The Steel Guitar Forum

I just found this picture of Leodie with Ramblin' Jimmy Dolan and Lee Gillette in the Capitol studio, probably during a session.

Date unknown, could be as early as 1950.

Who has this guitar now?

I knew Leodie somewhat back in the middle 40's. I think I bought my first Volume Control Pedal from him. He was making quite a "mark" for himself in
the 40's but sort of disapeared. I always wondered what happened to him. Before the Bigsby I sort of remember his playing a double neck stair stepped Rickenbacker. I think I saw him playing once with Jimmy Wakely at one time. I also have a picture of hime with the "Happy Perryman" band around 1945. He was a very good player.

leodie is from my neck of the woods i know his sister brothers etc he was a great player and person iam glade you posted this picture iam going to show it to his sister and brotherin law tommorrow thanks they all still live at kiowa okla were he grew up

i forgot to say here a few years back some one i dont know forsure if it was his girlfriend or who but they had a yard sale and sold a lot of his stuff by the time i found out about it it was all gone i dont know if it was in this sale or not

Will: Here is the picture of Leodie with the Happy Perryman Band here in So. Calif. in the mid 40's. If his family does't have a copy you can show them this one. From the posts I'm not sure if Leodie has passed on or not.

Will:

Can you provide some details of whatever happened to Leodie?

He seems to have disappeared from the steel guitar scene by the mid 1950s.

Did he pass away at a very early age? Go into other work? Move out of the country? It's odd that he would simply vanish.

Do you have any other pictures of him?

leodie passed away several years ago about 7-8 yrs ago all his relatives still live around kiowa and all of them are great musichans some still play the steel others are fiddlers and so on great people his cousin a fiddle player is a good friend of mine his name is anthony plays some great bob wills stuff

Leodie had a son who used to come into Blackie Taylor's music store at times when I lived in SoCal. This would have probably been in the late sixties/seventies period. He also played steel but I don't think he was any where near the league of his father. I remember that he was kind of a short guy and had Blackie put some short pedal rods on his guitar at one point. If he's still around, he could have his father's Bigsby! This would have been when Blackie's store was in Garden Grove, Ca. I think the name Leodie came from Leo D. Jackson and went on from there.........JH in Va.

When I first heard Leodi he was playing at the B & R Cafe on Whittier Blvd. in East Los Angeles, Ca. They had a remote Broadcast every night on one of the local Radio Stations. The story at that time was that Leodie was under age. The Kitchen was just off the Bandstand and Leodie was sitting in the Kitchen to keep him legal. I was never at this Club so I don't know what the set up looked like, I was too young to get in.

bill i talked to his neice today and she said she thought his son was still in californa somewere she was wonderingif you might have any pictures of her dad leon who was out in calf playing with leodie at this same time

Old post, but just ran across while researching Leodie.

Leodie was with Jimmie Dolan's band in late 1951, he recorded with Dolan on at least two sessions in 1952, which is presumably when the first photo is from.

Tons of Leodie's work here:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... ie+Jackson