The Hideaway Café was one of the local venues to figure out socially-distanced concerts from the get go, and while the St. Petersburg listening room’s calendar is packed (Jimmy Buffett collaborator John Frinzi on Saturday, a Father’s Day show from Wisconsin road-dog Peter Mulvey, Wednesday’s gig by ethereal folk crooner Mountain Holler), this Friday gig from Leon Majcen is special.
The young, gravel-throated Bay area export just saw an album premiere on American Songwriter, and his new record (Back Till I’m Gone) sees release on the same day as this show, where only 12 two-top tables are available (if the first show sells out, there may be a late night gig added).
Majcen told Creative Loafing Tampa that money from pre-orders of the album will raise money to help the Southern Poverty Law Center fight racial injustice.
He said that the new album is the product of leaving home and seeing new places and things, with each song representing a different time period, realization, and experience that comes with leaving home for the first time and being left alone with yourself, in a room with nothing but a pen and paper.
Majcen grew up in Clearwater, but moved from Florida to New York City two years ago for school. He naturally had a hard time adjusting to life in a big city and found it hard to balance his two lives, so he put the experience into the album’s title track.
“It’s a reflection on the experiences, both good and bad,” Majcen said. “Going back and forth between Tampa Bay and New York inspired me to write this song. Feeling like a tourist in my hometown led me to feel like it was only a matter of time until I was going to be gone again.”
In high school, Majcen figured out that if he was going to get serious about writing songs, he would have to venture outside of the comfort and familiarity of his beach town paradise and see what else the world has to offer. Moving to New York City made him do a lot of living in such a short amount of time.
“Moving to a new place where I didn’t know anyone left me with a lot of alone time,” he told CL. “I found myself in a strange place, missing home and writing lots of songs. This song is a testament to that experience and being torn between two places.”
Leon Majcen, Fri. June 19, 6 p.m. $100-$150. Hideaway Café, St. Petersburg. hideawaycafe.biz
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This article appears in Jun 18-24, 2020.