LAFAYETTE, LA — Everyone has access to GoFundMe when something usually tragic strikes. There are nonprofits, churches, businesses, etc., and, of course, good people at the ready to assist in anyway they can.
There can be bake sales, car washes, donation cans around town and the like raising cash for medical bills and recovery.
We have all of that here in South Louisiana. And it’s a wonderful thing.
But we have something else, too: Top-tier musicians playing great homegrown music and a packed house of folks eager to financially assist the particular cause and pass a good time in the process.
It’s how we roll.
So with that in mind, mark Sunday, August 28, 2022 on your calendar for Songs of Hope, a benefit for Dillan Pope who suffered an accident that burst his cervical 7 vertebrae on April 29, 2022.
The benefit goes from 1-9 p.m., at Warehouse 535, 535 Garfield St., Lafayette, La. Currently, there’s an online auction underway.
The injury left him paralyzed from his chest down throughout his lower extremities.
From what I understand, Dillan is super diligent in rehab and determined to walk again.
Tickets are $15, kids 12 and under free. In addition to great music and fun and camaraderie, there’s a raffle, silent auction, cash bar, food by The Southern Spread.
The line-up is simply incredible: Has Beans, Dyer County, Geno Delafose & French Rockin’ Boogie, Curley Taylor & Zydeco Trouble, Cedric Watson & Bijou Creole, Feufollet, and Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys.
Special guests include Sonny Landreth, Jourdan Thibodeaux, Anna Laura Edmonton and Chris Segura.
Dillan Pope endured a lengthy surgery on April 30th after the incident. The fractured bone was removed, and hardware was put in place to stabilize the area while it heals.
Dillan attended TIRR Memorial Herman Inpatient Rehabilitation in Houston the month following his surgery, and is now attending rigorous outpatient therapy at Spero Rehab in Austin, TX. He has gained some movement in his lower extremities, however, it is impossible to know how much of his mobility will be restored.
Most spinal cord injury patients continue rehabilitation for years, in addition to purchasing supplies and equipment to assist in daily living. Dillan has, and continues, to work very hard towards becoming independent, and we have high hopes for his full mobility and functionality to return, but only time and extensive rehab will tell.
Curley Taylor and Zydeco Trouble perform at Maison Title’s fourth annual event celebrating its fourth year in Grand Coteau, Louisiana. DCross/photo
by Dominick Cross
It was mid-afternoon on Friday the 13th. Dark storm clouds grew and threatened as the wind whipped-up in and around Lafayette, Louisiana.
A pop-up storm, yet another of Spring 2022, was inbound and Downtown Alive!, the free outdoor concert series in Downtown Lafayette, was cancelled for obvious reasons.
Up in Grand Coteau, a small town some 15 miles north of Lafayette, a different scene would unfold under cloudy skies and a steady breeze. Not one drop of rain would fall.
The phone rang. The excitable voice on the other end happily informed me that Grand Coteau was having it’s own version of DTA! right then and there.
Right around the corner from her abode, hometown fave, Curley Taylor & Zydeco Trouble, had set up on a flatbed trailer in the street in front of Maison Title and were about to play.
And not only that, free crawfish, free hotdogs, free cookie-cake, free beer and other beverages were available while supplies last.
“This is our way of giving back to the community that supports us.”
Leah Graeff
Who’s going to pass up that? Not moi. When I arrived inexcusably later than intended, I would find the crawfish were gone, but everything else was in good supply.
I chatted with some friends and was told Leah Graeff had the keys to the crawfish. I’ve known Graeff mostly for her singing and “creative endeavors” (aptly stated in her bio).
(Backstory: Leah and I met a while back at Dwyer’s Cafe. She was having breakfast with her dad, musician/songwriter Benny Graeff.
(Back-Backstory: I’d been out of town a few years and hadn’t seen Benny in a while. We’d met in the mid-’90s working with Robert Dafford touching up some of Dafford’s frog murals at the Rayne exit on I-10.)
So, at Dwyer’s that morning, I was working through my breakfast, when Benny asks me in a disguised-ish, gravely voice, “Hey, man. I’m hungry. Can I have some of your breakfast?”
I looked up. Leah’s back was to me and Benny, sitting opposite her, just stared at me. Man, this dude is ballsy, I thought, but said aloud, “Looks like you’ve had your breakfast.”
Benny said something else along his initial comment and I was getting a tad uncomfortable and decided to ignore him. Then he says, “Dom. It’s me. Benny. Benny Graeff.”
