Folk music made a huge impact on Joe Lev

If ever there was a musician's musician, it would be Joe Lev. He was born in 1952 into a family of musicians steeped in the controversial melting pot of Chicago's folk-music community. "My parents, Milt and Marge Lev, were part of the big folk-music scare of the late '50s and early '60s," Joe said. "My mom studied guitar at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago with Frank Hamilton, a replacement for Pete Seeger in the Weavers. I remember going backstage at a Frank show and seeing how entranced I was. He told my mom, 'Get that boy a banjo.'"His family moved to Sacramento in 1958, where his parents joined the newly formed Folk Music Society. "My folks soon were officers. We went to concerts, workshops and hootenannies," Joe said. "I remember my parents dressing me up in my little wool suit to hear people sing about sharecropping, gambling, drinking and women of ill repute. Sitting in the dark, I was captivated by the magic one person with a guitar, some stories and good song could weave." One milestone event was bringing the then blacklisted Pete Seeger to American River College. Joe may have just been 8 years old but the memories and the messages he heard made a huge impact on him.Music surrounded Joe. His mother gave guitar lessons and classes; folk music was it for him until he was 12 when his older brother, Ben, brought home a Fender guitar and Silvertone amp. Soon, bands were practicing in his garage every week and Joe traded his banjo for an electric guitar.Music has been the one constant in Joe's life, "a unifying thread, a fascination bordering on obsession." Growing up in the north area of Sacramento near Carmichael, he and his friend, Paul Narloch, had a whole series of bands.Just after graduating from high school, Joe and Paul were in his first "good band," Buckwheat. "We were Americana, 30 years too early," Joe said. "We had a sparkle like the Flying Burrito Brothers. It was an idyllic time; I was out of school and still living with my parents. My friends lived nearby and we played a lot … just a bubble in time, hanging out with my friends, playing down by the river almost every day. We played a lot a hippie-type gigs and had a really good following." When he was 20, Joe met "Bongo Bob" Smith who introduced him to Oscar Robinson. Oscar ran a music school in Oak Park where Joe learned to play bass. "I was like a musical monk, taking classes, practicing and playing for 10 hours a day for the whole year," Joe said. "He taught me being a musician was a respectable profession. You have to be willing to do the hard work. It just depends on how much you're willing to suffer." It was a new mindset for Joe and changed the path of his musical career.Oscar put together a band called The Hustlers (1972 to 1974). "It was my debut as a bass player, which turned out to be the best decision I ever made." Since 1970, he has played on average 200 gigs annual in bands that cross over into nearly every genre of music.He has been married to his best friend, visual artist T.J. Lev for 16 years. They make their home in downtown Sacramento.Joe has played with Steve Foster and the Jokers, Bayou Boys, Jahari Sai Quartet, Frankie Lee, Wingnut Adams Funky Soul Brigade, Mick Martin and the Blues Rockers, The Bayou Boys Band and the Stardust Cowboys.He teaches at The Guitar Workshop in Sacramento and volunteers with Blues in The Schools. He played at Dillian's Bar and Grill with Two Tone Steiney and The Cadillacs, and currently hosts two weekly Blues Jams with along with The Jokers in Rocklin and the Jimmy Collazo Band in Roseville. Joe jams with Olen Dillingham, a Lincoln resident and member of Western Swing Hall of Fame. Last spring, The Jokers played their Sun City Lincoln Hills debut concert to a full house. "The harder we rocked," Joe said, "the more they liked it. I witnessed the magic only music can create as boomers, octogenarians and better were transported to another space and time, through the music of their youth."Joe is not only a musician's musician. He embodies the best parts of the 'quintessential unrepentant hippie' by bringing people together to celebrate life in joy and harmonious humanity.For more on Joe, see http://morethanatouchofgray.blogspot.comKathleen McCoy Grover is a Lincoln resident.