GB Leighton is probably Minnesota’s best kept secret. Brian Leighton, the front man for the band, has been playing clubs in the Minneapolis region for almost a decade and a half, drawing huge crowds from an ever growing loyal fan base. He’s also one of the most productive songwriters coming out of the Twin Cities. His concerts are high octane parties that get people up and out of their seats, dancing and singing along.

In the early days, GB Leighton burned a path through the US, playing such clubs as Tramps in New York, Howin’ Wolf in New Orleans, Mississippi Nights in St. Louis, and Bohager’s in Baltimore. The band has sold out in 800 to 1200 seat venues but continues to draw eager fans to area clubs, becoming overwhelmingly one of Minnesota’s top-drawing bar bands. Though Leighton has toured nationally less frequently lately, he does take his musical wares down to Acapulco every January for a week of non-stop music and fun.

Leighton has also opened for the BoDeans and bluesman Jonny Lang at the Minnesota State Fair. He also has opened for Joe Cocker at the Minneapolis’ State Theatre. Leighton and his band appeared in a cameo and on the soundtrack for the independent film, “The Marksman,” which was viewed at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival in 1997.

His new six-piece band stands solidly behind Leighton’s originals and the handful of covers that have become audience favorites. Luke Kramer has been with Leighton since the early days of the band, providing blazing guitar licks that keep up with Leighton’s own vocal energy. On the new album, Shake Them Ghosts, due out at the end of May, Kramer adds lap steel to a few tracks. Ryan Inselman, Leighton’s new drummer, and Nick Salisbury on bass keep that solid danceable beat. But Jason Perri on sax and fiddle and James Patrick Carey on keys add even more color to these upbeat tunes. At a recent concert, Perri pranced along the edge of the stage, obviously moved by the music, while Carey swiveled his keyboard on his solos so that the audience could watch his skillful fingers.

Though Leighton respectably keeps his end up on rhythm guitar and harmonica, it is his powerful vocals that lead the band and the audience to musical ecstasy. This isn’t screamer rock that makes ladies swoon, but it’s solid singing, clear, understandable, and clenching. Audiences want to hear the words; they want to sing along; they want the songs and the singer to be something that they can relate to.

Most often Leighton’s songs are about love in one form or another. Sometimes, they’re break up songs, like “From Now On,” but it’s with the good humor and empowerment of Grace Potter’s “Toothbrush and My Table,” which is one of the finest breakup songs ever written, though Leighton wrote his a decade earlier. Others, like “Man in the Moon” tell of constancy and protection. Though “Shag” may speak of a casual encounter, it stresses using protection, which is really responsible coming from a band that has played mainly clubs in recent years.

But it is the songs on this new album, Shake Them Ghosts, and how they are presented that move Leighton and his band from just a bar band to a phenomenon that is capable of moving hearts and lives. “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah,” co-written by Billy Livsey (who has written for Lorrie Morgan and Mark Chestnut) is a high energy testament to the strength of a man’s love for a woman (or vice versa if a female singer embraced this song). “Favorite,” a song about trying to get back into the good graces of a woman, is fast becoming a fan favorite, and “Twisted” is running a close second. “Twisted” begins like a Primus track, rising up through the floorboards of a honkytonk and morphing into a good-hearted Mellencampish rock tune about the power of a woman to addict a man. Though that song could be bitter, it combines Leighton’s sense of humor and his natural optimism about love. That song, co-authored by Clay Mills and Stephanie Lewis, so impressed Mills he ran out of the studio at Still Working Music in Nashville and grabbed Clay Myers who runs the studio and said, “You’ve got to hear this,” something that Mills has rarely done.

But it is “Wings Workin’ Overtime,” another collaboration with Clay Mills, that shows the strength of this new album. It is song about the transformative power of a woman’s love that is seldom heard in this era. Leighton’s take on it is fresh, human, and very believable. Any man would give anything to have a woman like that or any woman to be that person. There are few songs in the roots or country genre that are that inspiring and it’s definitely something missing in rock music. But leave it to Brian Leighton to bring that good feeling across genres.

It should be noted that Inselman, Leighton’s new drummer, had just joined the band when Shake Them Ghosts was recorded. The skins were taken over by Kenny Aronoff, considered rock music’s best session drummer and who has played for John Mellencamp, Smashing Pumpkins, and Willie Nelson. However, recently seeing GB Leighton live, Inselman has shown that he has stepped into those big shoes with not only grace but with exceptional skill.

GB Leighton is a band to experience. Find them and the party at a venue near you or in their latest recording, Shake Them Ghosts. Check out tourdates and CD info at gbleighton.com.