Noah C. Lekas Returns With A New Poetry Album & Chapbook: Flowers of Perennial Dissent

NASHVILLE, TN, UNITED STATES, July 24, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Poet, singer, rock band member, mailman—Noah C. Lekas has lived a life that refuses to fit into a single category. After seven years, he returns with FLOWERS OF PERENNIAL DISSENT, a new poetry album and chapbook that documents six supervised psychedelic therapy sessions during his recovery from a prolonged—and nearly fatal—illness. The result is neither a memoir nor a poetry record in the traditional sense, but a singular narrative experience: a first-person account of ego death, healing, mysticism, and the struggle to reconcile with the often extraordinary experiences of everyday life.

Where Lekas' acclaimed debut collection SATURDAY NIGHT SAGE consisted of a series of blue-collar poetic vignettes, FLOWERS OF PERENNIAL DISSENT follows a more structured narrative, and features musicians Luther Dickinson (North Mississippi Allstars, The Black Crowes), Charlie Parr (Minnesotan country-blues musician), Anthony Pirog (guitarist and leader of jazz-punk band The Messthetics), Ethan Miller (Comets On Fire, Howlin’ Rain), and James Toth (Wooden Wand), who transform each piece into a spoken-word psychedelic folk record.

At the heart of FLOWERS OF PERENNIAL DISSENT is the question of what it means to rebuild a life and an identity after the structures that once defined them have collapsed. For Lekas, ego death played a role in his ability to confront chaos, accept uncertainty, and learn how to move forward: “Ego death starts with the introduction of chaos,” Lekas explains, “and then that radical acceptance idea of, like, how do you not give up on your dreams and the things you love without living in delusion?”

To transform the six poems into music, Lekas enlisted Luther Dickinson, Charlie Parr, Anthony Pirog, Ethan Miller, and James Toth. “I had my thirty or so pages of notes, and then I contacted each musician who I had met or known, whether through writing or through music over the years [...] I had had some personal connection with everyone on the record.”

Lekas approached each musician with an open door to interpret his work however they saw fit. In just one paragraph, he included “what happened, an introduction to the project, the title of the track, and a two to three sentence description of what it was about. I said, “Can you create a soundscape, a piece of music—whatever you want—that's this length?””

The result is a spoken-word record in which each musician transforms the writer’s work into a distinct musical experience. According to Lekas, the collaborative process was both exciting and daunting. “That part was intimidating, working with people who aren’t just peers, but people whose art I genuinely love. I'm a genuine fan of everybody on this record.”

Despite the album’s emphasis on mysticism, spirituality, and psychology, FLOWERS OF PERENNIAL DISSENT is in no way an academic commentary, nor is it a case for psychedelic therapy. Instead, the project is an attempt to remain open to the mystery of the experience, for the artist’s sake and for that of his audience: “I'm not an academic, and I'm not a theologian,” Lekas says. “I'm a guy who had an experience, and wrote about it.”

FLOWERS OF PERENNIAL DISSENT will be released on October 23, 2026, and will be available on vinyl, CD, streaming platforms, and as a limited edition chapbook. Click HERE to pre-order the album and chapbook today!

Read the full interview with Noah C. Lekas on the Blind Owl Records Website.

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