The story
A guitar, a road, a few other dimensions.
Leroy Powell is a multi-platinum record producer, songwriter, and first-call Nashville session musician whose work has always moved between country storytelling, heavy guitar, studio craft, and whatever happens when the road gets strange.
About Leroy
First call in the room.
Leroy Powell is a multi-platinum record producer and songwriter—a first-call Nashville session musician whose work appears on records by Waylon Jennings, Reba McEntire, Jamey Johnson, Travis Tritt, Sturgill Simpson, Whiskey Myers, Wheeler Walker Jr., Midland, Shooter Jennings, Cody Jinks, Chris Isaak, Barry Gibb, Dolly Parton, Shania Twain, and the Oak Ridge Boys.
With a decades-long catalogue of songs released to worldwide acclaim and powerhouse performances, Leroy is a living legend: a player, producer, and songwriter who still makes every room feel like the next signal is about to hit.
01 · The roots
Before Nashville
Raised in Southern California and associated with Redlands, Leroy heard the foundation early: his father’s fingerpicking, songs by Kris Kristofferson, Bob Dylan, and Gordon Lightfoot, hillbilly songs, and a little gospel around the edges. As the obsession took over, the listening widened—Waylon, Johnny Paycheck, Zeppelin, Sabbath, John Coltrane, Gram Parsons.
The important part: the music has always had more than one engine. Country gave the stories their weight. Rock gave the guitar room to get dangerous. The rest is what happened when neither side told the other to calm down.
02 · Nashville
The .357s years
After moving to Nashville, Leroy became part of Shooter Jennings & the .357s: guitar, slide/lap steel, dobro, banjo, harmonica, backing vocals, arranging, writing, and the sound of a band that took outlaw country seriously enough to make it loud.
The period anchors an essential run of recordings: Put the “O” Back in Country, Electric Rodeo, Live at Irving Plaza, and The Wolf. Those credits explain the playing—but they are only a starting line.
03 · The bandleader
The Messengers carry the signal.
Once the solo work took the front seat, the records started building their own world. The self-titled 2007 release, Atlantis, The Snowblind Moonshine Deathride, and Life and Death do not sit politely inside a single category. They are country, Southern rock, blues, grit, odd angles, and big guitars.
By The Overlords of the Cosmic Revelation, the mythology was fully in the room: cosmic rebels, comic-book weight, and a space-rock concept that gave the songs their own atmosphere. It is the record that makes “cosmic cowboy” feel like a real world instead of a cute line.
04 · The work never stopped
Sessions, production, and Whiskey Wolves.
Outside his own records, Leroy’s work reaches into other artists’ rooms as a player, producer, arranger, and collaborator. The recorded trail includes projects with Whiskey Myers, Sturgill Simpson, Travis Tritt, Jamey Johnson, and more. With Tim Jones, Whiskey Wolves of the West opens another long-running chapter—big songs, country roots, and a band built by two writers who know how to follow one.
