Ep. 164 - Duke Levine

Music Makers and Soul Shakers with Steve Dawson

The incredible guitarist Duke Levine joins me on the show today. Back in the 90’s and early 2000’s when I was just getting started, Duke was putting out all these really amazing twangy instrumental guitar records. He actually started out as almost a fusion guy on his first album, but pretty quickly veered off into this highly original guitar style that has elements of blues, jazz, country, bebop and influences like Roy Buchanan, Ray Flacke, Albert Lee, I hear Wes Montgomery and Jerry Reed in there as well. The first record I heard of his was called “Country Soul Guitar” and I feel like at that time, the early 90’s, no one was really playing anything like that. He’s primarily a tele player and just has an incredible touch and tone that makes him a totally unique player. He put out a couple more records in that vein, but pretty quickly got scooped up as a sideperson, playing guitar for artists like Shawn Colvin, Peter Wolf, J Geils, Bill Morrissey, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Slaid Cleaves, Jonatha Brooke, and eventually his current employer, the untouchable Bonnie Raitt. The hired gun gigs really became his bread and butter and he spent the better part of the last 25 years touring with alot of those folks. Duke came up in the New England club scene, and has basically stayed in the area his whole life. During the pandemic, he put out a string of really interesting videos featuring stellar guitar playing that you can watch, and some of those videos became what makes up his most recent and amazing EP “Left To My Own Devices”.

You can get info on all of Duke’s activities as well as his tour dates with Bonnie Raitt over at dukelevine.com - Enjoy my conversation with Duke Levine!

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