“Roadside Stand” This is the author’s favorite Leske original and is now hanging proudly in his home.
CHRIS LESKE: THE ARTIST WRITTEN BY JOHN R. GREENWOOD | PHOTOS PROVIDED
Every day we pass by a familiar face without ever knowing the story behind it. This story is about one of those faces. The first time I met musician Chris Leske was at the Parting Glass over 30 years ago. It would have been a rare Saturday when my wife and I had enough for a babysitter and a night out. After a burger and fries, we'd have a pint and wait for the live music. Luckily, on many occasions, it included some Chris Leske banjo licks. I owned Price's Dairy at the time, so the Parting Glass was also one of my customers. Chris was a fixture there, and I always looked forward to my Friday deliveries and sharing some laughs. Over the next three decades, we'd run into each other in various places around town. In more recent times, we'd bump into one another at the Stewart's Shop near my home. The repartee would consist of, "Hey, how's it going?" "Good, how about you?" then we'd head off in separate directions. In October of 2021, Chris posted one of his watercolor paintings on a Saratoga Facebook page. It was beautiful and soon amassed a long thread of positive comments and likes. I'd only witnessed Chris torching the strings of a banjo with The McKrells. The painting I was looking at dictated a closer look at Chris Leske, the painter. I would soon learn his resume had more layers than a wedding cake. It included everything from banjo champion to an award-winning sculptor, to playing Carnegie Hall. 90 | SIMPLY SARATOGA | SPRING 2022
Joyce Andersen, Rick Bedrosian, Kevin McKrell, Chris Leske, and Craig Vance. Members of the The McKrells, who played Carnegie Hall in 1995. Photo taken on Caroline St. looking up toward Broadway in Saratoga Springs
Soon after that post, we ran into each other, and I asked him if he had any paintings for sale. We exchanged contact info, and a few days later, I was the proud owner of two Leske Originals. We sat in a booth at that same Stewart's Shop to finalize the deal while a conversation that spanned several decades and an equal number of topics followed. saratogaTODAYnewspaper.com