When he stopped laughing, he introduced me to his daughter.)
Fast-forward to Friday past and Leah Graeff and crawfish and Grand Coteau…
Not that I was surprised the crawfish were gone. Fine. But how did Graeff know, I wondered.
Graeff, a Sunset native, is the executive director at Maison Title, the business that put on the shindig in its courtyard. She wears the marketing hat and a couple of others, too.
I also learned the event wasn’t Grand Coteau DTA! It was an annual celebration, now in its fourth year, that marks when Maison Title opened its doors in Grand Coteau. Maison Title is a real estate transactions company pretty much serving Acadiana.
But there’s more to it than that.
“We like to have events that bring the community out. We like to provide experiences for the people that we do work for in the community, the people we do see everyday,” said Graeff. “The people that we spend our time with.
“It’s how we brand ourselves. That’s how we’d rather spend any money we have to show people who we are,” she said. “We want to do stuff where we get to spend time with people.”
No ads in print or TV. No big billboards, though there’s one small billboard right around the corner by the office Maison Title’s our phone number.
“But, no. No other advertising any other way,” Graeff said. “This is just what we like to do. We’d rather have people front of us and spend time with people that we want to service.”
“This is our way of giving back to the community that supports us,” said Graeff. “For 364 days a year, they’re walking into the building for our attorneys to do work for them, for us to do transactions for their homes.
A couple dance to Curley Taylor & Zydeco Trouble in the courtyard of Maison Title in Grand Coteau, La. DCross/photo
“They support us throughout the year,” she said. “So this is our one day where we put on a big party so we can support everyone.”
I also learned that Maison Title has other such events during the year.
“For Halloween, we do a ‘Carving in the Courtyard’ event that’s similar,” said Graeff. “We don’t have a band, we usually have a DJ because there’s more kids.”
In addition to pumpkin carving, there’s hayrides and other activities for the family. Graeff pointed out a pumpkin patch growing in the courtyard.
“That brings out about the same crowd and it’s all kids. They’re in costumes, the adults are in costumes,” she said.
When the weather is nice during working hours on a Friday, “we’ll have ‘Cooking in the Courtyard’ where we’ll have a huge barbecue pit or if it’s fall/wintertime, we’ll have a big gumbo going,” said Graeff. “So, anybody who walks past is welcome to have lunch. Anyone who has an appointment with an attorney or a closing, stay and have lunch.”
Sure, the whole idea can be considered a business doing business, but it’s also giving back and being a good neighbor. Call it good will.
“It’s fun. This is how we like to meet people and how we like to give people an opportunity to get to know us,” Graeff said. “And we’re doing what we like. We like listening to Cajun and zydeco music. We like hanging out outside and cooking and talking to people.
ARNAUDVILLE — Tommy Malone has always wanted to do what he’s doing now — and that’s his own material.
“It’s something I’ve dipped my toe in all along, even during the subdudes and in-between all the break-ups,” said Malone, frontman of the legendary Americana band out of New Orleans. “It’s just been sitting there and rarely do I get to play any of it.”
“So I’ve always had a hankering — always liked that word, hankering — to do this other material,” Malone said. “It’s just been sitting there and rarely do I get to play any of it.
“So, I’ll be bringing stuff that I’ve had for sometime, honestly, but haven’t had much of a chance to play for people,” he said.
NuNu’s is located at 1510 Bayou Courtableau Hwy. Tickets are $25 and available here.
“I’ve got this kind of hybrid guitar that’s somewhere between an acoustic and a baritone,” said Malone. “It’s what I use when I go on the road.”
The pandemic did a lot of things to a lot of people and most of it did not so good. For Malone and the subdudes, it brought an end to the band and a new beginning for the musicians.
“The group finally laid it to rest,” said Malone, who began charting a new, personal route for himself when covid hit the U.S. in March 2020. “And then simultaneously, the ’dudes just broke up.”
Malone said the split was something everyone agreed on.
“It just wasn’t fun anymore. It wasn’t creative. It wasn’t fun,” he said. “It seemed like everybody was interested in doing other things. It was kind of like the perfect time.
“It was mutual with everybody,” said Malone. “I’ve made peace with my fellas. Everybody’s doing fine and doing things they love; creative projects and stuff.”
Malone’s 2022 tour schedule takes him to Oklahoma, Chicago, Ann Arbor, Richmond and and he’s working on other shows in Annapolis, Philadelphia, Texas and the West Coast.
“I want it to be fun, creative and simple and I want it to make sense.”
