Lee J Hodgson was born and raised in Essex, UK. He became a professional musician in 1979. Although known as a country guitarist and singer, Lee has actually played most styles of music, having played jazz-flavoured gigs since the 80s and lots of pop gigs too, including tours with Disco legends and No. 1 chart act Odyssey in 1980–81. While touring with another chart act, Bobby Thurston, Lee had the opportunity to jam with Stevie Wonder's Wonderlove.

Performing is his passion! 

Lee Hodgson has played thousands of concerts and festivals, having performed at some of London's most prestigious venues such as The Royal Albert Hall, Wembley Arena, The Jazz Café and the O2 Islington. Elsewhere in Europe Lee has played at renowned venues including The Benidorm Palace, Villamartin Plaza, EuroDisney and large festivals including Mirande in the south of France.

Being a music "reader", Lee has worked on many touring theatre productions, currently with The Queens of Country and, in recent years, Maddie Cole's Step Inside The 60s.

Lee regularly performs with some of the UK's top musicians in a variety of bands including:

• Paul Da Vinci's 60s-70s Show
• What a Waste – an Ian Dury & The Blockheads tribute band
• The Beat Foundations, a pop, r'n'b & soul groove-based band;
• Sofrito, a Latin-jazz-blues-reggae ensemble.

Lee also sings lead vocals, plus harmonies, with one of the UK's most popular country bands, Memphis Roots (which he co-founded and performed with 1987–2001 and which reformed in 2018), which occasionally backs Texan fiddle player, John Permenter – and Lee is  a member of the John Permenter Band. John occasionally augments Memphis Roots' line-up, along with a keyboard player, in The Memphis Mega Band.

Lee also performs regularly as the Lee J Duo with selected male/female duo partners. He also performs as a solo entertainer in care homes, sheltered housing and at private parties, singing music from across the decades, while including popular guitar instrumentals, too.

Lee Hodgson is a renowned guitar teacher, having taught at London's Institute of Contemporary Music Performance (ICMP), formerly The Guitar Institute, since 1990. He has authored a book, Hot Country, and his monthly columns and transcriptions were featured in Guitarist and Guitar Techniques magazines for over 10 years. Lee is a featured tutor on many DVD/ streaming tutorials for Lick Library and JTC. Lee's video interviews with guitar legends such as Hank Marvin, Albert Lee, Richard Thompson and Jerry Donahue have featured in an online publication, Guitar Interactive.

Lee Hodgson's Rhythm Changes is his exciting new band project for 2024. Stay tuned for more details.

Lee Hodgson endorses:

Wilkinson guitars & hardware – https://wilkinsondirect.com

Fret-King guitars – https://fret-king.com

Ernie Ball strings – https://ernieball.co.uk/guitar-strings/electric-guitar-strings