Product Code Database
Neil LeVang (January 3, 1932 – January 26, 2015) was an Americans musician who was best known from television's The Lawrence Welk Show, playing guitar, violin and banjo.
LeVang joined the United States Coast Guard in 1951 which took him to Seattle, Washington. There he continued in the music scene playing with "Texas Jim Lewis and his Lonestar Cowboys". He also hosted his own radio show. In 1959, he was hired as a temporary guitar and banjo player on The Lawrence Welk Show when Buddy Merrill left to serve in the United States Army. Welk was so pleased with his ability that he hired LeVang on a permanent basis when Buddy completed his tour of duty in 1961. LeVang stayed with the Welk Band until its final show in 1982. That same year, at the Country Music Association Awards he was nominated for best artist on a specialty instrument, the mandolin. He was also an accomplished Session musician, playing on several records for artists such as Glen Campbell, Frank Zappa, Bobby Darin, Bobbie Gentry, David Clayton-Thomas, Neal Hefti ("Batman Theme"), Elvis Presley, Dean Martin, Neil Diamond and Noel Boggs.
LeVang performed as a studio musician on many television shows, including Little House on the Prairie, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Brady Bunch, The Monkees, Highway to Heaven, Green Acres, Petticoat Junction, and a host of Hanna-Barbera cartoons. He was the featured guitarist with Naomi Judd and Wynonna Judd on the 1985 and 1986 Academy of Country Music Association Awards television broadcast. He was the subject of an extensive career profile by historian Rich Kienzle in the December 2009 issue of Vintage Guitar.
LeVang unknowingly created a new genre of music that would eventually be called Surf music with his 1961 arrangement of "Ghost Riders In the Sky", performed on The Lawrence Welk Show.
LeVang died in Canyon Country, California at the age of 83.
|
|
