Gathering Light

Lee Underwood's life has revolved around reading and writing words, and playing and listening to music. As a lead electric guitarist living in LA, he toured and recorded with singer and songwriter Tim Buckley for seven years during the sixties and early seventies. As a solo acoustic guitarist, he recorded California Sigh in 1988 and earned a living playing clubs, hotels, and concerts in Santa Fe for seven years. In 2003 he published Blue Melody (Backbeat, San Francisco) his critically acclaimed book about the late, great Tim Buckley, honored by Britain's Uncut music magazine as one of the ten best music books of the year. He recorded his first solo piano CD, Phantom Light, in 2003. He completed his lengthy novel, Diamondfire: The Journey, in 2005, and continues to write essays, poetry, and short stories while living with his wife in a modern cabin in a mountain forest near Yosemite National Park, California. For nearly 20 years in LA, Underwood wrote about music and musicians for Down Beat (West Coast Editor, 1975-1981), the LA Times, Rolling Stone, the LA Weekly, Body/Mind/Spirit and numerous other publications. He interviewed dozens of musicians along the way, including pianist McCoy Tyner, guitarist Joe Pass, synthesists Vangelis, Michael Stearns, and Steve Roach, Tibetan bell player Henry Wolff, and Hoomi vocalist David Hykes (of the Harmonic Choir). In 1990, he co-authored flutist Paul Horn's autobiography, Inside Paul Horn (HarperCollins), and received the Crystal Award for Music Journalism. As a poet, Underwood co-hosted a radio show for two years with Preston Chase, Between the Lines: Poetry to Take You Home. He has given numerous readings in New Mexico and California, and has published poems in Light of Consciousness, ZamBomba, In the Grove, and The Central California Poetry Journal. Whenever possible at his readings, he plays original piano music. Many of the poems included in Warrior, Lover, Mystic are featured on his web site at leeunderwood.net.