By Josh Danson, BISS List Contributing Editor *Originally published May 26th, 2021*

Dan “Lebo” Lebowitz is a real mensch. As guitarist for San Francisco jam favorites ALO, shredding on his trademark souped-up, beat-up Takamine electric/acoustic (Guitar geeks and gearheads, you can read about the specs of his unique setup in our previous interview from back in 2013), Lebo combines guitar pyrotechnics with an acrobatic stage show, launching off of amplifier stacks with reckless abandon. Known for his bonhomie, integrity and up-for-anything attitude almost as much as for his ripping guitar, Lebo is a high-flying presence on stage and a down-to-earth one off of it. A virtuosic player and showman in his own right, Lebo likes nothing more than setting up his fellow musicians to shine. With a reputation like that, it’s no wonder Lebo is one of the most sought-after and beloved sidemen and musical directors on the whole jam scene.

Ever since forming ALO (Animal Liberation Orchestra) with middle school buddies Steve Adams (Bass/Vocals) and Zach Gill (Keys/Vocals), later joined by Dave Brogan on drums, Lebo has been honing his signature style. Along with groups like Tea Leaf Green and New Monsoon, ALO formed the core of the Bay Area Jam scene of the late-nineties and beyond. Since those early days playing house parties and raves in SF and Oakland, Lebo and ALO have played thousands of gigs across the country and around the world, and despite being one of the hardest working full-time musicians in the Bay Area, he’s still always happy to offer up his talents to benefit a worthy cause (See:).

Playing with everyone from Jack Johnson to Phil Lesh and Bob Weir, and in side-projects and one-off collaborations like the Doobie Decibel System, Lebo and Friends and Bone Diggers, it’s hard to see how Lebo finds time for his “day job” with ALO, but he does. In this first installment of our two-part interview, we discussed how excited he is to get back on stage with ALO in early June and play six sets over three consecutive days, in front of a real, live Bay Area crowd, all with no repeats. We also discussed the challenges and unintended consequences of the last year of life in lockdown, embracing streaming as a way of maintaining a sense of community, and finding that the acoustic guitar is the perfect instrument for the Covid era.

Be sure to check back for Part II of our conversation, in which we discuss ALO’s latest releases and how EP’s are the perfect format for our time, as well as touching on two of Lebo’s recent collaborations – Bone Diggers, a Paul Simon “covers”/interpretative project, and Brokedown in Bakersfield, a honky tonk tribute to the Bakersfield sound.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity and length.

BISSList: So, no High Sierra this year, which I know is always a high point of the year for you. That sucks. But you do have some shows coming up, which is awesome.

Lebo:  Yeah, it seems like things are finally coming back. It’s really interesting. The name of the game this past year, that I kept coming back to, is “agility”. The ability to be agile, because everything has been in flux. But there are a lot of cool things that have been happening this whole time, actually. Starting way back in March of last year when everything shut down, it was like, you’ve got all these tours lined up that get booked eight months out, a year out, you know? And those types of gigs tend to be really steady, the stuff that gets booked that far out. And it’s almost become the opposite now. Last March, we canceled everything and then suddenly everything was shut down and then, finally, some bookings started creeping in. And, you know, since then it’s just been like, ‘Can you roll with it?’ 

BISSList: Right.

Lebo: Cool things come on the table and then suddenly they’ll go away again. And then someone’s like, “There’s this great thing happening next week, let’s do this thing!” And then, suddenly, Terrapin opens. And then this is happening. And then, suddenly, such and such doesn’t happen. But I’ve just been kind of cruising with it. I’m actually pretty comfortable in that type of flow. It’s kind of like improvising music.

BISSList: Yeah, I can see that.

Lebo: Being in the moment, you know? I can roll that way. And fortunately, some cool things have been happening. So, that’s been keeping me feeling positive and feeling like things are moving in the right direction.

BISSList: That’s great. I saw on your calendar that there’s a new series – or some new promoters – booking gigs in a new outdoor space in Orinda? 

Lebo: Yeah! It’s actually an old space. I’ve never been there, but it’s where they do the CalShakes (calshakes.org) performances, you know? 

BISSList: Oh yeah, yeah.

