Tag: louisiana

LISTEN: Esther Rose, “Lower 9 Valentine”

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Artist: Esther Rose
Hometown: New Orleans, Louisiana
Song: “Lower 9 Valentine”
Album: You Made It This Far
Release Date: August 23, 2019
Label: Father/Daughter

In Their Words: “This is a sweet song about a love I had in the Lower 9th Ward. I thought of the title one day while I was driving and thought, ‘Has anybody written this song yet?’ so I pulled over immediately and started writing it out. I sent it to my boyfriend at the time and he said, ‘But you hate Valentine’s Day,’ which is actually true. So I added the line, ‘February 14th don’t mean a thing to me.'” — Esther Rose

Photo credit: Rush Jagoe

BGS 5+5: Dylan LeBlanc

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Artist name: Dylan LeBlanc
Hometown: Shreveport, Louisiana
Latest album: Renegade
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): My friends all call me D — my only nickname really 🙂

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

One of my favorite memories was from a few years ago in Norway and playing a big festival stage. I thought no one was gonna show up during our set and that we shouldn’t be playing the stage we were playing. But we walked out to a roar of thousands of people, I looked back at my drummer, Jon, and the rest of the band said, “All right, let’s let them have it!”

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc. — inform your music?

Oh my god, I love literature and music from film, chamber orchestras, symphony. I love Martin Phipps, James Newton Howard, and Hans Zimmer. Music is so important when it comes to film and when I write I sometimes have a little movie playing in my head and imagine myself writing the music to it.

Music really transcends films and if we didn’t have it, the film wouldn’t be near as emotionally devastating, touching, funny, or lighthearted. I miss the long camera shots in movies when you could tell they weren’t working with more than maybe two cameras or sometimes one. You had to rely on the music, frame and emotion of the actor to make it come together.

It proves the theory that less is always more and you don’t need a whole bunch of gadgets and technology to make great art. You just need imagination and drive. I kind of take that philosophy with me in my own songwriting. I love imagery and I think that maybe my strong suit as a lyricist is creating strong imagery that has a feeling attached to it.

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

A lot of the songs I wrote for Renegade were tough because I was doing something new and had never written necessarily uptempo songs before. I found myself having to dig for inspiration and having to actually “work” for the first time at songwriting. But the reward of finishing these songs was immensely satisfying. If I got a song written in two days’ time of sitting there staring at a blank page I was jumping for joy.

I got frightened there for a minute that I would never write another song again. That’s when you gotta just sit down and make yourself do it, where discipline comes in. I’m the worst about procrastination and when things don’t come easy I very often lose focus, so it was a test of going against my nature and having to really make myself stay focused.

I kept a rubber band on my wrist and would smack myself with it every time I’d catch myself drifting during the writing of these songs. Ultimately I wrote twenty songs for Renegade alone and recorded ten. I wrote some really beautiful songs that didn’t make it that I hope to include on the next one.

Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?

I honestly drive more than anyone I know. I love the deep, deep south, the moss on the trees and the murky water. I love the alligators and snakes. The snake is my spirit animal and at first I thought that was a bad thing but it actually just means that I always need to stay grounded. Any place where there is a rich history and stories of its own, inspires my work. They make me feel like there is an endless supply of stories to tell, of people who have felt what I’ve felt and seen what I have seen long before I ever felt or saw anything. I feel less alone. New Orleans, San Francisco, Charleston, Savannah, London, Paris, Amsterdam — these places always get me creatively flowing. Just passing through and seeing how much time has passed and how that hasn’t change them all that much.

How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?

Very often, I hide behind characters more often than not. I think a piece of every songwriter goes into their songs. My friend Courtney Marie Andrews, whom I consider to be one of the best lyricists of our time, is really good at pouring herself into her songs, yet making them seem strangely relatable to everyone. She is one of the best at that and I can feel every word she sings. Then you have Jason Isbell who can listen to a story on NPR and then write an incredibly sophisticated and intricate song about a character to [the point] where you feel close to them while listening to the song.

I feel like I’m a writer who tries to achieve it all but ends up putting a piece of myself in everything, trying to hide behind the “you’s” and the characters [I] am writing about. I am very much still growing and learning how to be a good writer. It is a practice I will always be chipping away at for years to come.

