James Lee Stanley

James Lee Stanley
James Lee Stanley performing live in 2001
Background information
Born	(1946-04-30) April 30, 1946 (age 70) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Genres	Folk, folk-rock, jazz, blues, pop/rock
Occupation(s)	Singer-songwriter, musician, composer, producer, actor
Instruments	Vocals, guitar
Labels	Wooden Nickel, Beachwood Recordings
Associated acts	Peter Tork, John Batdorf, Tom Dundee, Hamilton Camp, Cliff Eberhardt, Pamala Stanley,
Website	jamesleestanley.com

James Lee Stanley (born April 30, 1946) is an American folk singer-songwriter. Stanley was also a regular extra on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine for six seasons.

Stanley was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania of Italian, German, Cherokee Indian, Scotch/Irish and English heritage. He said in a 2002 interview that as a child he was "shy, bright, blessed ...[with a] strict father gentle mother ...[and] three beautiful sisters." Stanley's uncle taught him to play the ukulele at an early age, and at sixteen he got his first recording contract and in 1970 did his first Los Angeles recording session through his friend Cass Elliot of The Mamas & the Papas. Stanley and Elliott remained friends until her death. About his early attempts at songwriting, Stanley said "The Producer told me to write songs, so I did. They were terrible."

Stanley spent time in the United States Air Force during the late 1960s as a Chinese linguist and from 1969 to 1972 studied music at Los Angeles City College and Cal State-Northridge. Upon graduation, Stanley began working as a songwriter for producer Bones Howe, a relationship which led Stanley to a recording contract with Wooden Nickel Records, a Chicago label distributed by RCA.

Stanley's first self-titled album on Wooden Nickel was released January 23, 1973 and one month later he had his first booking as a recording artist, opening for Les Paul at McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica. Though Stanley had a ten album contract, he was unhappy with the promotion offered by the label. "Publicity campaign?", Stanley said. "They made three T-shirts, one for me, one for the president of Wooden Nickel and one for his wife. And there was one group ad with Tower Records L.A. in which my album was included. So far as I know, that was it." Critically, Stanley fared much better. "I received nothing but brilliant reviews. I remember Billboard Magazine, then the biggest music/showbiz mag in the world, choosing only a few albums to spotlight the week I put out Three's the Charm: Queen's Night at the Opera, Loggins and Messina's Sittin In /Ten Years After with Alvin Lee / and Three's the Charm."