Chuck Leavell

Chuck Leavell occupies a prominent position among rock and roll luminaries thanks to his piano and keyboard contributions across recordings and live performances by the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, the Allman Brothers Band, the Black Crowes, George Harrison, Blues Traveler, the Marshall Tucker Band, Hank Williams Jr., and numerous additional artists. Born in Birmingham, AL, on April 28, 1952, he assembled his initial group, the Misfitz, at age 13, handling both organ and guitar. During his high school years he participated in early local recording sessions, then at 15 relocated to Muscle Shoals, AL, where he worked intermittently for two years inside the renowned studios. One session from that period placed him on Freddy North's "Don't Take Her, She's All I've Got." He next traveled to Macon, GA, where he joined the fledgling Capricorn Records roster and played on Alex Taylor's With Friends & Neighbours (Taylor being the brother of singer James Taylor). After roughly eighteen months he toured six months with Dr. John, absorbing every aspect of the experience. In 1972, shortly following Duane Allman's death, the Allman Brothers Band recruited the twenty-year-old Leavell. Brothers and Sisters, his debut album with the group, reached the top of the Billboard chart and generated the hits "Ramblin' Man" and "Jessica." He stayed four years until the band's 1976 dissolution, after which he launched Sea Level—its name a deliberate pun—with Jimmy Nalls plus former Allmans Jai Johanny Johanson and Lamar Williams. The ensemble issued four well-received albums, toured for five years, and saw The Best of Sea Level appear in 1978. Subsequent work has taken Leavell even higher, encompassing album sessions and major tours with the Rolling Stones—frequently called the "sixth Rolling Stone"—plus an array of further achievements best surveyed through his complete discography. His debut solo piano recording, Forever Blue, emerged in 2001 alongside the publication of Forever Green: The History and Hope of the American Forest, a project rooted in his forestry and conservation interests that first took hold in the late '80s. With his wife, Rose Lane White, he converted her family's 1,200-acre property near Macon, GA, into the tree farm known as Charlane Plantation. Away from studios and stages he spends time there with family, horses, and the bird dogs he prepares for field trials and quail hunting. Southscape appeared on Mega Force Records in 2005.