Photo credit: Alysse Gafkjen

BGS 5+5: The Rayo Brothers

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Artist: The Rayo Brothers
Hometown: Lafayette, Louisiana
Latest album: Victim & Villain
Personal nicknames: Daniel – “The Squirrel”; Jesse – “Banjovi”; Lance – “Mandolin” (he’s the drummer); Jordan – “Sad Samurai”

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

Daniel: We were playing at a dirty dive bar with a bluegrass band from Texas. It was one of those gigs where you have more people on stage than in the bar. After the show the bar closed and we went into a vacant lot next door and jammed with the other band until 3 a.m. Bluegrass music was a big influence on us growing up and it’s so much fun to play. We really bonded with that band, and that night always remains in our memory as one of our favorites. One of the best things about playing in a band is finding kindred spirits from around the world to share music with. Even when the audience doesn’t turn out and the pay sucks, there’s always the music itself. That’s the reason we’re doing this.

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc — inform your music?

Jesse: Daniel and I both write lyrics for the band and literature is a big influence on both of us. Before I realized I was writing songs, I was just writing poems not meant for music. I often don’t have a melody in mind when writing lyrics, so I try to make them sound good on their own even without music. A lot of the poetry that inspires me is from the late 19th and early 20th century – Robert Frost, Rudyard Kipling, and William Ernest Henley. And as cliché as it is, we’re both into Shakespeare, so that has probably informed some of our writing too.

What rituals do you have, either in the studio or before a show?

Jordan: We used to do shirtless chest bumps backstage after shows. I don’t remember how that got started, but we did it for a long time. But once we started having a female violinist playing shows with us, that ritual died out.

Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?

Daniel: This might be an odd answer, but it’s a path. Whether it’s a narrow road through fields and woods, or even a hiking trail. It’s where the human element meets the natural element. The road is like time – our perpetual motion through life. It moves us forward, brings us from one place to another. It’s a guide to move you through vast landscapes of possibility.

How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?

Jesse: We almost always write in the first person. Usually we’re writing a song by taking some thought or emotion that we have had and building a story around that. But even if it’s not from personal experience, you still have to be able to think like your character when writing a song. So that naturally leads to speaking in the first person, even if the character is not really me.

Photo credit: LeeAnn Stephan

A Minute in New Orleans with Kelcy Mae of Ever More Nest

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Welcome to “A Minute In …” — a BGS feature that turns musicians into hometown reporters. In our latest column, Kelcy Mae of Ever More Nest takes us through New Orleans, Louisiana.

Growing up as a curious, imaginative kid in Bible Belt North Louisiana, I knew when I could, I’d seek a land with a little more freeness, more color, and more fun. As soon as I graduated high school, I headed south to New Orleans, which I’ve now called home for half my life. New Orleans’ tricentennial celebration is underway, and with three hundred years of history, every path in the city is a beaten one. But today, I’ll try to take you off the beaten path with a few well known spots as well. – Kelcy Mae

New Orleans City Park

Home to the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA), City Park consists of 1,300 acres of land that make it easy to forget you’re in the middle of a city. With 800-year-old, sprawling oaks and land both manicured and wild (an overgrown pre-Katrina golf course), the park offers an outdoor experience for everyone. Attractions like NOMA and the Sculpture and Botanical Gardens, Carousel Gardens Amusement Park, bike and boat rentals, mini-golf and sports fields, playgrounds and picnic areas, and running/walking paths allow for hours of entertainment or escape.

“Big Lake” in City Park is a portion of my jog route, made more fun by the ducks, geese, turtles, and occasional pelicans that grace its waters. Big Lake is also home to the famous chime tree, a towering oak filled with giant, mesmerizing wind chimes.

Lola’s

New Orleans has so much good food, you could write about restaurants for days. I’m skipping the usual fare here with a nod to my favorite date-night locale. Lola’s, tucked along Esplanade Avenue in Mid-City is a quaint, unpretentious spot that always lends itself to a delicious meal, which in turn lends itself to great conversation with a date or friends. The strong smell of garlic and butter greets you along Esplanade, thanks to appetizers like the popular garlic and mushrooms. The complimentary warm bread and garlic aioli are also part of the magic. Deservedly famous for its paella, the restaurant offers meat, seafood, and veggie versions of the flavorful, traditional Spanish rice dish in addition to a dozen or so entrees.

Siberia Lounge

What initially began as a sort of hybrid metal bar is now home to a tamer and more versatile music club, bar and restaurant. Along the ever-evolving Saint Claude Corridor, Siberia offers a dim bar decorated with ornate mirrors, large paintings, and some wild, secondhand taxidermy including a ‘40s-era bobcat. The musical lineups run the gamut, but Siberia is notably one of New Orleans’ few bars that play host to local and touring Americana, alt-country, bluegrass, and folk artists. Thursday is always Eastern Bloc Party night, which features local Balkan and Klezmer music. Part of what makes Siberia so special is its kitchen, known for “Slavic Soul food” with highlights like pierogi, stroganoff, golubtsy, and popular vegetarian options like the famous beet reuben.

