Sacred steel player Roosevelt Collier, known for his work with The Lee Boys and as a festival fixture on the jam-band scene, will perform with a trio at the Domino Room on Thursday. (Submitted photo)

When Roosevelt Collier says his schedule is tight, he is not kidding.

This year alone, the lap steel guitar whiz has released two studio albums, toured with tributes to Jimi Hendrix and Bill Withers (the latter band just returned from a three-night stand in Tokyo) and kept up a steady stream of festival appearances. If that wasn’t enough, he’s putting the finishing touches on his long-promised first solo album.

But first, he hit the road again this week for a West Coast tour featuring a different band every date. He’ll have drummer Reed Mathis and Jelly Bread bassist Cliff Porter in tow for his show at the Domino Room on Thursday. These largely improvisatory performances are known as “get downs” by Collier and his fans.

Collier spoke with GO! Magazine just after 9 p.m. on a recent Wednesday in Orlando, Florida, during a rare moment at home with his wife and kids. If he was tired, it didn’t show. He spoke for close to a half-hour about his many collaborations, his upcoming album and his upbringing in the sacred steel tradition, his enthusiasm bubbling over in a near-constant stream of “yeahs,” and “listen, mans.”

“This is more like a Jam Cruise style — we are actually coming to straight get down,” Collier said. “There’s no structured thing. You know, man, it’s all about that moment. It’s all about — I like to know that everybody is having a good time and having fun. … So it’s kind of a big party.”

The fact that Collier hasn’t played with Mathis or Porter before will add to the loose nature of the shows (other dates on the tour will feature ALO’s Dan Lebowitz, Fruition’s Jay Cobb and Chris Littlefield of Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe).

But Collier is used to sitting in with bands, sometimes with no notice at all. His list of musical collaborators has grown seemingly by the day since his family band The Lee Boys hit the touring circuit in the early 2000s, and includes The Allman Brothers Band, Gov’t Mule, Living Colour, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, Railroad Earth and Greensky Bluegrass, among many others.

“It’s like a button that I click on and off just to get in that mode,” Collier said. “But you know what, man? My basis is still the same. My goal has always been to bring my style of music into all the genres. Jamgrass, jam bands, the hardcore blues, the hardcore metal, jazz, R&B, funk — I like all that stuff, but with my style of playing.”

That style is rooted in the sacred steel traditions of his family’s church, the House of God Church, which gave rise to The Lee Boys. The African-American gospel style developed in Southern Pentecostal churches in the 1930s when the Hawaiian steel guitar was introduced by brothers Willie and Troman Eason, according to The Lee Boys’ website.

In the early 2000s, groups such as Robert Randolph and The Family Band and The Lee Boys themselves would bring the tradition to a wider, secular audience.

Collier’s grandfather Robert E. Lee served as pastor and steel player when Collier was growing up. He was exposed not just to gospel and sacred steel music, but everything from soul to funk to R&B at church services; in past interviews, Collier has talked about how his uncle and teacher Glenn Lee would throw Michael Jackson licks into gospel songs.

“Because my grandfather was a pastor, you know, and you know what?” Collier said. “He allowed his sons to be free, and not just be stuck in that certain ring of music. And man, that brought all types of jams and grooves in the church. It was crazy.”

Like his cousins and bandmates in The Lee Boys, Collier started playing music early. Initially playing drums, he moved through a litany of instruments before finally taking up pedal steel under Glenn Lee.

“The late Rev. Glenn Lee, he was the master steel player of the family,” Collier said. “… After he passed, it was kind of like my breaking out of the shell. I had to step out, you know. … I watched it being played, like (as) a baby. After the drums came the bass, and after that came the rhythm. After that came organ, then after that came steel. That wasn’t that hard, you know.”

In recent years, Collier has focused on his solo career and collaborations away from The Lee Boys. The results have often been hard to pin down, genre-wise: This year’s collaboration album with The Infamous Stringdusters’ Andy Hall, “Let the Steel Play,” is a low-key celebration of the titular instrument, drawing equally from Hall’s bluegrass background and Collier’s funkier upbringing. Then there’s Bokanté, the world music group led by Snarky Puppy’s Michael League and featuring Collier, whose debut album “Strange Circles,” released in June, is described by Collier as “Afrobeat meets a French singer meets Led Zeppelin-type deal.”

Collier also finished a recording session for his solo album with League and his fellow Snarky Puppy players Bobby Sparks (organ) and Jason Thomas (drums). After this year’s experiments, Collier is looking forward to reconnecting with his musical past on the album, which does not have a title or release date yet.

“I wanted to just go back to my roots, so everybody can know kind of, OK, this is me as an artist, this is where I’m from,” Collier said. “And then when it transpires — at the end (of the album) it goes from, this is who I am, this is where I’m from, but this is where I’m going, you know? So it kind of sets up for the next record.”

And though quiet now, The Lee Boys will return, Collier promised.

“Of course, that’s my family, so it will always be there,” Collier said. “I think at this time, I’m working on me. Then, I’m thinking about doing like a big reunion tour with them at some point.”

“This is more like a Jam Cruise style — we are actually coming to straight get down. There’s no structured thing. You know, man, it’s all about that moment. It’s all about — I like to know that everybody is having a good time and having fun. … So it’s kind of a big party.”— Roosevelt Collier

What: Roosevelt Collier Band, with Asher Fulero Band

When: 9 p.m. Thursday, doors at 8:30 p.m.

Where: Domino Room, 51 NW Greenwood Ave., Bend

Cost: $12 plus fees in advance, $15 at the door

Contact: parallel44presents.com or 541-408-4329