Greg Leisz

James Mayer · Post by **James Mayer** » 24 Jan 2012 12:19 pm

I listened to samples from KD Lang's "Ingenue" that is referenced in this thread. I didn't hear any steel. My question is, what should I look into that has plenty of Leisz instead of a little bit here and there?

Mark Eaton · Post by **Mark Eaton** » 24 Jan 2012 12:24 pm

James Mayer wrote:I listened to samples from KD Lang's "Ingenue" that is referenced in this thread. I didn't hear any steel. My question is, what should I look into that has plenty of Leisz instead of a little bit here and there?

James, the first song in particular "Save Me" has some very creative lap steel work by Greg. I'm at work so I can't recall the sequencing off the top of my head, but you really need to listen to the whole song. As I recall there's an instrumental break in the middle where Greg takes off, but if you're only getting the first 30 seconds of the song then you're not into the meat and potatoes portion as far as steel goes.

James Mayer · Post by **James Mayer** » 24 Jan 2012 12:33 pm

Mark Eaton wrote:
James, the first song in particular "Save Me" has some very creative lap steel work by Greg. I'm at work so I can't recall the sequencing off the top of my head, but you really need to listen to the whole song. As I recall there's an instrumental break in the middle where Greg takes off, but if you're only getting the first 30 seconds of the song then you're not into the meat and potatoes portion as far as steel goes.

I figured. I just went to allmusic.com and went through the samples.

Kevin Milner · Post by **Kevin Milner** » 24 Jan 2012 3:49 pm

James Mayer wrote:I listened to samples from KD Lang's "Ingenue" that is referenced in this thread. I didn't hear any steel. My question is, what should I look into that has plenty of Leisz instead of a little bit here and there?

The one I recommended, Sara Watkins' album, is literally dripping with Leisz. And it's all incredible.

Mike Neer · Post by **Mike Neer** » 24 Jan 2012 4:18 pm

This is one of my favorites, right here--Peter Case, "Spell of Wheels"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzAdqnmPNbk

Chuck S. Lettes · Post by **Chuck S. Lettes** » 24 Jan 2012 4:21 pm

Hi James,
Check out the new Jeff Bridges CD, the follow-up to Crazy Heart. He definitely loves steel guitar.
Chuck

Douglas Schuch · Post by **Douglas Schuch** » 25 Jan 2012 2:05 am

I posted this link in "Steel On The Web" about a week ago: the musics doesn't come in until 15 seconds in, so be patient...and ignore the stupid video of someone's cat, but listen to the great music. Greg on steel, for the whole album "Got No Strings". It is all music from Disney Movies...so not standard genre stuff. Mostly done in a light, accoustic style with lots of retro-elements: hints of Stephen Foster, Hawaiian, Western swing, and bluegrass. "To Be A Cat" is my favorite, but some good steel on the rest.... Mostly lap steel, I think, but one dobro and once acoustic slide, and one I would swear is a nylon string guitar played with a bar.

I can't find any other cuts from the album on Youtube, but worth having in your collection unless you are locked into a particular style.

Link to song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BA2sJvVxHc

Doug

Bill Kellum · Post by **Bill Kellum** » 25 Jan 2012 10:38 am

Rick Schacter wrote:As was already mentioned, his work on the album "Girlfriend" by Matthew Sweet is great.

He also played some mandolin as well as pedal steel for John Fogerty's "Blue Ridge Rangers".

Here's another song from the group Tiger Army that has Greg Leisz playing the pedal steel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxvTTRKvfEU

Rick

Im digging this Tiger Army. Thanks for turning me on to them.

Jonathan Slyker · Post by **Jonathan Slyker** » 6 Feb 2012 7:33 pm

"Of course k.d. lang has great admiration for Greg, and below is a quote she made about his pedal steel playing years ago that I'm sure many here are familiar with :

'Leisz single-handedly liberated pedal steel from the bondage of country.'

Oh, silly me, I thought it was Joseph Kekuku, in 1885

Mark Eaton · Post by **Mark Eaton** » 6 Feb 2012 8:50 pm

Did Kekeku play a pedal steel?

Brian McGaughey · Post by **Brian McGaughey** » 7 Feb 2012 7:16 am

Devon Teran wrote:I've been teetering on the edge of diving fully into pedal steel for a while but I'm not really a country guy.

Ya don't have to be country to play pedal steel.

Ron Davis · Post by **Ron Davis** » 7 Feb 2012 7:54 pm

I've had the pleasure of meeting Greg & spending some time with him. He played my Emmons & showed me some stuff. He was at Jim Palenscar's getting a little tweak on his '66 Emmons. (Jim U rock, Bro!)
Greg did tell me about the Ray LaMontagne stuff, & he did play pedal steel on more than a couple songs, as well as guitar & slide... It was real cool, cuz he told me all about the God Willing sessions.
I do think Greg's right at the top of my fav list. Such a tasty player.
Haunting parts... He really orchestrates the songs he plays on, with his steel playing. Plays for the song, for sure. Not a "grandstander", so to speak. (Not that I don't love the grandstanders too.)