Lebo: It’s a little amphitheater in the hills there, kind of behind UC Berkeley. It’s been there for years and our friend who’s the production manager at the Fillmore, Matt Lawsky, he’s got a production company with his wife, Luna []. They do shows, but usually he’s really busy with the Fillmore all the time, you know? But since he’s had some time off from that, obviously… He’s been kind of digging a little bit more into their production company and starting to put on shows. So they found this space, but it’s been a little while in the making. They’ve been trying to work it out, because it’s a perfect place for it, but they just haven’t done rock shows. It’s always been just Shakespeare. Because at their other places they did rock shows, but now, coming back to that word “agility,” it’s really all about finding new ways to satisfy your old cravings, if you will. So, this place seemed like a great idea and the layout works really well for a show. So, we’re really looking forward to it. ALO is going to be there on June 4th and 5th, and I think we might actually be kicking off their season. Another kind of unique thing about it is it’s a “Vax-only” show, and the first one of those that I’ve been involved with. 

BISSList: Oh, wow! Cool. So you’ve got to show your card, huh? 

Lebo: Yeah. You’ve got to show your card. And the way that came down is, honestly, we talked about it a lot as a band because, you know, we were concerned. We didn’t want to exclude anyone or anything like that. But, basically we had the shows booked a while out and then about three days before we were going to announce them the state rules changed. Technically, the venue holds 500 people and they had already reduced it to 360, for safety during Covid. But then suddenly with the rule change, the way the spacing was going to have to be, we were only going to be able to get like a hundred and twenty people in there. And this was like three days before we were supposed to be announcing. So we were like, “Oh my God, that’s not going to work.” What do you do, like $200 tickets? 

BISSList: Right, right.

Lebo: No, it just wasn’t going to work. But according to the new rules, if you do “Vax-only” then you can drop the social distancing requirements. People still need to wear masks, but you can drop social distancing. So that got us back up to 360. And we realized, gosh, it’s actually less exclusive to do it this way because instead of $200 tickets it’s going to be like $50 tickets. And Instead of 120 people we can let 360 people in. So, all the signs pointed to that being the way to go. So, we announced it and we’re really excited for the shows. And I think other people are excited too, to know that they’ll be surrounded by vaxxed people. 

BISSList: Yeah, that sounds amazing! I’m getting my second shot on Sunday, on Mother’s Day, so… Yeah. I’ll be there.

Lebo: Yeah. I can’t wait. And the venue looks awesome. That whole weekend is booked. We’re doing Sunday night down in Felton as part of the series they’re doing at Roaring Camp (). So, it’ll be Friday and Saturday in Orinda, Sunday down Felton, and all the shows are two set shows, so we get to dig deep. We’re going to do no repeats for the weekend. So it’ll be like six sets…

BISSList: Alright! Well, I hope you’ve been stretching those playing muscles. 

Lebo: Yeah, I’m psyched. We gotta catch up, you know? We didn’t get to play too many ALO shows this past year, so we don’t want to be doing too many repeats. 

BISSList: Right? Well that’s awesome! Great to hear. And it sounds like you’ve got a couple other shows coming up too, right? Both in person and streaming?

Lebo: You know, that’s going to be one of the interesting things… like we all dove head-first into streaming last year when everything shut down. And then as things have been creeping back – ALO has been doing a streaming series, we’ve been calling it the barbecue series, and we’ve done three of them with the full band – it was just as things were loosening a little bit to where the band could get together and play, but we couldn’t do any audience. So, we were like, “Let’s do some streaming gigs.” And we set up as a full electric band with all the gear and stuff. 

BISSList: Some backyard action.

Lebo: Yeah, totally. But what’s cool is that I think it [the lockdown] kind of jump-started everyone to get that together. So now I think what we’re going to start to see is a lot of combo things, you know, where’s there’s going to be the live show, but they’ll also be a streaming component to it, especially for people who don’t live in the area.

BISSList: Pamela Gerstein [Ms. BISS herself!] was telling me about a couple things you’ve got coming up where you’ve been working with her and her new production company, . She mentioned the fundraiser in particular, where you’re on a pretty star-studded bill along with the likes of Bob Weir & the Wolf Brothers, Jorma from Hot Tuna, Robert Walter and DJ Logic, as well as Ben Fong Torres, Wavy Gravy, Dennis MacNally, Peter Coyote, Mayor Breed, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others.

Lebo: Yeah, I’m super excited about that one and helping to raise money for such a great organization. And it was great working with Pamela and her crew on that. I contributed a newer tune that I wrote during the pandemic. It’s a song that talks about how in negative times, we can actually amplify positivity by giving energy to and reflecting on the elements of our lives that are still positive. The way I see it, there’s always something positive to be found. Happy to be included in that lineup and to be able to help shine a light on all the good work that HealthRIGHT 360 is doing in the community. That’s the same evening as our Roaring Camp show, so if people can’t make it down to Felton they should definitely plan to attend that virtual event.

