Spencer Mackenzie announces fourth album release and Ridgeway show

Blues rock musician Spencer Mackenzie will release his fourth studio album Empty Chairs on February 20, with a hometown show set for February 27 at the Sanctuary Centre for the Arts in Ridgeway.

The 11-track record continues a heavier blues rock direction and launches alongside a regional tour across Southern Ontario and Quebec, with Fort Erie-area fans getting the first local stop.

Empty Chairs includes 10 original songs and one cover of ‘Don’t Know Where I’m Going’ by Rory Gallagher. It follows Mackenzie’s 2022 record Preach to My Soul, which earned a Juno nomination.

“There are a couple of heavy songs that feel like a protest or a call to action, and the music really goes along with that energy,” Mackenzie told Fort Erie Radio.

The title song centres on the 2018 Parkland school shooting, a subject Mackenzie said he wrote about out of concern for gun control and social justice. Musical influences on the record include Joe Bonamassa, Gary Clark Jr. and classic blues guitar traditions.

Several songs were co-written with his father, Richard Mackenzie, a collaboration that has been part of all four studio releases.

“Some fathers and sons like to hunt and fish. For us, it’s songwriting,” said Mackenzie.

Several tracks trace back to early lyric ideas or poems from his father, which Mackenzie later developed into full songs.

“It doesn’t even feel like a working relationship. It feels like a way of living, a way of being, a way of writing,” he said.

Mackenzie said returning to play locally carries added weight after years of focusing on regional and out-of-province shows. He currently lives in Ridgeway and also teaches guitar and vocal lessons to local students.

“Everybody wants to see everybody succeed, and that support is what makes Fort Erie feel like home,” he said.

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