Choosing a Session Leader
Will
Griffin
The session leader is the bandleader of the session. The session leader is a member of the band and they pretty well direct what is going on with the musicians inside the recording chamber.
In Nashville, they are usually responsible for writing the chord charts and the distribution of these to the other musicians, or the supervision of the writing during the session. They often collaborate with the producer on such things as: arrangements, selection of musicians, and communicating with the band members. The session leader is the band liaison between all of the musicians, the musicians' union,, the producer and the artist.
If you do not hire a producer, you need to hire a very strong and well connected and respected session leader. You want to hire a session leader who plays at least three (3) instruments, if you are going to find someone capable of handling the additional roles and responsibilities. This musician then is your primary contact between you and the other musicians, and you and the AFM musicians' union. In doing this, the session leader should earn something for pre-production, beyond the double scale provided by the rules of the musicians' union...they've earned it.
There are those songs which have more of a piano orientation and those with guitar orientation and/or orientation to other instruments. If your song is more oriented to a piano, you want to hire a strong piano player of your session. If it is very guitar dominant, then you want your session leader to be a guitar player. Although there are no hard and fast rules about this, this is consideration to help enhance the potentials that the session captures the essence, feel and groove of the material.
Whoever you hire as your session leader, they need to be a strong musician in playing and leadership abilities. They should have access and respect of other top players, and certainly by every musician working on the session.