But that’s the crazy thing, you know? Back in the day, you couldn’t be in two places at once, but now you can be in ten places at once. Or at least you can be at ten different tabs on a browser at once.

BISSList: [Laughs] Haha, right? I know I’ve got like fifty open right now, half of them music of some sort.

Lebo: It is definitely a new era with that, and a cool, unintended consequence of Covid. I never would have jumped into streaming the way I have over the past year, and now it’s a normal thing to me. And I like the idea of being able to continue with that. You know, besides these other gigs that have been opening up, this whole past year – even as things were being closed down – it hasn’t been a gig-less year. Because music lovers have wanted live music and they’ve found ways to do it. And I’ve done a lot of these private, backyard kind of gigs for people this year. You know, they’re all big music lovers and fans of the music. And they’re like, ‘Well, we haven’t gone out to any shows all month, so we’ll just pool our resources, the money that we would’ve been spending on shows anyway, and hire some musicians to come to a private show for us.’

And there’s been a lot of that in the Bay [Area] actually, like a whole bunch of these backyard, intimate gatherings of 20, 25 people, in a place where there’s proper spacing, you know? We always make sure it’s safe when we do them. A lot of different combinations. A lot of them revolving around me and another guitar player, or even a piano player, or something like that. You know, like a duo or trio arrangement, or sometimes even the whole band.

Then the other thing that’s been cool has been the private Zoom parties that people have also done. I’ve had some really fun times doing some of those. I just did one last week for some East Coast folks. Again, these are just music lovers, lovers of live music, and they’ll get together and have you do a private gig for them on Zoom with like 20 of their friends. It’s a ton of fun, because there’s a lot of conversing that happens during the gigs, like between the songs, you know? I’ll have a bunch of songs ready, but I like to be in the moment with those gigs too and see where things lead. It’s really fun when songs just kind of come out of nowhere. Like someone might mention something and I’ll be like, ‘Oh, I can think of a song that relates to that!’ So that’s been cool. 

BISSList: Yeah, totally. I can see that as being a fun change of pace.

Lebo: That’s kind of what I mean about how it’s weird how everything shut down, but there’s actually been all these sort of “alt” gigs and “alt” music opportunities. So it’s been cool, because I haven’t felt like I wasn’t able to connect with people this year. In a way, there were some deeper connections that happened, in a strange way. Versus the big shows with 1,000 people, where you don’t actually… I mean, you’re connecting with a lot of people, but not necessarily on as intimate a level as you do when you’re playing for 20 people.

BISSList: For sure. And you’re totally anticipating the next couple questions I had lined up, by the way, which were basically hitting on that same theme. I was going to ask: How has the last year of streaming-only shows, beaming out solo shows from your living room or wherever, changed your view of what’s possible as far as developing new means of distribution or reaching your audience? And you pretty much just answered that. And then: What do you think of the new models, like K.C. Turner’s driveway series or SoFar, as a means of disrupting the traditional live music model, bringing it straight to the fans on a smaller, more intimate scale? 

Lebo: Yeah, totally! All of that. I actually just did the K.C. Driveway Series thing a couple of weekends ago. That was a ton of fun, too. That was wild! It was like hard work – we did three shows a day – but it felt great at the end of the day. I did it with a couple of guys from Hot Buttered Rum (hotbutteredrum.net), where we each had our own amp and mic and stuff, and K.C. has this little battery-powered P.A. that he uses, and we would roll in like 30 minutes before downbeat and K.C. would set up the P.A. real quick and we would throw our amps down and do a quick line check, then launch into a set, finish the set and be out the door fifteen minutes later and on to the next gig! And we did that all day for like three days. 

BISSList: No way?! That is awesome. 

Lebo: It was great. And it was really good from a sense of, besides like musically being so cool, to connect with so many different people on a weekend. It was great work too, you know? I mean, it was just fun on all levels.

BISSList: It’s been amazing just how creative… how this has forced people to reimagine things, and develop these new models on the fly and I guess it just comes down to, you can’t stop the music, right? People want it, they need it, and they’ll find it somehow; and musicians will find a way to get it out there.

Lebo: Yeah! Yeah, you know, another interesting thing I noticed as a guitar player, it’s kind of shined a light on – how do I say this? It’s really shined a light on what’s so great about the guitar. Like an acoustic guitar, for example. It’s the perfect volume for accompanying the human voice. It’s the perfect range. You’ve got some low in there, to take up a little bit of bottom, you got high and middle for the chorus. There’s space for the voice to cut through. It can solo! So, I think in this year where everything got stripped back so much… I feel for my rhythm section brothers and sisters, like the drummers and stuff, because so many of these gigs that have happened, because they’re intimate, the nature of it is that people want duos and trios.