Tommy Malone
Time and wisdom has Malone taking a different approach to performing, and keeping it to two gigs per outing figures prominently into it.
“I keep it simple. I limit my shows to two. I’ll go out, I’ll do two and I’ll come home,” he said. “I want it to be fun, not terribly difficult or draining. Even my voice, it won’t hold up like it used to.
“Simpler and easier is how I approach it, where it’s fun again. I feel like we used to always try to pack too much in. By the end of it, you’re just beat and worn out. Everybody’s in a bad mood.
“I want it to be fun, creative and simple and I want it to make sense,” said Malone. “And I want to go where people really are interested.”
In other words, the veteran musician is past the days of building an audience.
“I mean, that’s silly,” Malone said. “I have to take advantage of what I have now, or have done in the past, and work with that.
“But it is a young man’s game, you know?” he said. “But I’m happy to just go where people want to hear it.
“Like I said, do two shows on the road and then come home. And that is my approach,” Malone said. “Get a good night’s rest, eat well, take care of business, and that’s it, man. No delusions of grandeur.”
Come October, Malone hopes to be in Northern California “to do some recording,” with a full band, he said. “It’ll be my project, so I’m excited about that.”
Looking back on his music career, Malone pretty much jumped in the deep end and learned to swim.
“No plan,” said Malone. “Like Van Morrison said, ‘No plan B.’ I didn’t have any frickin’ plans. I was flailing around like a mongoose. I don’t know, you know what they say, stuff happens like it’s supposed to, I guess.
“But I feel very lucky. Very lucky that. I’m able to do this, still,” he said. “I don’t know if that sounds hokey or cheesy, but I’m amazed.
“I wasn’t real sure when the pandemic hit. I was going through some other stuff. It was good, but it was difficult and it kind of put you into some soul-searching mode like, ‘Man. What am I doing?’
“I almost wanted to quit,” Malone continued. “I almost just wanted to quit music and putter around the house ’til I’m 67 and get my social security and Medicare.
“Just write songs and just sit in my little space, play for myself,” he said. “But a friend of mine who was in the last version of the subdudes — Tim Cook — he’s a dear friend and he really was inspirational in getting me wanting to play again. He really was. So I’m grateful for that, too.”
Cook now manages Malone, who lives in Metairie.
“You know what, I never dreamed of living in Metairie. I was kinda like, ‘Metairie? Oh, lord,’” said Malone with a laugh. “But we’ve got this beautiful little house, nice backyard, and I’ve got a music space in a separate building.
“It’s quiet. It doesn’t flood, big plus,” he said. “Crime is honestly not an issue. I kinda like it. Kinda like it.”
Josh LeBlanc, right, sat in on trumpet with The Flying Balalaika Brothers, Thursday, April 28, 2022, in Day 2 of Festival International de Louisiane in Downtown Lafayette. DCross/photo
And in no time LeBlanc was asked to join his newfound, yet strangely familiar, musician friends on a Festival stage.
“I just randomly jammed with them,” said LeBlanc, an Abbeville native living in Lafayette. “The next day, they asked me to play with them at Festival. I even had less time to prepare the last time. It was literally the day after, but I just pretty much improvised over a lot of their stuff.
“(Zhenya Rock) was quickly showing me stuff back stage as best he could,” LeBlanc recalled, adding that his days with gypsy swing band, Vagabond Swing in 2009-2010, had helped in the endeavor. “And I was like, ‘I’m very familiar with these modes and scales and style.’”
Upon Festival’s 2022 return, it was this past Thursday evening that the Russian/Ukrainian/U.S. band and LeBlanc were reunited on Scene Laborde Earles Fais Do Do.
And this time around, it was smooth sailing.
“I’m just kind of looking at him, waiting for him to give me the signal,” said LeBlanc. “But I had a chance to chart-out everything and write charts for it — in-between other bands I’ll be playing with for Festival.”
‘It just felt like, immediately, I’d been playing with them forever.’
And come 7 o’clock Saturday evening at Festival, LeBlanc will sit in on a couple of songs with Delgres at Scene LUS Internationale.
It wasn’t a stroke of luck that LeBlanc, who also plays bass with the band, Givers, finds himself blowing his horn with international musicians, it was a choice (and, of course study, practice, practice and practice).
“I was a marching band geek. Whenever I discovered jazz, that’s when I changed. That was in college,” he said. “Once I discovered jazz, I was like, ‘Cool. I can improvise and make my own music.’ I tried doing classical trumpet for a while, but it wasn’t for me. It’s too rigid.
