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Leon Bridges: Leon review – deliciously soulful confection with added country

(Columbia)The musician’s emotional fourth album borrows liberally from the past but the themes are modern and the sound utterly timeless

When poet of the pillowcase Leon Bridges was promoting his Gold-Diggers Sound album in 2021, he told the Guardian he wanted to become one of the few black artists making country music. Over the years he’s earned some spurs, creating songs that could be called country to varying degree, in collaboration with fellow Texan icons like Kacey Musgraves and Miranda Lambert, as well as Khruangbin on the lovely Texas Sun. He blends it all into what he calls his “gumbo”, a simmering mix of southern sounds, using music as a path to connect his past to his present, letting lost loves and home town nostalgia suffuse the stew.

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