As a young boy, Levang moved with his family between Adams, North Dakota and Bemidji, Minnesota before migrating west.
In 1959, he was hired as a temporary guitar and banjo player on The Lawrence Welk Show when Buddy Merrill left to serve in the United States Army.
He was the featured guitarist with Naomi and Wynonna Judd on the 1985 and 1986 Academy of Country Music Association Awards television broadcast.
He was the subject of an extensive career profile by historian Rich Kienzle in the December 2009 issue of Vintage Guitar Magazine.
[1] Levang unknowingly created a new genre of music that would eventually be called Surf Rock with his 1961 arrangement of Ghost Riders In the Sky, performed on The Lawrence Welk Show.