Chickie Wah Wah

While New Orleans is full of bars that host live music and even a number of large capacity clubs and theaters, one thing it’s short on is listening rooms. Chickie Wah Wah doesn’t operate like your traditional bar, full of TVs and patrons that may or may not tune in to what’s happening on stage. People go to Chickie Wah Wah to hear music and the room delivers with quality sound and vibe. While the venue hosts plenty of traditional, long-time New Orleans performers, you’ll also find quality touring acts. The venue largely plays host to a variety of Louisiana’s comfort-zone roots music genres such as jazz, blues, rock, and honky tonk.

Webb’s Bywater Music

Need something repaired? Need a pack of strings or pair of sticks? Webb’s Bywater Music is an unassuming neighborhood music shop with new and used instruments in addition to accessories. Well regarded, Paul Webb is considered the go-to guy by countless area musicians for their instrument and electronics repairs. The shop has the charming, cluttered vibe of an always-busy mom and pop store, one that lives on thanks to the loyal musicians who prefer quality service from a knowledgeable pro over cheap, corporate rigmarole.

Joey K’s

You can’t talk about New Orleans without naming at least one restaurant known for classic New Orleans fare, be it Creole, Cajun, soul or southern. I have to point out Joey K’s for what I consider a notable feat in a town famous for fried seafood: the best fry batter around. Of course the gumbo’s great. And you’ll always see a number of New Orleans’ finest hitting the stewed chicken, the white beans with a fried pork chop, or any number of daily specials. But my favorite is hands-down the fried catfish. The onion rings are heavenly—the best ever. You can’t go wrong with the fried chicken or shrimp, either.

Port Orleans Brewing

Port Orleans Brewing Company is one of many local craft breweries that have opened across the city in the last decade. Located on Tchoupitoulas Street, near the actual Port of New Orleans, Port Orleans makes my list for its bright, airy tasting room and easy-to-drink brews. Massive windows behind the bar showcase the impressive 30-barrel brewing area. On cool days, the tap room opens up its front wall, bringing the outdoors in. My favorite flagship beers include the Riverfront Lager and the Slackwater Brown Ale. Of course they’ve got great pale ales, India pale ales, and stouts. They even offer Mexican-style lagers, the Dorada and Negra Dorada. Variety is the spice of life, and variety abounds on tap at the brewery.

The Bombay Club

New Orleans is known for being a boozy city, and one of the benefits to living here is easy access to a quality cocktail. The Bombay Club is tucked away in the French Quarter, hidden under the Prince Conti Hotel. Entering the bar and restaurant requires a short stroll through the hotel’s parking garage, so it’s fitting that the dark, English-style pub feels a bit underground. Martinis are the focus at the Bombay Club, but you can expect an expertly crafted traditional New Orleans drink like a Pimm’s Cup or Sazerac as well. With an affordable snack-focused happy hour and a solid dinner menu, it’s a nice hideaway in what can be an otherwise very pricey and noisy French Quarter. Solo pianists and jazz duos appear nightly.

Mississippi River

Whether you’re chilling with locals at “The Fly” (Uptown) and Crescent Park (Bywater) or you’re strolling alongside tourists at the downtown riverfront, you can’t help but marvel at the waterway that breathed life into this region three hundred years ago. The Mississippi River is a behemoth of a river. Sitting beside its rushing waters will strike fear and wonder into anyone, a humbling experience to say the least. Watching the river barges piloting turns piled high with shipping containers will make you question what’s humanly possible in this world. Locals and visitors can enjoy the view from the various parks or by purchasing a ride on one of the paddle wheelers that offer a tour downriver. Touching ten states, the Mississippi River’s watershed drains all or parts of 31 states. That’s a lot water moving through New Orleans and into the Gulf of Mexico.

Lake Pontchartrain

Across town from the river views are views of Lake Ponchartrain. Made famous in a variety of folk songs, Lake Ponchartrain is a massive lake, forty miles wide, of brackish water that’s frighteningly home to both alligators and bull sharks. On Wednesday nights from March through November, you can watch or take part in sailboat races put on by the New Orleans Yacht Club. The lake offers a great view to accompany a dozen oysters on the half-shell at Felix’s, Blue Crab, or Landry’s. Grabbing a bite near the yacht club or sitting along the banks of the lake is great for people watching, bird watching, boat watching—you name it. Water views make everything better. But maybe it’s just the Pisces in me.