BISSList: Yeah.

Lebo: So it’s like guitar and the guitar/voice thing, it’s just no wonder guitar has done so well for itself. Guitar as an entity, you know? Because so many instruments come and go, you know what I mean? I went to school down in Santa Barbara where I studied music and I remember doing some research at one point on musical instrument innovations of the Romantic period. And it was fascinating because there’s all these instruments that came out of that era, like the saxophone and others that stuck around. But there were a ton of instruments that came and went. And that’s been true throughout history. So it’s kind of remarkable that ever since the guitar hit the scene it’s remained such a strong force. And for good reason. After seeing this side of it this year, I’ve got a new appreciation. It’s efficient. It’s an efficient instrument. It does a lot of stuff. 

BISSList: Yeah. It’s been a saving grace for me this this year too. I’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of my Takemine too.

Lebo: Yeah! 

BISSList: In addition to spending a lot of time with my wife and daughter, I’ve gotten a lot more familiar with my guitar, which has been nice. 

Lebo: Yeah, totally. It’s been a great thing about this time. And it really speaks to the special qualities of the guitar.

BISSList: So, on a somewhat similar note, I know that ALO’s, and your personal identity as an artist is especially tied to a sense of community. How has this past year tested, or maybe actually bolstered, that sense of community that you’ve built up and share with your audience?

Lebo: Yeah, it’s changed it in a way. Our normal methods of connecting, obviously, went out the window. But again, the streaming thing has really been such a blessing. Especially in the beginning. I was doing it A LOT in the beginning, like several times a week for that whole initial period when the pandemic first hit. And for me it felt so good to be able to connect with people. We were on ALO tour, our annual Tour de Amor, when everything shut down. And we had all these dates still to go for that tour. And then I had other dates with other projects out on the East Coast. My whole calendar was full. It was coming into a very full time. And suddenly, it got erased. You know, I was joking around and I was like, “Who’s the wise guy who did my calendar in invisible ink? It’s all gone!” 

BISSList: [Laughs] Yeah.

Lebo: But then I started streaming a ton and it was almost like I just stayed on tour, but from my studio. I was doing it several times a week and it was awesome. I was able to dig into all this music and connect with the fans and with friends. And another nice thing, especially in the beginning… I don’t like to read the comments that come across while I’m like playing a tune, that’s a disservice to the song, to myself and to the people who are watching it. But I would go in a lot of times afterwards, after I finished my stream, and chill for a while and just read through all the comments. And it was so cool to see what people were saying and to be able to respond to some of the comments at that point. It was a great way to stay connected and to not feel isolated. Especially at the beginning, because it was just weird when we all got locked in. We all thought it was just going to last for a little bit. We didn’t know how long it was going to go, but there was a sort of electricity in the air. And through the stream I felt like we all stayed really connected, in a different way. Again, it’s not the same as being in a room together, but it was still really cool and I appreciate it a lot, even now. But for me, it was especially meaningful in the beginning when everything was just totally shut down. 

BISSList: Yeah, I totally agree. And it makes you realize the staying power of that community and how much it means to people, how much it means to the fans and to the artists, to have that and that we needed to keep it going somehow. 

Lebo: Totally. Absolutely. And it did and then it started giving way last summer to those backyard kind of intimate private style gigs that again was a really good way to stay connected to the community. As well as some really low key – I don’t even want to call them “festivals” because they weren’t really festivals, just really low key gatherings outdoors that people had organized. You know, nothing that was like a quote-unquote “ticketed event” or anything like that. But yeah, for the musicians and the music community it’s important to stay connected, so we found ways to do it safely. And that’s the main thing, keeping it safe. You know? I think unfortunately, a lot of times there have to be really strict rules just because you can’t trust that people are going to do it safely. So it’s nice when people can be responsible and do something fun but still act responsibly, like we all need to, to keep the thing from spreading, by keeping those rules in effect and being diligent about those things. 

BISSList: Yep. Yeah, for sure.

Lebo: I also did lot of streaming with Jason Crosby and Roger MacNamee this past year. Those guys did a cool thing where they had a stream, in some form, every day. And it’s still going, actually.

BISSList: Wow!

Lebo: Sunday [05/09] will be the 420th consecutive day. 

BISSList: Oh my goodness. 

Lebo: Yeah. So I did some of them with those guys. It was through their MoonAlice community, but we also have the Doobie Decibel band, which is me and Jason and Roger.

BISSList: Right. Right.