Josh LeBlanc, right, awaits the word from Zhenya Rock, with accordion, to take off on a solo. DCross/photo
“Thankfully, I studied jazz so I can do things like this and just improvise,” said LeBlanc, with a nod to the stage as Haiti’s Lakou Mizik set up, now that it was vacated by The Flying Balalaika Brothers. “Just tell me the key and then I’ll try to make up something that fits.”
So while Vagabond Swing, in some ways prepped LeBlanc for The Flying Balalaika Brothers, there was also a connection with the band members at that 2019 jam that defies description.
“There was something about meeting them, I felt like immediately I knew them somehow. It was like a weird thing,” LeBlanc said. “You know, Russian culture and then Louisiana culture, you wouldn’t think there’s an intersection there, but for some reason, it just felt like, immediately, I’d been playing with them forever.”
Festival, conceived as a multi-faceted cultural event of international scope and significance, continues through Sunday.
Cassandra jumps for joy and Clarence concurs on the news that they’ll miss Festival again this year. DCross/photo
We, the upright, two-legged mammal with opposing thumbs who actually enjoy loud music, tons of people we don’t know, and can traverse Downtown’s hot sidewalks and streets with ease without burning the pads off our feet, should use our status on the food chain and do right by our pets.
Festival International de Louisiane is underway in Downtown Lafayette, April 27-May 1, 2022. DCross photo from FIL 2019
by DOMINICK CROSS
LAFAYETTE, LA — It appears the planets are aligned for Festival International de Louisiane when it returns, live, to Downtown Lafayette this week after two years in pandemic postponement purgatory.
Festival, the well-earned, singular moniker given to the five-day international music, food and art spectacular, runs Wednesday, April 27, 2022 through Sunday, May 1, 2022.
Ordinarily the only concern, the weather, looks to hold rather nicely with pleasant sunny days and doable humidity with comfortably cool evenings — at least until possibly sometime Sunday.
An unusual concern and the reason behind the past two vacated years, covid (festivalus interruptus), in whatever version it finds itself as these days, is of low concern here, according to the CDC.
So, with weather and covid in the bag, coupled with the usual stellar music line-up, Festival should experience some hefty crowds.
And those crowds will no doubt swell to see and support DakhaBrakha (Saturday, 9 p.m., Scene Tito’s Handmade Vodka Lafayette), a group from Ukraine whose country is under attack from Russia. One might want to also check out the Flying Balalaika Brothers (Thursday, 6 p.m. Scene Laborde Earles Fais Do Do). The group consists of musicians from Russia/Ukraine/U.S. and that ought to show the world that we can get along.
By the way, look for a new release coming from Nathan & the Zydeco Cha Chas. Also, take note that Dennis Paul Williams, Cha Cha guitarist/artist, is illustrating a book on zydeco with Michael Tisserand.
Internationally speaking, the line-up also includes The Wailers (Jamaica), Locos For Juana (Colombia/Venezuela/Argentina/U.S.), Les Filled de Illighadad (Niger), Natu Camara (Guinea), Vieux Farka Toure (Mali), Cimafunk (Cuba), Lakou Mizik (Haiti), and Son Rompe Pera (Mexico) and others.
Louisiana is well-represented with Zachary Richard, Sonny Landreth, Julian Primeaux, Cedric Watson & Bijou Creole, Roddie Romero & Michael Juan Nunez, Sunpie & the Louisiana Sunspots, Lost Bayou Ramblers w/79rs Gang, Dustin Dale Gaspard, The Daiquiri Queens, Boma Bango, Magnolia Sisters and Sou Express Brass Band, and others.
Opening ceremonies are Thursday, 7:30 p.m. at Scene LUS Internationale. Here’s the schedule:
Cassandra jumps for joy and Clarence concurs on the news that they’ll miss Festival again this year.
As a matter of public safety, animal safety and basic common sense, do leave your pets at home when attending Festival.
We, the upright, two-legged mammal with opposing thumbs who actually enjoy loud music, tons of people we don’t know, and can traverse Downtown’s hot sidewalks and streets with ease without burning the pads off our feet, should use our status on the food chain and do right by our pets.
LAFAYETTE, LA — When Tommy Comeaux died tragically in November 1997, the music community rallied around the fallen musician and pathologist and sought a way to honor his life.
And, as tradition has it here, the effort to raise funds was centered around music, which was done with annual Medicine Shows. It was the right thing to do for many reasons, but especially because Comeaux, a renowned multi-instrumentalist, had played with BeauSoleil, Basin Brothers, Coteau, the Clickin’ Chickens and others.
