Show Review: Logan Ledger & Zack Fedor at the Golden Dagger in Chicago
My long-overdue first time seeing Logan Ledger surpassed expectations as he wowed the crowd at Chicago’s Golden Dagger.
Logan Ledger. Photo by Carol Roth.
It was a gloomy seven-hour drive from Minneapolis to Chicago on November 18, 2022. After a mild beginning to autumn, the temperature had plunged, and snow flurries came and went—along with a driving wind that made my car wobble from time to time. None of that dampened my anticipation, though, as I drew closer to my first time seeing one of my favorite current artists live.
In 2018 and 2019, it felt like Logan Ledger was poised to dominate the Americana scene, and deservedly so. He’d been brought to the attention of T Bone Burnett, who took him under his wing and produced his debut album. Rapturous buzz surrounded the Nashville newcomer, and his ascent to stardom seemed inevitable.
Ever since hearing his stunning debut single “Starlight” in March 2019, I’d been hoping for a tour to come through Minneapolis. In November of that year, tickets went on sale for an April 2020 show in town—coinciding with his album release—and I snapped one up.
We all know the punchline to this joke; his album dropped at just about the worst possible moment in recent history, so the payoff to all the hype was muted at best. The Minneapolis show was rescheduled to August 2020, then to May 2021, then to February 2022. As I waited, ever more impatient, I bought two more tickets to back-to-back shows in Wisconsin. I was going to live it up whenever Ledger came through the Midwest! But sometime in 2021, the tour was canceled outright. There were to be no other concrete prospects for seeing him live until late 2022.
When the Chicago show was announced, I waited a bit to see if a Midwest tour developed around the date, maybe somewhere in Minnesota or Wisconsin. It became clear this was a one-off show, so a road trip was in order. I got a ticket, booked time off work and hit the road.
Despite snow, wind and traffic, and having to download the parking meter app in the freezing cold once I got to Chicago, I arrived at the club with 20 minutes to spare.
The Venue
The Golden Dagger, Chicago. Photo by Carol Roth.
Located in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood, the Golden Dagger is a recent incarnation of a venue that’s had several names; from 2003 until the pandemic it was the Tonic Room. It underwent a complete renovation in 2021 (including reconfiguring the stage layout).
Its new name has a story of its own. During a years-earlier renovation, workers had unearthed a ceremonial dagger in a window well, as well as a pentagram on the floor and mysterious symbols on the walls; remnants of its time as the meeting place for an occultish group known as the Golden Dawn. (Before that, the locale had been a brothel and speakeasy.) It’s no surprise that workers have reported paranormal experiences and that the place is on many lists of Chicago’s most-haunted spots.
As soon as I stepped into the smallish bar, I knew the Golden Dagger was my kind of place. They bill themselves as “Chicago’s most artist-friendly music venue”; I don’t know Chicago’s scene very well, but I wouldn’t doubt it to be true. It was love at first sight, and I got more impressed as the night wore on. Despite its size, it’s got a good flow, a small but well-placed stage, fantastic sound for a bar, and a message on its rotating digital signage asking patrons to respect artists and keep conversation to a minimum during sets. Best of all, the patrons are actually there to listen! Plus, the venue books an impressive roster of acts. If you're ever in Chicago, put it on your must-visit list.
The Opener
Garrett Foster (l) and Zack Fedor (r). Photo by Carol Roth.
I hadn’t heard of Zack Fedor before, but now that I’ve seen him I’m surprised at that. According to an online bio he’s been around the Midwest since 2011. (Then again, I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of Midwest Americana acts outside of Minnesota.)
Performing on acoustic guitar with break-laden vocals and accompanied on pedal steel by Garrett Foster, Fedor delivered a twangtastic set of country music. His lyrics are entertaining but thought-provoking; sarcastic, silly, cynical, philosophical and heartfelt by turns.
Now that he’s on my radar, I know Fedor is very active on the Midwest scene, including hosting an open mic Wednesdays at Chicago’s Pony Inn, and that he’s working on a new album. Here’s hoping he comes through the Twin Cities at some point!
The Main Event
Logan Ledger. Photo by Carol Roth.
As excited as I was for the show, I hadn’t fully internalized how overwhelming it would be to see Ledger live. He has, in my opinion, about the best voice of any living country performer. It’s like someone somehow combined the DNA of Roy Orbison, Willie Nelson and George Jones into a single human being. On his studio recordings, it’s exquisite. In livestreams from his kitchen during lockdown it still sounded surprisingly good. In person, it’s almost unnervingly beautiful.
Then there are his lyrics. Probably the geekiest article I’ve written for this site was an analysis of themes in his songs. I’m extremely drawn to dualities and the inevitable gray areas that crop up in between opposites, and Ledger seems to share my fixation. Almost every song of his explores some kind of duality: starlight and daylight, asleep and awake, rain and sun, human and machine, dream and reality, ghosts and the living.
I had every intention of noting the setlist, but within two songs I was so captivated that I forgot all about that. I know he played a mix of songs from his 2020 album, several amazing covers (including at least one by the aforementioned Jones), and five or six fantastic new songs.
In addition to carrying on his fascination with dualities, the new songs all seemed linked to California (which is where Ledger, now based in Nashville, grew up). It may have been the fact that I was hearing them for the first time as acoustic renditions, but I found some of them to have more of a folk than a country vibe. We’ll know soon, because I learned that Ledger has a sophomore album coming out in 2023! Whatever direction his sound takes, I know his voice and songwriting will make it magical.
Following the set, which felt like it was five minutes long even though he played for well over an hour, I went to meet Ledger. My main goal was to calmly state my admiration of his music without opening the floodgates of three-plus years of pent-up superfandom. Friends, I assure you that I failed spectacularly on that front. But, if I haven’t scared him away from the Midwest for good, I’m crossing my fingers that he’ll get to tour on his new album the way he should’ve been able to with his debut, that he’ll finally get the wider recognition he deserves, and that you’ll all get a chance to experience this phenomenon firsthand.
Carol Roth. Photo credit: Dan Lee.
Carol Roth is a full-time marketing copywriter and the primary music journalist and social media publicist for Adventures in Americana. In addition to studying the guitar and songwriting, Carol’s additional creative side hustle is writing self-proclaimed “trashy” novels under the pseudonym T.A. Berkeley!
