James Leva

James also recorded two albums with the Renegades in the mid-90s. The Renegades, with Richie Stearns (of the Horse Flies), June Drucker (of the Heart Beats), and Carol Elizabeth Jones (of the Wildcats), combined traditional fiddle tunes and ballads with original songs from all four members. The Renegades toured nationally, playing major festivals throughout the US (including Alaska).James Leva is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter whose music is deeply rooted in Appalachian tradition. He learned much of his fiddle, banjo and vocal repertoire from great traditional masters such as Tommy Jarrell and Doug Wallin. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s he performed with seminal traditionally focused groups that were exploring the boundaries of Appalachian music. Bands such at Plank Road (with Al Tharp and Michael James Kott), Ace Weems and the Fat Meat Boys (with David Winston and Chad Crumm), and the Hellbenders.(with Bruce Molsky and Dave Grant) performed throughout the US and Europe and their recordings were widely influential. In the 90’s James formed the Free Will Savages with Dave Grant, Al Tharp and Dirk Powell. The Savages made two classic recordings, performed at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival where Jerry Douglas pronounced them “the perfect marriage between Ralph Stanley and the Sex Pistols.” Spin magazine writer, the late Renee Crist, dubbed the Savages’ radical new sound as the vanguard of “Appalachian World Beat”. In the late 90s James and Carol Elizabeth Jones, as Jones and Leva, made two widely acclaimed albums of original songs with the focus on traditional style vocal harmonies, for the Rounder label. Jones and Leva played major festivals in the US, Mexico, Canada and Great Britain. They were the subject of feature articles in a number of magazines, including Acoustic Guitar, Sing Out! And Dirty Linen.

More recently James has been part of Stephen Wade’s performance piece, “In Sacred Trust”, a tribute to the music and life of Hobart Smith, a great traditional musician from Saltville, Virginia, who died in 1967. “In Sacred Trust” was performed at Chicago’s Old Towne School, at the Birchemere in Alexandria, in Hobart’s hometown, and mainstage Saturday night at the Philadelphia Folk Festival in 2007.James is currently performing with Purgatory Mountain, with whom he recorded an album in 2007. Al Tharp (longtime veteran of Beausoleil), Danny Knicely (a brilliant young musician who has toured with Tony Rice and Vassar Clements among many others) and dancer/percussionist Matthew Olwell (a veteran of Footworks Dance Ensemble and the London production of River Dance) recently toured in France, including performances for the Aulnay All Blues festival in Paris where they performed with Bassekou Kouyate and Corey Harris.