Les Greene & The Swayzees

From Baltimore to Duval Street: the making of a frontman

Les Greene’s path to fronting The Swayzees runs through Baltimore childhood, a formative stint living in Guyana, and a move to Key West that reset his musical life. A long read on the Soul of Key West site sketches the route: born in Baltimore, Greene spent early years in Guyana hearing 1950s and ’60s soul on local television, then returned to Maryland, where the sound of Sam Cooke became a compass. He took a cruise‑ship job, was repeatedly coaxed on stage by a working musician from Key West, and finally moved to the island in November 2014. There he met Jerrod Isaman and Patrick Stecher, joining their nascent retro‑R&B outfit Patrick & The Swayzees after an open‑mic performance; the band’s popularity exploded on the island circuit. When Stecher and Isaman departed, Greene carried the torch and, with a refreshed lineup, shortened the name to The Swayzees.

The step up from local favourite to national visibility came in 2018. Greene advanced to the Hollywood rounds on ABC’s American Idol after performing A Change Is Gonna Come for judges Lionel Richie, Katy Perry and Luke Bryan; contemporaneous local reporting places him in the Top 50. The national TV run didn’t turn him into a reality‑show product so much as confirm an existing live‑wire singer fronting a working band – still gigging in Key West and beyond, but now with a calling card.

The records that count

The first sustained release under the Swayzees banner arrived on 22 November 2019, when Patrick & The Swayzees issued the five‑track Almost There EP. Its tracklist includes Down in the Keys, a tune that has since resurfaced in the live set. It captured what the band were doing nightly – original, doo‑wop‑tinted R&B written to move a room – and cemented a catalogue starting point before Greene’s next break arrived from an unexpected direction.

In 2022, Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis landed Greene a different sort of credit: he provided the screen vocal for Tutti Frutti in a sequence where model Alton Mason embodies Little Richard. The soundtrack album includes Tutti Frutti credited to Les Greene, and interviews with the film’s music team comment on how closely Greene channelled Little Richard’s attack. The Elvis soundtrack went on to receive a 2023 Grammy nomination for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media – an accolade Greene shares indirectly as one of the featured performers.

The studio story in 2026 is more expansive. On 5 June 2026, Grey DeLisle – best known as a voice actor and singer with a run of country and Americana records – released Grey & Greene, a 10‑song duet album with Greene on Hummin’bird Records LLC. Reviewers have picked up on the cross‑genre chemistry: Americana Highways praised the old‑school R&B feel and singled out Greene’s lead on The Back of Your Hand; Fatea’s review notes the gospel‑soul undertow of songs such as Mister and The Pieces, with Greene and DeLisle trading lead and harmony lines throughout. A June 2026 roundup on Country Universe also flagged the set as a continuation of DeLisle’s strong recent form and highlighted Greene’s contributions.

Between those bookends sits a 2023 three‑song collaboration with Rochester surf‑garage outfit the Televisionaries – Airbound, Reconcile and Few and Far Between – issued as Televisionaries & Les Greene. The EP’s details are sparse in the mainstream press, but label listings and specialist blogs mark it out as a punchy, dance‑floor‑aimed bridge between Greene’s bar‑band instincts and his studio work.

The band and how it works

The Swayzees are a Key West‑forged unit built to play R&B, early rock ’n’ roll and the sort of horn‑punctuated soul that rewards a tight stage plot. A 2026 Soul of Key West profile lists a working lineup around Greene that includes Adonnas Jones (drums), Ricky Risquez (bass), Tony Armas (trombone), Alex Coombs (guitar/trumpet) and Ori Aravena (guitar). The group’s own site traces the name to the island’s scene: a spin‑off from two established Key West bands that quickly secured regular slots at the island’s storied rooms.

Live, the show folds originals in with select covers. Greene’s Little Richard connection surfaces occasionally as a feel rather than a staple, and since June the Grey & Greene material has bled into the set. The band remain rooted in club stages and regional festivals, where they can stretch the groove and let Greene’s frontman craft – from compressing rasps to falsetto bursts – carry the room.

Touring and dates on sale now

After a pandemic‑era lull, 2026 has been busy. In March, Les Greene & The Swayzees were among the artists on Joe Bonamassa’s Keeping the Blues Alive at Sea XI, sailing 25–29 March 2026 from Miami to Key West and Nassau on Norwegian Pearl. The festival’s site and setlist archives place the band on multiple bills across the four days, with at least one club‑length show logged at 75 minutes.

On 3 July 2026 the band played FitzGerald’s 43rd American Music Festival in Berwyn, Illinois; the festival listings and a contemporaneous setlist entry place them in the Nightclub room late on the Friday, rolling through originals such as Can You Keep a Secret and Pick a Fight, the Televisionaries collab Reconcile, and two Grey & Greene cuts – Back of Your Hand and I’m Gonna Let You Call Me Baby – before an encore of The Isley Brothers’ Shout.

As of 7 September 2026, two dates are on sale through primary channels. A club show at Mercury Lounge, New York, took place on Sunday 6 September 2026, billed with support from Stefan Weiner and brahm masla; the Mercury East promoter calendar shows the 8pm slot and ticketing flow routed via Ticketmaster. Further ahead, the band are advertised at Rockabillaque Florida at Seminole Center Outdoors, Immokalee, on Saturday 14 November 2026, part of the rockabilly‑leaning festival’s two‑day return.

Where they stand now

Two threads define Greene’s present: a credible studio identity and a reputation as a no‑nonsense live entertainer. The Elvis credit – fixed on record with a named track on the 2022 soundtrack and underlined by the project’s Grammy nomination announced for the 2023 ceremony – gave him a searchable hook beyond Key West. The June 2026 Grey & Greene album re‑contextualises that voice in original material, with independent reviews calling out Greene’s leads as fully shaped soul performances rather than pastiche. Meanwhile, the summer’s festival appearances and a steady trickle of small‑room bookings keep the band visible – and leave space for the catalogue of singles that Greene has been issuing since 2024 (from Can You Keep a Secret onward) to become live fixtures.

There is no sign of a major‑label push around The Swayzees themselves; releases arrive on boutique imprints or self‑issued, with the Elvis soundtrack an outlier via RCA/House of Iona. That suits the way the band tour – nimble, club‑first, and free to book around festival offers such as the Bonamassa cruise. The most recent development, dated 5 June 2026, is the album with DeLisle; the most recent show listing, dated 6 September 2026, confirms a New York return after a summer of festival shows. November’s Rockabillaque slot gives them another Florida anchor as the year winds down.

What the show feels like in 2026

The best snapshot of a current set comes from that 3 July 2026 FitzGerald’s listing: a dozen songs, front‑loaded with Greene’s recent singles and Televisionaries co‑writes, then two Grey & Greene cuts, and a soul‑standard blow‑out to finish. On the water in March 2026, set times on the cruise bill show a compact 75‑minute club set one night and multiple scheduled slots elsewhere across the week, suggesting a flexible unit that can either headline a late bar or plug into a festival grid. Recent New York listings have the band closing a Sunday with two local openers, the classic small‑room frame that suits a singer comfortable working close to the crowd. User reviews on Ticketmaster skew enthusiastic – a September 2024 Mercury Lounge note praising the effort to play like it’s Madison Square Garden to a thin crowd, and an April 2026 entry calling the performance “amazing” – which squares with reporting from Key West that still photographs Greene mid‑air and tells of him stage‑diving at the Green Parrot. It’s not a conceptual reinvention of R&B. It’s a dance‑floor show for rooms that want sweat, with a leader who has found a way to channel film‑soundtrack precision into bar‑band dynamics.