Tag: Chuck Leavell

It was a star-studded evening at the Fox Theatre, honoring the "Rock n’ Roll President," known for his love of music and a keen ability to bring people together. Jimmy Carter 100: A Celebration in Song featured performances from Chuck Leavell and Duane Betts, the B-52s, India.Arie, Grouplove, and more.

Jimmy Carter’s love of music is one of his most notable traits—from floating his presidential run over scotch with Gregg Allman to being close with Bob Dylan, he’s more than earned his moniker of the “Rock & Roll President.” So, when it came time to celebrate the former President’s 100th birthday, a tribute concert seemed only fitting.

Legendary rock band The Rolling Stones played to a huge crowd when they brought their Hackney Diamonds tour to Mercedes-Benz Stadium on June 7. Here, check out the scenes photographer Perry Julien captured at the show.

A Night of Georgia Music will feature fresh instrumental versions of classic Georgia-themed hits ranging from “Georgia on My Mind” and “Midnight Train to Georgia” to “Hey Ya!” and “One Way Out” and revisits the original six-movement Mike Mills Concerto for Violin, Rock Band, and String Orchestra.

I heard Col. Bruce Hampton say on several occasions that he’d probably die on stage, eventually—that he’d prefer to die there, actually. But I didn’t really take him seriously. Then, “eventually” arrived.

On the heels of the Stones’ Latin American tour, Rose Lane Leavell, 67, chatted about her glam life as the “go-to girl backstage,” where she helps wrangle band members and assists with hair and makeup.

“Alex was, first and foremost, a fan,” recalls Chuck Leavell.

If, as Bill Gates famously declared of the Internet, content is king, then people like Matt Crenshaw are its field marshals. The president of Atlanta-based digital news outlet Mother Nature Network spends his time parsing web traffic trends, search engine performance, and social media engagement to help MNN.com and its sister site, TreeHugger.com, capture a combined 10 million unique visitors per month.

Rolling Stones keyboardist Chuck Leavell began his music career as a tagalong kid brother on his older sister’s date to a Ray Charles gig in Tuscaloosa in 1965. “I was 13 and my parents had something else going on that night,” Leavell recalled to Atlanta magazine this week from his 2500-acre tree farm in Macon. “So they said, ‘Why don’t you take Chuck with you?’ She graciously said yes. I was already playing music, learning piano and guitar. I was very interested in music. But I had never seen anything that powerful. I mean, Ray Charles is Ray Charles but then he had [David] Fathead Newman on sax, the Raelettes were singing. The band was just so tight. I walked away that night knowing exactly what I wanted to do with my life. If I could be in a band that was anything near that good and that powerful and that moving, that’s what I wanted to do. It was life changing.”

Chuck Leavell is considered by many to be the greatest rock pianist alive. Gregg Allman once said, “I know some good piano players, man, but . . . Chuck smokes ’em.”