Through The Morning, Through The Night on the Plant Krause record feeds my soul.

OK, I'm done. lol

Bill Kellum · Post by **Bill Kellum** » 13 Feb 2012 10:04 am

Was the Greg on the Chipotle commercial with Willie singing "The Scientist"? It sure sounded like him. I like the song and message of that commercial.

Ron Davis · Post by **Ron Davis** » 13 Feb 2012 10:30 am

Hmmm...
Not familiar with that. Maybe it's not out here on the West Coast.

Bill Kellum · Post by **Bill Kellum** » 13 Feb 2012 11:14 am

Ron Davis wrote:Hmmm...
Not familiar with that. Maybe it's not out here on the West Coast.

here is the linkhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMfSGt6rHos

i didnt realize until now that it is a Coldplay song.

Kevin Milner · Post by **Kevin Milner** » 13 Feb 2012 11:38 am

Bill Kellum wrote:
Ron Davis wrote:Hmmm...
Not familiar with that. Maybe it's not out here on the West Coast.
here is the linkhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMfSGt6rHos

i didnt realize until now that it is a Coldplay song.

Sure sounds like Leisz! Thanks for sharing!

Ron Davis · Post by **Ron Davis** » 4 Mar 2012 6:42 am

Thanx for that link.

Jim Palenscar · Post by **Jim Palenscar** » 4 Mar 2012 8:17 am

Also worth checking out is Greg's work on the WPA CD a few years ago with Sean and Sara Watkins(Nickel Creek), Glen Phillips (Toad the Wet Sprocket), etc.- the list truly goes on forever and I'm proud and lucky to have Greg as a good friend.

Steve Hotra · Post by **Steve Hotra** » 23 Sep 2020 6:22 am

Jim Palenscar wrote:Also worth checking out is Greg's work on the WPA CD a few years ago with Sean and Sara Watkins(Nickel Creek), Glen Phillips (Toad the Wet Sprocket), etc.- the list truly goes on forever and I'm proud and lucky to have Greg as a good friend.

Love that project.
That's where I first discovered Greg's playing.
He is a major pedal steel guitar influence in my playing .. he knows how to play to the song.

Jim Palenscar · Post by **Jim Palenscar** » 23 Sep 2020 7:35 am

Wow- this thread is over 8 years old! Since that time Greg has done tons of projects and for the past few years has been touring w Jackson Browne as well as others. He was having some work done on some of his guitars recently at the shop and I asked him to put some tracks on some Gargeband songs that I was doing and he actually thanked me for letting him play on the whole song if you can believe that saying that he never gets to do that. Poor Greg

. I've got some of them on a platform called Bandcamp.

Paul Stauskas · Post by **Paul Stauskas** » 23 Sep 2020 7:44 am

Jim Palenscar wrote:Wow- this thread is over 8 years old! Since that time Greg has done tons of projects and for the past few years has been touring w Jackson Browne as well as others. He was having some work done on some of his guitars recently at the shop and I asked him to put some tracks on some Gargeband songs that I was doing and he actually thanked me for letting him play on the whole song if you can believe that saying that he never gets to do that. Poor Greg . I've got some of them on a platform called Bandcamp.

Jim, how cool! Would you share the link to your Bandcamp?

Bart Bull · Post by **Bart Bull** » 23 Sep 2020 1:08 pm

Just to demonstrate he can of course play country-esque just as gorgeously...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNgdD_RIepM

Jim Palenscar · Post by **Jim Palenscar** » 24 Sep 2020 7:02 am

Sure Paul- in some cases you have to put up with my squaking and the credits are posted w each song so you can filter what you listen to. I think Greg is on 4 cuts. We've yet to decide what to call ourselves so just used our initials- JDDJ here. We used to just get together at the shop to play music that we liked for no other reason- then life goes on happened- the singer got divorced- move to Nashville then remarried and moved to Ohio, the bass player died of the same lung disease that took Reece from us, the guitar player/singer went trough a business fiasco, Covid 19 came about, etc. We occasionally communicated, decided that we wanted to continue playing, decided on Garageband as our format and here are some preliminary results. There are some original songs yet to be posted and quite obviously these are covers so the legality of posting these is questionable- hopefully since there is no money involved we won't be pinched

.

Brooks Montgomery · Post by **Brooks Montgomery** » 24 Sep 2020 8:14 am

Here's a nice cut. Nice singing Jim. Beautiful song.
https://jddj.bandcamp.com/track/it-aint-over-yet

Jim Palenscar · Post by **Jim Palenscar** » 25 Sep 2020 6:43 am

Thanks Brooks- gives us something to do during these trying times~~