This town is littered with the bones of singer/songwriters past who’ve tried to make it big in Chicago with just a guitar, a pen and a good voice. Stephen Leonard could have been among them, except for the fact that he writes, sings and plays better than most national acts and is devastatingly handsome (I’m not kidding, he’s freaking gorgeous). His first album, With a Pen, while beautifully written and sung, was home-recorded solo, along the lines of many local minstrels before. Listening to that album now is like hearing the first albums by Indigo Girls, Donovan or Dylan: stripped, well done, but nothing like the more fleshed out sounds to follow.

Stephen recently invited me into the studio to hear the creation of this sophomore release, His Fire (out March, 2012) and I was rewarded in truckloads for my faith in his future. His Fire, unlike the first one, is a full concept album, meant to be heard as a complete piece. Says Leonard, “It is basically the story of a man confronting and defying freedom, fear, vulnerability, opportunity, lust, loss and death. I think these are all emotions that we deal with every day in our own weird ways and I really wanted to dive into those emotions.” Those emotions, as gay men and women often turn into suicide and bullying. He’s not afraid to go deep on this one, “I didn’t want to write just from the perspective of it getting better. I actually wanted to dive a little deeper to what brings about those confused feelings, what it’s like to approach death and loss and devastation and inequality and ultimately what it takes to derive strength to keep on keeping on.”

In no place is this bridge between Stephen’s personal approach to writing and his public social awareness more evident than in the track “In Your Way” (which I dubbed Radio-Hedwig or Midnight Radiohead; think Creep vs. Midnight Radio). He started it from a breakup standpoint, but soon found it had double meaning. “I was writing this at the time of all of the youth suicides, and I couldn’t help but want to get into the head of the mothers or family members of those taking their lives, trying to save these boys from their soon-to-be mistakes.” The effect is staggering, the double meaning obvious, yet personal to the point of feeling voyeuristic. His finest cut yet. And if “In Your Way” and some of the other new cuts are any indication, Stephen Leonard has no choice but to be the star he’s meant to be. Keep an eye on this one.

Check out Stephen’s debut CD at www.withapen.com/