experience redefined what playing music meant to him. “I nearly lost my ability to make, hear and appreciate music, and that inevitably changes you,” he says. “As I got healthier, I was drawn to writing songs that celebrated life. Songs that sounded as huge and immediate as the songs I heard on the radio as a boy in 1989—which is why we called the new album Airwaves.”

 

Upon returning from tour earlier this year, Boo Ray went straight into the studio with his band to lay down his next record. His creativity hit on all cylinders, and Tennessee Alabama Fireworks was born out of a deep searching desire to address some grim realities of today’s world and it’s constantly-disconnected relationships. The album shifts between joyous, zen-like optimismand devastating critical care situationsthat can only come from living life and learning to navigate dark waters. Even considering such hard, inescapable truths, Boo Ray eyes a future full of hope and promise with craftsmanship that is built to last.