Tickfaw State Park

Just on the other side of Lake Pontchartrain, about an hour’s drive outside of New Orleans is Tickfaw State Park. Though smaller and less recently updated than some of Louisiana’s other state parks, Tickfaw offers something many of the other parks don’t: easy boat access to calm waterways full of magnificent bayou wildlife like alligators, turtles, snakes, egrets, blue herons, and butterflies. The calm, manageable canoe trail out to the oft-slow Tickfaw River gives you an opportunity to leisurely stroll by canoe or kayak through gorgeous, albeit murky, South Louisiana waterways. For hikers, the park offers a three-mile river trail in addition to over a mile’s worth of boardwalk trails, but wear your boots—the park often detains floodwaters when rains overflow the Tickfaw River banks.

Travel photos by Kelcy Wilburn, except Port Orleans Brewing by Bill Loehfelm
Photo of Kelcy Mae by Summer Dorr

LISTEN: Jon Hatchett, “You Can’t Regret What You Don’t Remember”

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Artist: Jon Hatchett
Hometown: New Orleans, Louisiana
Song: “You Can’t Regret What You Don’t Remember”
Album: Mother Nature Wins Again
Release Date: October 26, 2018

In Their Words: “I wanted to make an album of music to dance to, but lyrically explores sad or difficult territory that is relatable. For instance, this song was written as a comedic cautionary tale about getting phone calls in the morning about what happened the night before, but not remembering it.

The cover illustration (by my friend and neighbor Nicky Bob Shoulders) comes from the title track, taking problems we (at least myself) face in society today. I tried to set these things in popular uptempo form, with the familiar and the unfamiliar put together — a form of satire to think about, but also to party to.

Most of my favorite dogs are mutts, and you could say the same about this album. It’s country enough to where you can two-step to most of it, but there is a touch of New Orleans R&B, rock and roll, and really whatever we thought fit the song. We tried to arrange it while still letting it feel loose enough to step out of the range of conventional country music.” — Jon Hatchett

Photo credit: John Dixon

LISTEN: Clay Parker and Jodi James, “Every New Sky”

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Artist: Clay Parker and Jodi James
Hometown: Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Song: “Every New Sky”
Album: The Lonesomest Sound That Can Sound
Release Date: July 20, 2018

In Their Words: “We wrote ‘Every New Sky’ pretty early on in our first year performing as a duo — when we were first developing a sound together that we liked. It’s a true-to-form duet tune. Sort of an anti-sentiment sentimental song that concludes with the phrase, ‘You’ll agree that it’s so lonely being alone.'”

Photo credit: Tate Tullier

Preservation Hall: Honoring Time’s Tradition

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New Orleans is home of the Bs: bayous, beignets, broils, Bourbon Street, and, most importantly, brass bands. Day and night, music wafts into the streets, carrying with it the history, traditions, and culture of this vibrant city. This is especially true on Sundays. In the afternoon, the air is thick with horn melodies and drum lines, as the time-honored tradition known as the second line parade takes place. Second lines are a derivative of the customary jazz funerals that used to occur in New Orleans: Marching bands would play during the procession to the cemetery to lay the casket, and they were known as the first line. Prior to integration, Black cemeteries were located outside of town, meaning that the walk back was a long one. But the band would continue to play. Passersby who heard the music were welcome to join in the procession behind the band, even if they didn’t know who had died. These people formed what was dubbed the second line.

Back in 1961, Pennsylvania natives Allan and Sandra Jaffe came upon one of these parades when they were visiting New Orleans on their honeymoon. They followed a brass band down the French Quarter and wound up at an art gallery at 726 St. Peter Street. A gathering place for artists, musicians, writers, and actors, the gallery immediately drew the Jaffes in. They permanently relocated to New Orleans and bought the gallery, transforming it into Preservation Hall. Although he wasn’t a jazz player, Allan had strong ties to horn instruments: He went to military college on a tuba scholarship and played in the marching band. With Preservation Hall, Allan and his wife set out to do just that — preserve. At that time, jazz was dying, and the couple wanted to bolster and continue the distinctly American tradition.

Together, they pulled it off. Sandra would work the door, taking money and deciding who could come into the club, while Allan would scout musicians around town and put bands together. Although Preservation Hall is now considered an institution, it was revolutionary when it opened. New Orleans was still segregated during that time and it was against the law for Black and white musicians to perform together. Nevertheless, legendary musicians like Allen Toussaint and Mac Rebennack (better known as Dr. John) would find each other and collaborate. In fact, Allan broke the 1956 law outlawing integrated entertainment when he joined the band on tuba. Preservation Hall became the only place in New Orleans where Black and white people were congregating openly, both in the crowd and on stage.

