Levi Stevenson has been lots of places. Some physical, some imaginary. When he heard his first electric guitar, in a Dwayne Eddy tune, that was about it, and not long after that, everything was all about guitars. And songs. After a trip to the green wet mountains of North Carolina, he came back to the green wet bayous of South Louisiana, and a whole lot of what Levi had heard, felt, and thought about forever started coming out. Some country. Some rock. Some folk. Some blues. Kinda mixed up. So he tried to write it down.
Levi has been lucky enough to have a lot of friends and acquaintances who are real good at everything he isn’t, and when you listen to this music you will hear and feel their skills and spirit.
Covid forced us to collaborate remotely but also made it so that folks were around and available. This music is for sure a sign of the times, and we want you to enjoy it, wherever you are.
The Collective has been playing some shows in trio form, lately it’s David Ellis on bass, Lee Barbier on lead guitar, and Levi Stevenson on guitar and vocals. Recently we had a cool time playing a set at the Tunica Hills Music Festival in St. Francisville LA, what a perfect day!
We are getting closer to wrapping up our next studio album: The Divide Part 2. It’s gonna be a fairly acoustic collection of some fairly personal songs. Mostly were
recording it at Nelson Blanchard’s TechnoSound studio in Baton Rouge, and some parts at Brian Brignac’s studio in St. Amant. We’re happy that some great players such as Alex García, Jonathan Yudkin, Hugh Pool, Brian Brignac, and Nelson Blanchard are on this album.
Check out a couple of music videos we did late last year- video by Jodi James, recorded live and analog by Clay Parker- we just added them to the site, along with two albums: 2023’s The Divide Part 1, recorded at Hugh Pool’s Excello shop in Brooklyn, and a vintage album called From the Noise, recorded at Rick Naqvi’s old studio in Central, Louisiana.
Images by Daniel and Ellen Plunkett and Levi Stevenson
Website by Blake Bell
Special thanks to Beth Levine and Jennifer Ellis
Hugh Pool - Vocals and Guitar
Alex Garcia - Guitars
Jonathan Kingham - Vocals and Keys
Levi Stevenson - Lyrics and Music
Jeff McErlain - Guitars
David Ellis - Bass, Percussion, Vocals, Production
Andy Bourgeois - Keys
Rob Mitchell - Drums