5x Grammy-nominated writer, producer, and keyboardist Peter Levin has long been in demand for his musicianship, good ears, tasty soulful playing in any setting and good vibes that make any band better. Levin has toured and/or recorded with a host of blues and Americana luminaries for the past decade, including Gregg Allman, Amanda Shires, Aaron Neville, Ringo Starr, The Highwomen, Marcus King, the Allman Betts Band, the Blind Boys of Alabama, the O’Jays and Dolly Parton. Before all that, he already had a diverse background working in the studio with the likes of Public Enemy and the Beastie Boys, and crushing it onstage with Manhattan jamband kings the Zen Tricksters, God Street Wine and Robert Randolph’s Family Band.

Levin’s virtuosity, great ear and ability to make any session he plays on better knows no genre boundaries. Recently, he has been working with Pharrell Williams and his new band Virginia, playing keys on the album Black Yacht Rock and on Pharrell’s musical movie Atlantis.

Levin has long been more than just a great player; he also co-wrote the song “Don’t Call Me” on the Highwomen’s album and co-wrote “Inglewood Motel

(Halestorm)” with Marcus King on the latter’s Mood Swings record. He also co-wrote and produced the Grammy-nominated song ‘The Message’ for the Blind Boys of Alabama and co-wrote several tunes with Shires on her most recent album, Take It Like A Man.

After graduating with honors from The University of Rochester / Eastman School of Music, Levin spent years as a warrior in the New York musical trenches while also doing sessions on gold and platinum records by the likes of Train, Korn and Gym Class Heroes. While in High School, Levin also studied drums and percussion at the renowned Drummers Collective in NYC and Berklee College of Music in Boston. Levin’s big turning point came in 2008 when he was hired as the Blind Boys of Alabama’s keyboardist. His first appearance with the legendary gospel group was on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, a prime example of being thrown into the deep end and learning to swim. Recording and touring the world as a member of the Blind Boys’ band, Levin began to concentrate more and more on the Hammond organ, which was central to their sound.

“I wasn’t schooled in the southern gospel music that everyone else in the band knew but I had really good ears and the singers liked the way I played so much that they nicknamed me Church Boy,” Levin recalls with a laugh.

That immersion in gospel roots and Hammond B3 mastery paid off in 2014, when Levin began playing with Allman, developing a close personal and musical bond over the next four years. I interviewed Gregg in 2015 before the release of his live album Back to Macon and the first thing he wanted to tell me was that he regretted the show was recorded “before we got my new keyboardist.”

Unsolicited, Gregg wanted to sing Levin’s praises. “Peter Levin is just... Oh man! He’s a hell of a Hammond player.”

This was the ultimate compliment Allman could give a keyboardist and it humbled Levin to hear it. He was speechless when I called him with the news. Gregg had never quite told Peter what he thought of his playing. That wasn’t his way, and neither was extravagant praise, and Peter immediately understood the significance of Gregg’s comment. Any listener paying attention to Levin behind an organ will hear what Gregg heard: “a hell of a Hammond player” forged in the trenches of American music and carrying a proud and honorable tradition forward.

“The ability to tour and record with both the Blind Boys and Gregg is something I hold very dear,” Levin says. “Through them, I was able to meet and play with people like Aretha Franklin, Mavis Staples, Allen Touissant and Aaron Neville. These are true American music legends, and I cherish my time playing music and just being around all of them.”

Following Allman’s 2017 death, Levin relocated from New York to Nashville and began playing with Amanda Shires and others in town. He’s in demand as a session player, working with producers like Dave Cobb and Steve Berlin. When Shires, Maren Morris, Brandi Carlile and Natalie Hemby came together in 2019 to form the country supergroup The Highwomen and record a self-titled album with Cobb, they could have hired any keyboard player in Nashville. They chose Levin - and no one who has followed Peter’s career for the last 20 years was surprised. Peter Levin is an American musical master.

-Alan Paul

Author, One Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band and Texas Flood: The Inside Story of Stevie Ray Vaughan