Documentary on Rolling Stones Pianist Chuck Leavell Explores His Work With Keys and Trees
“Chuck Leavell: The Tree Man" opens in theaters and has virtual screenings this weekend.
Famed keyboard player Chuck Leavell is — as a native Georgian — all about living amid the moss, even if the group he’s most associated with, the Rolling Stones, are by definition averse to it. A new documentary opening this weekend, “Chuck Leavell: The Tree Man,” charts his double life, as one of the most renowned session musicians and touring sidemen in rock ‘n’ roll on one hand, and a celebrated environmentalist with a fixation on Southern forestry on the other.
The film, a three-year labor of love for director Allen Farst, nabbed dozens of the stars the keyboard player has worked with for interviews, including all four current Rolling Stones (Leavell has been their touring musical director since the 1980s), Dickey Betts (that’s Leavell’s work you hear on the Allman Brothers Band’s “Jessica”), Eric Clapton, David Gilmour, John Mayer, Eric Church, Miranda Lambert, Bonnie Raitt and others. Also costarring in the movie, as you might guess from the title: trees — lots and lots of them. READ FULL ARTICLE