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 California, 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.
It started with a guitar.Then things got weird.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.
First solo signal: Leroy Powell, an 11-song self-titled record released September 6, 2007.
Hear the 2007 record on Bandcamp ↗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.
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Apple Music ↗04 · 2012 / Side road
The Stone Jack Ballers
cut their own lane.
Leroy Powell & The Stone Jack Ballers arrived with La Muerte del Amor, a six-song EP released in 2012. It is a band chapter in the middle of a much bigger road: its own name, its own cover, and a different piece of the catalog.
The supplied sleeve carries an earlier-era Leroy photo; the record itself is documented as a 2012 release.
Hear La Muerte del Amor ↗05 · 2013–2014 / Network signal
Crazy Hearts:
Nashville.
In 2014, Leroy was a main cast member of Crazy Hearts: Nashville, the A&E reality series that followed Nashville musicians, ambitions, performances, friendships, and relationships.
He appeared as himself, with his music and personal life part of the show’s central story. The season’s on-screen narrative included his past relationship with Lee Holyfield, a connection with fellow musician Hannah Fairlight, and best friend Anthony Billups.
Production was announced September 4, 2013 and began immediately. The series aired on A&E from January 15 through March 8, 2014: one season and eight regular episodes, produced by Eastern.
The soundtrack credits Leroy on three performances: “I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink”; “Some Broken Hearts Never Mend” with Lee Holyfield; and “It Ain’t Me, Babe” with Lee Holyfield.
06 · The wolfpack
Whiskey Wolves
of the West.
A real creative partnership with Tim Jones—not a sideman stop. Leroy co-fronts, writes, plays, produces, mixes, and helps give the project its visual world.
The writing partnership traces back to 2013, and the public debut came at Stagecoach in April 2016. The documented catalog includes studio records, live work, and a 31-song anthology; Leroy and Tim still get together to play.
Hear Whiskey Wolves ↗- 2013Powell and Jones reconnect and begin writing together.
- 2016Public debut at Stagecoach; “Drifting On” follows that June.
- 2018Country Roots lands; the Wolves also serve as house band for Paul Cauthen’s AmericanaFest revue.
- 2020Second album: I Can’t Take Me Anywhere.
- 2021–22I Found the Light: a 31-song anthology, offered on triple vinyl and later released digitally.
07 · 2022–2023 / Country gospel signals
A different
kind of signal.
Alongside the Whiskey Wolves work, five two-song releases open up another Leroy Powell frequency: a more country-gospel side, released from December 2022 through February 2023.
Five releases. Ten songs. One short, distinct stretch of the catalog.
Explore the country-gospel run →08 · The work never stopped
Sessions, production, and the next transmission.
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. The work keeps moving because every new room offers another song, another guitar, and another problem worth solving.