The Preservation Hall Jazz Band formed in 1963, becoming the touring version of the club’s house band. For over 50 years, the rotating eight-piece has kept its home base at Preservation Hall while cultivating and spreading New Orleans brass band jazz around the world. Allan and Sandra’s son, Ben Jaffe, is the current creative director and plays tuba and upright bass in the band. In 2014, he appeared on Sonic Highways, an HBO special chronicling the recording of the Foo Fighters’ album by the same name. The group went to eight different cities to record individual tracks, and Preservation Hall was one of the selected recording spots. Throughout the course of the featured episode, Ben explains the significance of the New Orleans sound, which spawned musical heavyweights like Louis Armstrong, Fats Domino, the Neville Brothers, the Meters, and even Little Richard, who recorded his early hits in the city.

“Rock ‘n’ roll is really the evolution of jazz,” Ben Jaffe says. “When Louis Armstrong’s Hot Seven albums came out, people lost their minds. It was punk-rock. It was out of control. A lot of the jazz musicians became the first wave of rock ‘n’ roll musicians.”

Sonic Highways is one of countless documentaries and collaborations Preservation Hall Jazz Band has participated in over the years. Their project with frequent collaborators My Morning Jacket was the subject of Danny Clinch’s 2011 documentary Live from Preservation Hall: A Louisiana Fairytale. In one notable scene, My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James sums up the power of Preservation Hall: “Every time I’m in this space, I feel like there’s something inside of me that wasn’t there before,” he says.

Perhaps it has something to do with that New Orleans voodoo, but Preservation Hall certainly has a vibe all its own. It was built in 1750 as a Spanish tavern and once served as a photography studio where uptown aristocrats would come to get their portraits taken. But the small space hasn’t changed much. About 100 people can pack tightly into the room and there’s no air conditioning, no microphones, and hardly any seating. It’s all part of the mojo.

After Hurricane Katrina hit, there was an even bigger focus on the city’s intrinsic sound and, by proxy, Preservation Hall. Seven of the band’s eight members lost their houses and they, along with the rest of the city, used the culture to help guide them home. Although New Orleans is known as the Deep South, part of its rich heritage stems from being the northern-most part of the Caribbean. It was the largest port for a century, serving as the entry point for Africa, South America, and Central America. It was the port where Africans were brought into the United States and sold for slavery. It was also where goods and ideas were exchanged, leading to a giant mixing pot of musical stylings including Spanish melodies to African rhythms.

At Preservation Hall, traditions are passed on in the same way they were handed down. In this way, Preservation Hall Jazz Band has managed to celebrate the essence of New Orleans while maintaining cultural relevancy. At the Country Music Awards, they shared the stage with Maren Morris and the McCrary Sisters and, this summer, they’re hitting major festivals like Bonnaroo and Coachella to support the release of their new album, So It Is, a collection of new original music dropping April 21. Meanwhile, Preservation Hall still hosts music every night of the week. To ensure that the music thrives in the next generation, Jaffe also runs an after-school program at the Hall where young students learn from seasoned veterans, most of whom inherited their spots in the band. New Orleans is music, and it’s through this sense of community that it maintains its vitality.

Photo credit: Danny Clinch

LISTEN: Kevin Gordon, ‘Walking on the Levee’

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Not every singer/songwriter lets geography infiltrate their psyches in the way that Kevin Gordon does. He grew up in the town of Monroe, in the northeast corner of Louisiana, and everything about the place, both past and present, informs his songwriting … even though he made a move to Nashville 20 years ago. With a university as its anchor and bayous running through its heart, Monroe is the kind of town that, maybe, wanted to be more than it was or will ever be. 

Gordon still goes back, from time to time, and finds himself reflecting on the land, the people, and the school band that made him who he is. The songs that emerge from those contemplations fill his discography, including his upcoming release, Long Gone Time. 

“'Walking on the Levee' is a song I started after a visit to my hometown of Monroe, LA, in August of 2012,” Gordon says. “It's a meditation of sorts — triggered by images/stories of a certain place — in this case, a levee that runs along the Ouachita River where I was walking/running that particular morning. I was feeling at once a stranger and a native, feeling both the weight of my previous memories of that place and a kind of stark loneliness of the experience of being there that day. And along the way, the existential graffiti that's quoted in the bridge section added some relevant questions.”