Bio

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. In addition to clubs and universities throughout America and Europe, he and Buckley also performed at Carnegie Hall, Philharmonic Hall, Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, the Hollywood Bowl and Queen Elizabeth Hall (in London).


As a solo acoustic guitarist, Underwood 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 a solo piano CD, Phantom Light, in 2003. He completed his lengthy novel, Diamondfire: The Journey, in 2005, recorded a second solo piano CD, Gathering Light, in 2009, and continues to write essays and poetry while living with his wife near Yosemite National Park, California.


His new book is entitled Diamonds in the Sky: Extrapolations, Explorations, Transformations. It is a compilation of some of his e-mail writings over the years, focusing on dozens of subjects, including Music, Reading, Writing, Love, Sex, Religion, Higher Consciousness, Drugs, Aging, Suicide, Psychotherapy and Creativity. He has included the entire book on this site.


For nearly 20 years in LA, Underwood wrote about music and musicians for dozens of publications, including Down Beat (West Coast Editor, 1975-1981), the LA Times, Rolling Stone, the LA Weekly, Players, Coda, and Body/Mind/Spirit. He interviewed a host of musicians along the way, including John McLaughlin, McCoy Tyner, Joe Pass, Herbie Hancock, Chic Corea, Stevie Wonder, Vangelis, Steve Roach, Harold Budd, and Tibetan bell player Henry Wolff. He co-authored flutist Paul Horn's autobiography, Inside Paul Horn (HarperCollins, 1990), 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 California, and has published poems in Light of Consciousness, ZamBomba, In the Grove, and The Central California Poetry Journal.











   

 

Next to the delights of madness, perhaps the pursuit of clarity

is man’s greatest pleasure.