Come Friday, April 22, 2022, 7 p.m., the 16th in a series of these evenings is set for Angelle Hall, St. Mary Boulevard and McKinley Street, on the UL campus.
Opening the show will student bands, the Angelle Aces (Cajun), Ragin’ Steppers (zydeco), Saint Street Songsters (string band), Ragin’ & Blues Band (R&B), and Vermilion Express (bluegrass).
General admission to Medicine Show 2022 is $10.00 (free with UL I.D.); and $25.00, which includes admission to a post-show reception honoring the performers, as well as Mark DeWitt, Professor of Music, who was chosen for the inaugural position a dozen years ago and who is retiring this year. Advance tickets available here.
“I did the best I could to move slowly, at first, to get the lay of the land and to see where the demand was and where the low hanging fruit were in terms of what students wanted and what resources we had in the community which turns out we had a lot,” said DeWitt, who relocated from California to Louisiana for the position.
“We were going to do more than Cajun and Creole music all along. Although I feel strongly that that needs to be the core of the program.”
Mark DeWitt, Professor of Music, Dr. Tommy Comeaux Endowed Chair in Traditional Music
The community resources were abundant and skilled and anxious to get to work and they all figured out the course together.
“The amount of musicians in the community who are so good at what they do and also interested in working in a university environment even if they had never done so before,” he said. “Some of them who hadn’t even gone to college themselves. It was cool.
“We kind of learned as we went. We learned things like teaching fiddle and accordion at one of those summer camps, which is like a one-week camp — as opposed to doing it for 15 weeks — it’s a whole different thing.
“There’s just more time to teach things. You can do it in a different order and do it in a different way,” he said. “So we learned some of that stuff together.”
The first course was Cajun music, something DeWitt was familiar with.
“So I started with Cajun music because that was my interest when I came here, and it also seemed like an obvious thing to start with,” said DeWitt. “And then we also found out there’s also student interest in other types of music too.”
“So we we added bluegrass and that was real popular for a while,” he said. “One of the things I also learned was that the students like something that’s new. So they go for the new thing and then it’s not so new anymore and then you have to do a little more persuading.
After Cajun music came bluegrass “and then we added zydeco band and then some blues and it just kind of grew over time. And now it’s all I can keep up with, it’s about as much a one person can do,” said DeWitt. “So I feel like it’s a good time to hand it over to the next person, whoever that turns out to be. I’ll do my best to share with them tips or secrets or things to remember.”
“We were going to do more than Cajun and Creole music all along,” he said. “Although I feel strongly that that needs to be the core of the program.”
While it was a new program at UL, DeWitt knew it was no secret how the area’s traditional music had kept going all these years and he responded accordingly.
“I knew pretty well we weren’t going to lead with music theory,” he said. “People learn music by ear, right? They learn by hanging out with other people and jam sessions are a relatively recent thing in Cajun music, but it’s still a way for folks to get some reps and get the music in their ear which is really important.
“I knew that going in that music theory was something to teach second, not first,” he said, adding, “or second or third.”
“We have a few traditional music majors, but it hasn’t been as popular a major as I would’ve liked. But then there’s always hope for the future on that,” said DeWitt. “Nonetheless, we’ve had a few and I had taught them a music theory class that was kind of tailored toward traditional music as part of their major.
“And they also got to learn how to read music a little bit in the same classes that the music business majors take, keyboard musicianship classes and so they get exposed to it, but it’s not like a prerequisite coming in. It’s not like they’re getting a sight reading test and they’re auditioning.”
DeWitt returns to California in June and he’s grateful for the opportunity the Comeaux Chair afforded him and all that came with living in South Louisiana.
“I certainly got to meet a lot of great musicians and work with them. Some of those were students, too,” DeWitt said. “But, certainly, the faculty we had and just the chance to actually live here in the middle of all this great music and kind of experience how it all fits together.”
DeWitt, an ethnomusicologist, paused, then continued.
“I’m not sure I can put it into words, even, how the cultural environment that nurtures the whole musical scene here is really interesting to be a part of and try to understand,” he said. “I’m still not sure I could really explain it, but I’m a lot closer than if I never lived here.”
ARNAUDVILLE, La. — Of course he was driving his car when we talked.
Dana Cooper, singer/songwriter, was heading to Arnaudville from Nashville for his 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, April 6, 2022, show at NuNu’s Arts & Culture Collective, 1510 Bayou Courtableau Hwy.
