Welcome to Strongwriters On Songwriting (Inside the Song), with your hosts Eric Bjarnason Martin and Scott Bradshaw. Each series will centre around a different theme with highly accomplished songwriters delving into their own personal songwriting process. Each episode will provide an opportunity to listen to and explore a few of the featured artist's songs.ROAD WARRIORS Series 2 Episodes 3-6 JERRY LEGER Leger has a thing for ghosts. The Toronto singer/songwriter confirmed it a couple of years ago when he went on a personal journey to explore many of Ontario’s largely unknown ghost towns, having been inspired by the writings of historian Ron Brown. Leger has immortalized one of those towns, Burchell Lake, on his new album Time Out For Tomorrow, containing 10 portraits of the impermanence of life, love, or simply catching a glimpse of a shooting star.Yet, other ghosts reside much deeper in Leger’s songs. Whether they’re the voices of Roy Orbison, Lou Reed, Gene Clark, Rick Danko or Ronnie Lane, they naturally complement the universal truths at the core of Jerry Leger’s music, along with his undying faith in rock ‘n roll as a way for all people to find common ground.LINDY VOPNFJÖRD: State of the Heart reflects not only Lindy’s personal evolution toward a new love and revolution as a dedicated songwriter, but also his fledgling partnership with Danny Michel, who breathes new life into Lindy’s style by imbuing his signature folk sound with a modern feel.The opening moments on the title track “State of the Heart” carry the audience in this new direction, as he sings: “This was meant to be a protest song, but the politics were wrong / Not a time to be sublime / let’s leave the politics behind.” State of the Heart displays the synergy between the sound and vision of a meticulous perfectionist working out of a rural Southern Ontario studio and the soul of a self-described “joyologist and freedom nerd” who recently moved to Hamilton, Ontario.SAMANTHA MARTIN:Drawing influences from Memphis soul greats such as Aretha Franklin and Brooklyn’s Sharon Jones, Samantha Martin has been nominated for thirteen Maple Blues Awards to date, 4 times in 2019 and 3 times in 2020. Her record Run To Me was released on April 28th, 2018. Eleven months after releasing their recording Run to Me, the 11-piece blues/soul band was nominated for a Juno Award for Blues Album of the Year.