Virginian James Leva is well known to North Carolina bluegrass and old-time music fans from his days with the duo Jones and Leva. He's an accomplished fiddler in the Galax tradition, as well as a fine guitarist and banjo player, and he's also a superb songwriter.
Jones and Leva came to an end in 2000, but Leva has continued to pursue his music. He released an extraordinary solo debut in 2001 titled Memory Theatre that featured ex-Solas guitarist John Doyle. The album included a number of fine original tunes and also more than hinted at the true breadth of Leva's musical influences.
Leva has just released his follow-up to Memory Theatre. Titled 'Til I Know [Copper Creek], this latest solo endeavor is a fascinating blend of Appalachian music, Cajun music, country music and modern folk. Every song on the album is a Leva original, and every song has its own bit of genius.
When I spoke with Leva about 'Til I Know, we initially discussed the mix of styles that characterize the new work.
"I've been in a transition period, both in my life and musically," he noted. "I didn't have a band, yet I had all these songs I'd written. I didn't have any preconceptions about this material because I wasn't playing out regularly.
A chance encounter at the LEAF Festival in Black Mountain, North Carolina, proved to be more significant than Leva might have imagined initially.
"While I was at the LEAF Festival, I ran into Sam Broussard and David Greely, who play with Steve Riley and The Mamou Playboys, the Cajun/Zydeco band," he continued. "They told me they'd heard Memory Theatre and really liked the record, liked the songs. They suggested that the next time I was doing something, maybe they could work with me."
Eventually, Leva sat down with a guitar and put some of his new tunes on tape. He then sent the tape to Broussard and Greely, and they were so impressed with Leva's songs that they booked time at La Louisiane studio in Lafayette, Louisiana, in order to get up with Leva and put some of his material on tape.
"I went to Lafayette in January 2004 and we recorded eight songs-or parts of eight songs-at La Louisiane," Leva explained. "A lot of great music was recorded in that studio, particularly back during the '50s. The place has a great ambience. I was also able to work with Rodney Miller, who's a famous Cajun pedal steel guitar player. He was having some heart trouble, so I didn't get as much of him as I wanted, but the stuff he did on the album is really cool.
"One of the things I enjoyed most about the experience was visiting these old Cajun fiddlers. Since I speak French, David takes me out to see these guys and we sit around and talk music.
"You know, every time I go to Louisiana, I meet musicians who tell me how much they love Virginia mountain music," he added. "And a lot of my bluegrass friends truly love Cajun music. It's interesting how Cajun musicians have absorbed country music and turned it into their own thing.
When Leva finished his recording work in Lafayette, he returned home and went back into the recording studio in Afton, Virginia.
"I brought in some people who play old-time and bluegrass, and some of my band mates, and we did the rest of the songs on the album and finished up some other stuff. We mixed the record up here, too."
In discussing the tunes on 'Til I Know, Leva explained that the lyrics for the title track were inspired by Leva's 6-year-old daughter, Vivi. One day he was driving around with Vivi in the backseat, and she was singing one of her spontaneous original tunes. Leva heard her sing the line: "I will love you 'til I know." He immediately realized that he would have to borrow Vivi's thought-provoking lyric, and it ultimately proved to be the hook in the title song of his new CD.
As for the arrangement of "'Til I Know," Leva explained: "I was listening to this musician from Mali named Neba Solo. He's a balafon [balafon is a wooden instrument that resembles a xylophone, but has its own distinctive sound] player. I heard this album by him and this one song stuck in my head. It had this great riff.
"One day I was sitting around watching basketball on TV with the sound turned down, playing the banjo, and this Neba Solo riff just started playing itself on the banjo," he continued. "I made a song out of it, and then, for some reason, the Francophone part of my brain turned on and I wrote the song in French. We recorded the song in Louisiana. I sang it live and played the banjo, while Sam Broussard was playing guitar and just reacting to what I was doing. Then I brought it back to Virginia and added Johnny Gilmore, a hip-hop drummer, and a jazz bass player named Pete Spaar.
"What I like most about the song is that nobody's trying to do anything they don't do. I've got a Cajun guitarist, a hip-hop drummer, a jazz bassist, and me, and we're all basically taking off on a song I picked up from an African balafon player."
Like a lot of musicians, Leva is a music fan, and as such, he's intrigued by a good deal of music that emanates from a wide variety of sources. Musicians today are more willing than ever before to crunch genres if it suits their purpose and, by the same token, less tolerant than ever of being pigeonholed by either record labels or music journalists.
"If I'm being billed strictly as an old-time musician, that's gonna cut out a whole lot of people who might like what I'm doing," Leva noted. "Like this band I've got now-Camp Mountain Bluegrass. We're all from either old-time or bluegrass backgrounds, but we all listen to different kinds of music."
"When you listen to 'Til I Know," he continued, "what you're listening to is the accumulation of a lifetime of playing music in this age. I go from learning from old-time fiddlers who were born in the 19th century to playing nowadays with guys from Africa and Turkey and Louisiana.
"You know, sometimes my brother and I get together this band we call The Leva Brothers Rastabilly Band. We play classic George Jones and Buck Owens with the hillbilly harmonies, but by just moving the beat it turns into perfect ska."
© 2006-2007 James Leva. All Rights Reserved