© 2006-2012 James Leva. All Rights Reserved.
James Leva and Purgatory Mountain release their new CD February 1, 2007. Fourteen tunes and songs including several originals by James, traditional tunes from Galax / /Mt. Airy, West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky.
James: Fiddle, Guitar and Lead and Harmony Vocals; Al Tharp: Banjo, Bass, Lead and Harmony Vocals; Danny Knicely: Mandolin, Guitar, Harmony Vocals; Matty Olwell: Cajon, Hambone, Fiddlesticks, Feet, and Foot Stomp.
James Leva plays Bourgeois and Rockbridge guitars and uses fiddle bows made by Lee Guthrie. Winkin Eye was recorded at Al Tharp’s Recording Studio in New Orleans, Louisiana Recorded May 9-12 "There'll Be None On The Other Side", recorded on July 11, 2006 by Les Thompson at Log Cabin Studios in Leesburg, Virginia.
Winkin'Eye
© 2007 COPPER CREEK RECORDS
James' CD, "Til I Know", is on Copper Creek Records. David Greely and Sam Broussard (you might know them from Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys) helped co-produce the recording. It features 13 original tunes and songs and musicians from Louisiana and Virginia, including David and Sam, Cajun pedal steel legend Rodney Miller, Kevin Wimmer, Kyle Hebert, Mark Schatz, Larry Keel, Spencer Lathrop and Johnny Gilmore on drums and percussion, David Winston and Will Lee on banjo, and Camp Mountain members Danny Knicely and Kristin Andreassen.
James Leva (vocals, guitar, fiddle); Sam Broussard (guitar, slide guitar, background vocals); Daniel Knicely (guitar, mandolin, background vocals); Larry Keel (guitar); David Winston (claw hammer banjo); David Greeley (fiddle, background vocals); Kevin Wimmer (accordion); Kyle Hebert (bass guitar); Spencer Lathrop, Johnny Gilmore (drums).
'Til I Know
"Every song on the album is a Leva original, and every song has its own bit of genius."
- Cross Cultural Inspirations, March 2005
"We've been taught that Appalachian is a hybrid, a cross between the music of Africa and the Scots-Irish who settled in the region. Until recent memory only a few performers have tried to meld the styles together. Leva is a hugely talented fiddler who, along with Carol Elizabeth Jones, has written and produced some wonderful original, albeit deeply rooted, music. Each recording includes some of James' fiddling but they always leave the listener wanting more."
-Tom Druckenmiller,
Sing Out! Magazine
Memory Theatre
Vertie's Dream
Copper Creek Records, © 2000
Jones and Leva's recording, featuring John Reischman on mandolin combines nine Jones and Leva originals with their versions of five traditional pieces. Original songs include "Something Shall Remain," "Vertie's Dream," and "The Man In Me." Traditional songs include "Dip Your Fingers In Some Water" and "Minister's Farewell." In her notes for this album, Suzanne Thomas writes: "To my ears, Jones and Leva are the best vocal duet on the scene today..."
Journey Home
Rounder Records 0457, © 1998
Thirteen Jones and Leva originals including "She Could Have Loved Him," "Drunkard's Lantern," "Satan I Won't Be Your Servant No More," and "Hosanna." The Boston Herald said of this recording "The gorgeous retro-country duo Jones and Leva have skills and spirit that equal any traditionalist singers alive ... It's some of the prettiest, most vivid music made in 1998."
Light Enough to Find My Way
Rounder CD 0407, © 1997
I was no more a fan of simple, elegant songs of loss than I was of any other kind, so I was startled by what came over me when I heard "Where Did You Go?" from Jones and Leva's Journey Home. Here is a man, I thought, who can get blood on the walls while singing about bird songs. And of course he wasn't singing about birds - great songwriters don't just sing about birds, they push their image through the bones of your chest until you feel perhaps a little something of the fire in the guts that Saint Teresa of Avila felt in her vision of being pierced by an angel's spear.
Maybe I'm over the top here, but this thing passing through our bones the hard way is why musicians still play, songwriters still write and listeners still listen. I'm in it for the glory myself, but still, I've noticed even in the midst of all the glory and Riviera vacations that life gets harder as we age. I guess it's just a matter of constantly updating our coping skills.
When James gets up from the floor - dusty but defiant and happy to be here with the rest of us - he writes. Others do it, but few of them can tell stories like James can. He starts with tradition - and there are several of them on this album - but he ends by putting you there, and all of a sudden you are the child in "Family Again," or the hopeful voice in "The Music's Over," both contained herein. The stories are wrapped within the organic traditions that James the musician commands so well, but in the end it's going straight in, and I never care how it got there.
- Sam Broussard
“The music of Carol Elizabeth Jones and James Leva falls definitely within the category of old-time country, but is in no way confined by the term. It is nurtured and strengthened by its connection. These songs, though new, have the quality of having already stood the test of time. And the voices! These people love to sing, and the combination of their voices is a joy to hear: there is a purity of tone and a real attention to detail of phrasing that never sounds forced or studied, but achieves a freedom and emotional depth that is all too rare” - Laurie Lewis
“James and Carol Elizabeth know and respect the deep roots of country music. Their original songs reflect and magnify those sounds and themes,offering the listener an essential modern perspective” - Tim O’Brien
"Besides being two of my favorite people in the business, Carol Elizabeth & James play some of the purest, most real, straight from the heart, emotive music I've ever heard. Their original tunes are timeless and unforgettable. And with tunes like "Scorned & Mocked" and "When We Have Love," James is establishing himself as one of the premier gospel songwriters on the planet. Carol Elizabeth's singing swoops and soars and is absolutely mesmerizing." - David Higgs,
Bluegrass Breakdown
(WPLN-FM, Nashville)
© 2005 COPPER CREEK RECORDS
© 2001 COPPER CREEK RECORDS
Recordings
The Renegades (From the collection of James Leva) included James Leva, Richie Stearns (of the Horse Flies), June Drucker (of the Heartbeats) and Carol Elizabeth Jones.
The Hellbenders - a 1990 recording. The band was host band for the first Clifftop festival and its members were James Leva, Bruce Molsky, David and Mary Winston, the late great Dave Grant.
Plank Road String Band –(From the collection of Al Tharp)
Field Recorders Collective Reissues!
