James Leg

Known primarily for fronting the hard-edged blues-rock outfit the Black Diamond Heavies as lead vocalist and keyboardist on both organ and piano, James Leg maintains a parallel solo career during the ensemble’s breaks. Born John Wesley Myers in Port Arthur, Texas, to a father who worked as a preacher, he moved with his family at an early age to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where the youngster studied piano and performed at his father’s church services. At fifteen he heard a tent revivalist denounce the dangers of secular music, an event that introduced the gospel-raised teenager to previously forbidden recordings by the Rolling Stones, Black Sabbath, and AC/DC. Drawn to the darker currents he had been warned against, he soon developed a deep fixation on blues and hard rock. By 2005 Myers had joined the last configuration of the Alabama-based punk-blues group the Immortal Lee County Killers and played on their album These Bones Will Rise to Love You. He had already formed the Black Diamond Heavies as a side project in 2003 and issued their first record independently that same year. After the Immortal Lee County Killers disbanded in 2007, he shifted his focus to the Heavies full-time and adopted the stage name James Leg. Between 2007 and 2009 the Black Diamond Heavies issued three albums and maintained a busy touring schedule while Leg contributed to releases by the Buffalo Killers and Left Lane Cruiser; the latter collaboration yielded the 2012 album Painkillers. His own debut, the forceful Solitary Pleasure, appeared in 2011. Four years later he returned with Below the Belt, his second album for the Alive Naturalsound label. Once again partnering with producer and engineer Jason Soda in Dayton, Ohio, Leg completed his third record, Blood on the Keys, the following year.