Levi Lowrey - Roots & Branches (2016)

Country artist Levi Lowrey is a vocalist and songwriter who writes about the stuff of real lives with a poet's thoughtfulness and a rocker's passion and commitment. Levi Lowrey was born and raised in Dacula, Georgia, and has connections to country music royalty -- his great-great grandfather was Gid Tanner, the legendary Georgia fiddler and string band leader who was one of country's first successful recording artists. Lowrey himself became a fiddler, and was performing in his hometown at bluegrass shows by the age of 12. Later on, while in high school, Lowrey took up the guitar, and developed a passion for rock & roll, influenced by Georgia pop/rockers the Marvelous Three. After graduating, Lowrey got a job at a recording studio, and formed a rock band of his own, Problem Thomas. The group developed a regional following and gigged regularly in Atlanta and Athens, but by 2006 Lowrey began embracing a different musical voice that incorporated rock, contemporary country, and his earliest musical influences, while he also led the band that played worship services at the church he attended. After a spell playing fiddle with singer and songwriter Sonia Leigh, Lowrey formed a new group, Levi Lowrey & the Community House Band, named for a hall in Dacula that often housed family reunions and similar events; the lineup, featuring a few faces from his church band, included Lowrey on lead vocals, guitar, and fiddle; Danny McAdams on lead guitar and lap steel; Jon Daws on bass; Billy Wilkerson on percussion and vocals; and Daniel McGill on trap drums. The band soon began touring hard, playing 200 dates in 2007, and in 2008 they cut a recording they released themselves, I've Held the Devil's Hand. Lowrey gained a valuable friend and ally in Zac Brown, another Georgia musician mixing up country and rock; after Brown's 2008 album The Foundation became a breakout hit, he launched his own label, Southern Ground, and in 2009 Lowrey and his band signed a deal with Brown's new imprint. Lowrey went on tour opening for Zac Brown, and Lowrey began co-writing tunes with Brown, including the hits "Colder Weather," "Day for the Dead," and "The Wind." In 2011, Lowrey released his first album through Southern Ground, I Confess I Was a Fool, and by the time they next rolled into the studio, the band was a four-piece, with Wilkerson out and Lawrence Nemenz replacing McGill behind the drum kit. Levi Lowrey, featuring a fiddle-driven cover of Black Sabbath's "War Pigs," was released in February 2014. ~ Mark Deming.