The Cosmic Cowboy You Might Have Missed

The first time I saw Leroy Powell was in 2005 at Gruene Hall in New Braunfels, Texas. Shooter Jennings was coming through on the Put the “O” Back in Country tour, and Leroy was playing with Shooter and the .357s.

About ten years later, I had him come play Greenfest at River Road Ice House here in New Braunfels. Shinyribs, Lincoln Durham, and a few others were on the bill.

His name might be new to some of our readers, but his influence has crossed state lines more than once.

Texas Music & Red Dirt is our wheelhouse here at Galleywinter, but we’ve spread our wings over the years to cover artists outside the scene who we think deserve your time. Leroy Powell is one of those. His work with Whiskey Myers and Shooter Jennings gives this crowd a familiar place to start, but there’s a whole lot more to get into.

Take Firewater.

Whiskey Myers built their following in the Texas/Red Dirt scene before becoming the national act they are today. Leroy produced their 2011 album Firewater, played guitar, pedal steel, organ, and percussion, and contributed vocals. He also co-wrote “Ballad of a Southern Man,” “Turn It Up,” and “How Far.” That’s a pretty cool connection to a record a lot of this crowd knows well.

And that’s before we get back to Shooter.

On Put the “O” Back in Country, Leroy contributed guitar, lap steel, dobro, banjo, strings, backing vocals, and songwriting. He stayed involved through Electric Rodeo, Live at Irving Plaza 4.18.06, and The Wolf.

Those records had some muscle. Country roots and loud guitars fit together just fine for those of us who grew up listening to both. Nobody needed to explain why they belonged on the same record.

If that’s where you know Leroy from, his own catalog is worth getting into. Some of it will feel familiar. Some of it goes way out there.

There’s the 2007 self-titled album, Atlantis, The Snowblind Moonshine Deathride, Life and Death, and The Overlords of the Cosmic Revelation. Between the solo work and the Messengers records, you get country, Southern rock, heavy guitars, and a healthy amount of cosmic weirdness.

Even when these records get far out, you can still hear the country underneath, in Leroy’s voice and the steel guitar. The big riffs fit right in. Leroy lets those things run together without seeming too concerned about what somebody’s going to call it.

There are other turns along the way, too. Leroy Powell & The Stone Jack Ballers’ La Muerte del Amor is a six-song release worth digging up. Whiskey Wolves of the West, his ongoing collaboration with Tim Jones, gives you another band to check out. Then there are the shorter country-gospel releases from 2022 and 2023.

It’s a lot to sort through when you’re just learning about the guy. You don’t need to do it all in one sitting.

His work on other people’s records gets just as varied. He played pedal steel on Lady Gaga’s “Always Remember Us This Way” from A Star Is Born. He played electric guitar on Barry Gibb’s Greenfields sessions, including “Words” with Dolly Parton, and contributed across Travis Tritt’s Set in Stone.

His credits also include Cody Jinks’ Lifers, along with work for Reba McEntire, Shania Twain, Jamey Johnson, Midland, Wheeler Walker Jr., and the Oak Ridge Boys.

Some of those names are probably what you’d expect. Lady Gaga might take a second. But listen to that song and the steel makes sense. Different setting, same instrument, doing what the song needs.

Leroy plays guitar, pedal steel, lap steel, dobro, banjo, harmonica, and organ, among other things. Add writing and producing to that, and you start to understand why his name keeps turning up.

But the reason I’m writing about Leroy now is I’ve been on a bit of a Leroy Powell overload the last few months. Earlier this year, he re-released The Overlords of the Cosmic Revelation, one of those cosmic rock records that reminded me how damn cool he can be when he lets the weird side run wide open.

A few weeks later, he released The Vault, which sent me back through a bunch of older material. It’s got that mix of country and rock he’s always moved between so naturally. Then, just this past week, he released Shoot the Moon.

That run got me jamming so much Leroy Powell I went and built a website without even asking Leroy if I could do it. Now it’s his new website. Call it inspired.

So I’ve been listening to Leroy old and new for a while now, digging back into the records, the side projects, the credits, and all the different places his music has landed. It made me want to share what I know with people who might only know his name from Shooter Jennings or Whiskey Myers.

He’s a badass, and there’s a whole lot more to him than most folks realize.

Start with Shoot the Moon. If it connects, work backward. Follow a few of those bands and album titles and see where you end up.

Bring headphones. Some of this shit gets weird. In the absolute best way possible.

To learn more about Leroy Powell, visit leroypowell.com or iainthuman.com.