Local talent and singer/songwriter in her own right, Renée Reed, opens the program.
On site will be a culinary pop-up by Five Mile Café. Tickets are $20; door opens 5:30 p.m. Music at 7:30 p.m.
Cooper is touring behind the release of “I Can Face The Truth,” his latest of 29 recordings since he started his music career in 1973.
“I was kind of reflecting on that, you know, my life and my own faults and choices I’ve made in life and stuff,” said Cooper. “The funny thing is, is the chorus, ‘I can face the truth, but please not today.’ Human nature, you know, how we kind of put it all off ’til later.
“It’s not always easy to face up to all that stuff.”
Cooper started on the CD before the COVID pandemic, “but it took a couple of years to work on it because of COVID,” he said. “I started a few months before and then I went out on the road.
“I was out on the road on the West Coast when COVID really hit us full force,” said Cooper. “And I came home, and then we’re all isolated for seven, eight months and then we went back in occasionally, Dave Coleman and I, worked together with our masks on and built what we could out of it until we could actually safely get people in there again.
Like many singer/songwriters, Cooper is put in the Americana category. And, like his brethren, well, it is what it is.
“They kind of lump me in in with Americana, you know, but I really feel like I,” he paused, then continued. “As a songwriter, I’ve always kind of written all over the place.
“So I write things that are bluesy and country and folk and rock and pop and just whatever I want because I like all kinds of music,” said Cooper. “So I try to incorporate it all in what I’m doing.
“But, yeah, it’s Americana what I’m doing right now.”
When a song comes to Cooper it could be anytime, anywhere.
“I never know when they’re going to come. They show up pretty much unexpectedly when they happen, the ideas I get,” Cooper said. “It’s changed over the years. Pretty much everyday I come up with some kind of a rhythmic idea or a melody or a lyric and I’ll jot it down or hum it in in my recorder.
“I collect these ideas and then every week or so I kind of go back over what I’ve been coming up with and see if there’s anything worth pursuing,” he said. “Sometimes, I will just get an idea and I’ll have time to sit down and actually just start working on it right in the moment.
“That’s become rare these days. I’m busy doing so much traveling and ad man work on a computer and all, I don’t have as much creative time available as I would like.”
So, yeah, portable recording technology comes in handy for Cooper.
“I’ll get a lot of ideas on the road when I’m driving and that’s when I’ll just hum them or sing them into my recorder,” said Cooper. “And after gigs a lot of times, I’ll sit around for a while and play the guitar, come up with some ideas that way, too.
“But they can come from the guitar, from a music idea; they can be a rhythm idea,” he said. “That’s where most of my things start, from one or the other of those. And then I’ll start working on lyrics.”
While some of Cooper’s songs can comment on social or political issues, they’re not in your face tunes.
For instance, take the title song of his latest ‘Face the Truth’ release.
“That’s kind of reflective of the times we’re in, when it’s hard to know what the hell the truth is these days,” said Cooper. “That’s kind of one of the underlying themes in that song, without it really getting political or anything.”
Other songs, “Summer in America” and “Walls” said Cooper, are some of the more “topical songs” on the release.
“So, yeah, I tend to write about the things that concern me and I try to do it in a way that is not confrontational or divisive with people,” he said. “I like to maybe make people just kind of reconsider, sometimes, maybe their viewpoint.
“I try not to shove anything down people’s throat,” Cooper said. “I’ve found you don’t really get much anywhere that way.”
Cooper is rather familiar with Cajun music.
“Like I said earlier, I love all kinds of music and Cajun music has always fascinated me. I’ve listened to quite a bit of it,” he said. “I’m not any kind of an expert on it, but I do love it.
“I’ve leaned on that a little bit with some of my songwriting,” he said. “I’ve got a few things that were inspired by Cajun music.”
One of those songs is “Acadian Angel,” he wrote with Shake Russell.
“I’ll probably be playing a couple of those in my show,” he said. “Like I said, I’m kind of all over the place.”
Despite the the splash MTV made a splash on the music scene, Cooper keeps the music video in its place when it comes to songwriting.
“Not when I’m writing something usually. I mean it might occur to me that something might look cool some way visually,” he said. “But that’s usually after I’ve written a song and then I’ll consider what to do with it visually.”
Cooper said while most of his music vids are selfie videos, he calls on friends to help with the others, including “Bluebird,” which is on “I Can Face The Truth.”
