Turnberry Records has released a lovely tribute to the late reso-guitar legend, and all-around bluegrass personality, Phil Leadbetter, in a song called Shiny Silver Bar, written by David Stewart and Mark “Brink” Brinkman.
Performed with an all-star band, verses are shared among David Stewart, Shannon Slaughter, and Dale Ann Bradley, who then harmonize on the choruses.
Phil was a Knoxville native, born in 1962, who was playing bluegrass professionally as a teen. He knocked around with a number of east Tennessee bands before being picked up by old time music hero Grandpa Jones, and then country singer Vern Gosdin. J.D. Crowe put Leadbetter on the bluegrass map in 1990 when he hired him for The New South, where he stayed for more than a decade.
He served as a founding member of two influential bands, Wildfire and Grasstowne, until a cancer diagnosis in 2011 changed the course of his life. Phil managed to survive five episodes of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, enduring multiple rounds of chemotherapy, each seemingly successful, but the cancer kept returning until undergoing stem cell replacement. Though it was likewise successful, and a cancer free diagnosis was received, the lymphoma returned and the stem cell replacement treatment was repeated.
All this time, Leadbetter continued to perform and record as he was able, and remained the same jolly character the bluegrass world had come to know and love. An inveterate prankster, he could keep a room in stitches for hours, and was a champion of the crank call. None of his friends were safe.
We lost Phil in 2021 when the COVID pandemic got him, as it had so many immunocompromised people around the world. But let no sadness reign; Phil wouldn’t stand for it!
Shiny Silver Bar tells his life story in song, from the first time he heard heard Josh Graves and fell in love with the resophonic guitar, through his professional career, and on to his passing at only 59 years of age.
Behind David, Shannon, and Dale Ann, we have Andy Leftwich on guitar and fiddle, Alan Bibey on mandolin, Scott Vestal on banjo, and Darren Vincent on bass. Phil’s son, Matt Leadbetter, also a fine reso man, adds the slide work.
Have a listen and watch the accompanying music video, set against a wealth of images of Phil throughout his life.
Shiny Silver Bar is available now from popular download and streaming services online, and to radio programmers via Get It Played.