Lebo: It actually started the day things shut down. We were supposed to have a gig at the Sweetwater. But instead we got together down at Roger’s house and just did a stream. And afterwards I went home, but those guys continued to do streams together, like every day for a while. And then things opened up and they brought in other people from their community and we kind of kept a consistent, weekly, Doobie Decibel thing happening throughout this whole year. So that’s been cool too. To be able to actually develop a project while in the midst of all this. I mean you wouldn’t think that’s possible, but we did. 

BISSList: No, that’s great. 

Lebo: Yeah, so that’s been fun.

BISSList: You’re like the ultimate “special guest” or “one-off” band leader/musical director, playing gigs with everybody.

Lebo: Yeah, I love doing stuff like that.

BISSList: What is it about doing those kind of side projects that gives you particular joy or keeps you doing that? Is it just a way of keeping it fresh? Is it you seeking different chemistry, wanting to see what happens with different combinations?

Lebo: Yeah, I think there’s a few elements at play. I realized pretty early on… I mean, ALO started when I was in junior high – three of the four of us started playing when we were 12 years old – so that’s a long, steady band. Then we all went to school down in Santa Barbara, and that’s when we really dug in with the band. But that’s been in existence since we were 12. So, early on, it was just all about the band, you know? But I also realized pretty early on, even back in college, that I loved doing projects with other people, too. And I found that at different times of my life, back in the old days, I noticed if it was all of one it never felt right for me. And I know there’s some people who are just “band-only” people. And then there’s other people who are totally like, guns-for-hire. And that’s where they thrive. They don’t want to deal with the sort of things that come with being in a band. But for me, I love both. I just really love both. So, I always have to have a balance. And if I’m only in band mode I can sometimes get a little stir crazy because by the nature of a band… It’s like a Venn diagram.

BISSList: Yeah? 

Lebo: Yeah, you know, circles? Overlapping circles? A band should represent where the circles overlap, but each of our individual circles has all these other parts. So, sometimes in band mode I get a little bit antsy because the other parts of my musical inspiration and loves are not getting tended to. But on the flip side, like the times when we’ve had especially slow periods with the band because one of us is busy with one of our other projects, or whatever, and I’m just doing the thing where I’m playing with other people, I sometimes miss the depth that you can only get from a band that’s been playing together for years and years. Like there’s a certain of telepathy that I have with the ALO guys that you can’t anywhere else. So, when I’m only doing the one-off side things, I miss that. I realized that a long time ago, so I try to keep a healthy dose of both in my life at all times. And if I do that, I’m pretty happy with it. But the thing with that is – the  band thing and the side thing – the side thing is so vast. The band thing is the band thing. But the side thing, that’s like so many different things, you know? It’s from, like you mentioned, doing the musical director stuff, like the Golden Gate Park summer solstice shows we were doing over the summer where it’s like 50 different musicians, 18,000 people out in the crowd. 

BISSList: Uh huh. 

Lebo: Like four hours of music. I totally love that zone. Being a musical director and just putting those setlists together and finding ways to get everyone featured. You know, all these musicians I know and work with, I’m inspired by them. So, one of the things I love most as a musical director is for me to think about, ‘Oh, that’s the thing about that musician that really inspires me!’ 

BISSList: Right, like, how can you make them shine? What can they bring to the mix that’s unique? 

Lebo: Yes, setting everyone up to shine. It’s really fun. I love it. And one of my favorite things that always happens in those things, and even smaller ones where I’m musical directing with a group of six or seven musicians, there’s this thing where, especially if the musicians don’t know each other already… it’s so fun! I love it when I know that someone is capable of doing this special thing – say it’s a singer – and I know the bass player’s never even met that singer and we’re going to all get together for the first time on this gig. I love it when that person does their inspiring thing and I get to watch the reaction of my other musician friends, ones who inspire me, getting inspired by that special thing. 

BISSList: Yeah, how cool.

Lebo: Yeah, I just love it. I totally get off on it. I love that part of musical directing. So with side things, that’s one side of it. And on the far end of it are gigs where I’m just there as a guitar player and all I’m responsible for is just playing guitar. I love that too. It’s almost like a vacation gig. And I totally get into that too, you know? I would say that’s the most opposite from the band thing, the sideman thing. And for me, if I’m doing that with good musicians, I’m totally happy in that zone too. I just show up to play good guitar and get inspired by the musicians around me. I like all those things. So, it’s nice to have a balance of all those things happening because it keeps me feeling… I don’t know, musically satisfied, you know?

BISSList: Yeah, yeah, for sure. Sounds like right now your cup runneth over. 

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on Friday, June 4th and Saturday, June 6th, and at Roaring Camp in Felton, CA on Sunday, June 6th.