“I’ll go out there and put it together the best I can,” he said of the selfies. “But I’ve worked with some friends, too, in Nashville. In ‘Bluebird’ (with Tom Kimmel), it was like, ‘Hey, this would be great, obviously, to have some aerial footage.’
So Cooper contacted friends in Texas who do just that and the Lone Star countryside, shot from above, is in the music video.
“I asked if they would contribute some stuff and gave them some ideas of what I was looking for,” said Cooper. “So they sent me a whole lot of aerial footage that I had to comb through and cull from.”
Cooper rarely tours with a band.
“I’ve been doing the solo thing for a while and economically and logistically, it’s just easier,” he said. “But I do occasionally. I’ll be playing in Nashville, I’m doing a show in May with a band there, some of the people who played on the album with me.”
And while on tour in Texas, “I’ll do a pick-up band down there sometimes because I know a lot of people there,” he said. “But it’s pretty much a solo show.”
“I Can Face The Truth” is charting on five radio charts. It ranked- #8 FAI Folk Chart Album, #8 Folk Chart Artist for February. It debuted on NACC Folk Chart at #17. Also on Alternative Country, Roots Music & Americana Charts.
“All these shows I’m doing right now are being billed as CD release shows,” he said. “I’ll do the songs off the new record, plus a collection of songs from my other 29 records.”
“I’ve been doing a lot for a long time,” said Cooper. “Some of (albums) were with other folks. I’ve played with a couple other people over the years, we put out records together. They weren’t all solo projects, but most of them are.”
Emily Neustrom brings her record release party to the Blue Moon Saloon, Saturday, April 2, 2022. submitted artwork
by Dominick Cross
LAFAYETTE, LA — The pandemic gets a lot of blame for a lot of things and nearly all of it deservedly negative.
There’s probably not another side to this COVID coin, you know, where some good would ordinarily be found, so perhaps one should zoom in along its edge.
And it’s here, during the past two years of downtime, that some people examined their lives, or looked at their own mortality, or even pursued a long-sought goal.
Emily Neustrom, a Lafayette native living in New Orleans, is all of those people.
“I’ve been dreaming of making a record for 20 years,” said Neustrom. “I think the pandemic made us all question our lives and death and what do we want to do and what haven’t we done.”
This thought pattern resulted in Neustrom’s debut CD, “No More Jambalaya,” a solo effort and genre-bending recording that’ll make its Lafayette debut Saturday, April 2, 2022, at the Blue Moon Saloon, 215 E. Convent St.
“And so, for me,” Neustrom said. “This was the biggest thing I wanted to make sure I did before I died.”
The lively program gets underway at 7:30 p.m., and features, in order of appearance: Band Practice, Yates Webb, Neustrom and Pinecone Brothers.
Neustrom’s all-original release does not neatly fit into any particular music category.
“It doesn’t matter to me, but apparently the Internet wants you to define it,” said Neustrom, addressing the issue as only she can. “I did put non-binary country. But I don’t even consider myself country. Maybe non-binary Americana. I don’t know.
“Sometimes I describe myself as singer/songwriter, sometimes it’s like country/folk, or just straight up folk,” she said. “Some of songs, to me, feel more like indie pop.
“So, it’s kind of a combo,” said Neustrom. “If Americana is a catch-all, then that’s fine.”
No matter the style of music, the subject matter of the songs will be familiar.
“I would say they range from death to dancing to love, or ex-boyfriends or something,” Neustrom said. “The name of the album is ‘No More Jambalaya,’ a feminist rant, or just a song for the ladies.”
‘When you share your own story, whether it’s heartbreak or joy, I feel like that’s what people connect to. It’s stories that are true to me.’
Emily Neustrom
While the pandemic may have spurred Neustrom to take care of business and get the recording out, she also got a nudge from her Swedish heritage.
Neustrom said the release of the album is a part of the “Swedish Death Cleaning of my soul,” she said.
“Swedish Death Cleaning is you live and keep your house and your things with death in mind,” said Neustrom. “So, imagining someone is going to come into your house after you die and have to deal with all of your shit. So it would be better if you just deal with your shit before you die.
“That’s what I’m trying to do on a soul level,” she said.
And the outcome?
“I feel amazing. It’s so liberating. It’s so scary, but it’s so liberating,” Neustrom said. “For me, it was like a weight on my heart and mind not having put my songs on an album to share with people publicly. So, this debut record is accomplishing my goal of sharing myself.”
While she shares herself through her songs, they story they tell should be familiar to everyone.
