Levi Platero on the blues, fatherhood and the road that shaped him

WINDOW ROCK

Levi Platero has thought a lot about the version of himself who never picked up a guitar.

That version is not hard for him to imagine.

He watched cousins and uncles struggle with alcohol and substance abuse. He grew up with time on his hands in a place where, as he puts it, there’s only so much a person can do.

Then he was handed a $50 pawn shop guitar. He was 9.

“To me, this was like a lifeline. It was like my way out and my way to go see the world,” Platero said. “I think music, blues music, and playing guitar, the ability to play guitar, I think it saved my life.”

Two decades later, the Diné blues guitarist is a working musician with a fall calendar stacked from Albuquerque to southwestern Colorado, an EP arriving at the end of the month and a 15-month-old daughter at home who has changed the arithmetic of everything.

Platero grew up inside music.

His family played, and by 2004 he was onstage with his brothers in The Plateros, a blues-rock power trio out of the Navajo Nation that spent roughly a decade touring the country and drew comparisons to Stevie Ray Vaughan, Los Lonely Boys and ZZ Top.

The stage was a family space before it was ever a career. Platero has described himself as “a Navajo bluesman who grew up in a Gospel circuit.”

The early years of playing have blurred together for him.

“I don’t really remember, like, practicing a whole lot. I know I did, but it just seems it’s just so long ago that it just kind of became an extension of, like, you know, like who I am,” he said. “I didn’t really fully become comfortable with it until I was about, geez, maybe 10 years in.”

He later played alongside Mato Nanji in the band Indigenous.

“It was a very blessed and fortunate opportunity that I had, and I can’t thank enough for allowing me to be in that band,” Platero said. “It was really cool to watch him work and just kind of just how he handles himself. He’s a very good man. He never sat me down and said, ‘Hey, this is how you do it.’ I just learned by watching him.”

“He’s big brother, man,” he said.

Platero eventually stepped out on his own, assembled a new band and recorded a self-titled EP. Its single, “Take Me Back,” won both the 2016 Native American Music Award and the 2016 New Mexico Music Award for best blues.

His third studio album, “Leaving This Town,” was released in August 2025, with a release show at the KiMo Theatre in Albuquerque.

Blues, Platero said, was never a calculated choice.

“I didn’t choose the blues genre, man. It chose me,” he said.

Two names surface when he talks about why.

The first is Charley Patton, one of the foundational musicians of Delta blues. Platero heard something familiar in Patton’s music.

“‘Cause I grew up on the rez, and there’s just, you know, how barren it’s almost. There’s nothing out there. It’s like, what can you do on the rez? You know, there’s only so much you can do,” he said. “But that’s kind of how it resonated with me — just the raw emotion, the storytelling.”

The second name is Stevie Ray Vaughan, one of the players Platero taught himself from as a boy alongside the three Kings.

On Oct. 2, he’ll headline an evening honoring the late Texas guitarist at Fusion in downtown Albuquerque, hosted by AMP Concerts.

“I’ve always wanted to do a Stevie Ray Vaughan tribute, and this should be really cool,” Platero said. “I’m excited for that.”

Platero has worked often with the Albuquerque promoter.

“They’re really good people, and they’ve never steered me wrong,” he said. “They’ve always done good by me.”

The tribute anchors a run of dates that carries Platero through October.

He plays Blues Night at Civic Plaza in Albuquerque on Sept. 12 with Judith Hill, who has recorded and performed with a long list of major artists. On Sept. 19, he opens the main stage at Bands of Enchantment ahead of New Orleans funk band Galactic and guitarist Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, whom Platero first met on the Blues Cruise.

“By that time he was only like 20 or 19 at that time, and now just watching him grow into the mature blues artist that he is now, it’s just so awesome,” Platero said.

Then it’s the 4th Annual Rhythm and Roots Harvest Festival in Mancos, Colorado, where he plays Sept. 25 at Mancos Brewery.

“I’m finally gaining some fans out in Colorado, so I think there’s gonna be quite a bit of people coming out,” he said.

Oct. 3 takes him to El Morro, New Mexico, for a concert at the national monument, with more dates still being added.

His new EP is scheduled for release Sept. 28. The record collects songs Platero wrote for a television show.

“I’m very excited to be releasing these songs,” he said.

Backing him this month is drummer Brian Burton of Albuquerque.

“(He’s) probably one of the best session live drummers that I’ve played with in a very long time,” he said of Burton.

Keyboardist Brent Leeper joins him Sept. 9. Leeper has played with Texas bluesman W.C. Clark and California guitarist Coco Montoya.

“He’s already a legend, man,” Platero said. “I’m very fortunate to have him on keys in my band.”

With regular bassist Milo Jaramillo unavailable, Platero has called in longtime friend Scotti Clifford from South Dakota.

The run begins Wednesday, Sept. 9, at the inaugural Navajo Nation Music Fest at the Dean C. Jackson Memorial Arena, presented by the Navajo Division of Transportation during the 78th Annual Navajo Nation Fair. The free show runs from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m., with doors opening at 7.

The bill also includes Nataanii Means, the Diné and Oglala Lakota rapper based in Albuquerque, Diné hip-hop artist DestroyKasmin of Ganado, Purpose and DJ T-Rawk.

“So I think I’m like the only different genre there,” Platero said, laughing.

Platero has known Means for years.

“I’ve known Nataanii for a while now, and he’s always wanted to do some shows with me and stuff, but we never really got around to doing shows together for a while,” Platero said. “It’s kind of cool that we’re finally doing some stuff together.”

‘I’m an example’

Fatherhood has moved Platero to the other side of a conversation he used to be on the receiving end of.

Platero has been thinking more about the role family support can play when a young person finds something they want to pursue.

“It really matters if you find support from your family. You know, that’s a big deal,” he said. “It feels good if your family’s proud of you and they see what you’re doing.”

He also knows what it is like to hear the opposite.

“It’s also a very discouraging thing when they say you can’t make a living, you can’t make a living doing that. Go get a real job or something like that,” Platero said. “I’ve heard it. It’s like, how are you gonna support your family? And I’m just, well, I’m an example. I just stuck with it, and I’m still doing it. I do music full-time.”

Looking back, Platero can see how much of his childhood the guitar occupied.

“I wasn’t thinking that way back then. When I look back, it really occupied my time,” he said. “Instead of going out and doing stuff and hanging out, I was at home, I was playing guitar. I would wake up early, play guitar before I go to school. And that was just my life, man.”

The lesson, he said, is not limited to music.

“If any kid finds a passion that they love, you know, whether it’s breaking horses, bull riding, or writing music, writing poetry, painting, whatever it is, just go for it,” Platero said. “You never know what that path will be like or what direction you’ll go, how far you’ll be in five years.”

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