“When you share your own story, whether it’s heartbreak or joy, I feel like that’s what people connect to. It’s stories that are true to me,” said Neustrom. “There all either happy times or sad times. It’s just life.
“So for me, it’s sharing my stories through song and I hope people resonate with the emotions and feel comfort maybe by connecting through music and hearing someone else’s story.
“I think it makes us feel less alone,” she said. “That would be my goal if someone can feel less lonely.”
The CD was recorded at Chad Viator’s home studio and where Neustrom recorded demos over the years.
“Chad Viator is so talented and thoughtful as a producer. In the studio, you can make things sound ways that really bring them to life in a new way,” said Neustrom. “I showed up with just my guitar, lyrics and melodies. I mean, songs that I had written and were complete, and some were not complete and we finished in the studio.
“He just was able to add a lot of emotion and support the lyrics and the sentiment of a lot of songs,” she said, referring to the production and arrangements and instrumentation or ornamentation of the songs.
Neustrom had one word for Lamson’s contributions on drums and vocal harmonies.
“Incredible,” said Neustrom, who also gave a shout-out to “my old college roommate and Swampblossoms bandmate, Marie-Isabelle Pautz.
“I had a blast making this record with friends that I love and who are so supportive and that makes all the difference in the world,” she said. “It was a beautiful experience.”
Neustrom has enough songs written for a second release. But she’s got plans in the meantime.
“I’m going to start gigging more in New Orleans and Lafayette,” she said. “I’d like to play a bunch locally in Louisiana and get to know Louisiana dancehalls in that way.
“I’d love to go on a tour,” added Neustrom. “But you kind of need to be better known, or partner with other local bands.”
Bruce and I first connected and started hanging out in the early ’70s when he was playing with the band Rufus Jagneaux. They had burst on to the local scene like a force of nature with their big hit, “Opelousas Sostan,” and were playing everywhere.
Those were fun and formative times for a lot of musicians, artists and friends, and Bruce and I were right in the middle of it all with our mutual bands like a gathering tribe. Though he and I never officially formed a group, we sure jammed a lot, played gigs together and encouraged each other with equal parts admiration, sympathy and humor.
There was a lot of creativity in the air back then, and that required some trial and error on a regular basis. I honestly don’t remember whose idea it was, but I once traded a brand new Fender Twin Reverb combo to him for his older, ’60s Blackface Bassman amp head. Now, of course, it’s well known that his amp is a highly coveted model that is still sought after by players and collectors alike. Back then? Not a clue. I just knew it was the best sounding amp I’d ever played.
But after only a few days, Bruce called in a panic and asked if we could reverse the swap so that he could get his amp back.
It was kinda sweet, really, because it made me realize how much it meant to him, and I knew why. I said, “Sure, man, it’s still really your amp and always will be.” And it was true. He played his red Gibson 335 through that Bassman from then on and had his sound that only he could get.
In fact, some of my favorite memories of playing music are of Bruce onstage and on fire. Eyes closed, not so much as a glance at the fretboard, he would become transfixed and totally in the moment, pouring his heart into every single note. It seemed like a sudden force was at his back hurtling him through space. It was a joy to behold and to hear, and I’ll never forget that feeling.
Soar on, brother. The tribe will miss you greatly.
Sonny Landreth, Louisiana singer, composer and renown musician known for his slide guitar playing and advanced technique. Landreth and fellow guitarist, Bruce MacDonald, go way back. MacDonald died March 27, 2022.
Bruce MacDonald, left, with Roger Kash. Olivia Perillo/photo
by Roger Kash
My dear friend and musical compadre, the inimitable Bruce “Weasel” MacDonald, soulful guitar slinger and Louisiana musical legend caught the bus to the great beyond this morning (Sunday, March 27, 2022) after a long and protracted illness.
He was a musical force in both Lafayette and New Orleans and will be dearly missed by all who had the pleasure of sharing the stage with him.
I had the pleasure of being his band mate in the Cat Head Biscuit Boys for over 10 years. He taught me so much and encouraged me to sing when I didn’t even know I had a voice.
I’d seen him wipe the stage with guitar players who were much more famous than he…he played with such a fierceness and tons of soul, wrote great songs….most of all, he was a great pal and I’ll miss him dearly. He was so unique, there’ll never be another quite like him. Thanks buddy for all the laughs and inspiration. Love ya to the moon and back.
Roger Kash, musician/Freetown Radio program host on KRVS/88.7 FM, played with Bruce MacDonald in the band Cat Head Biscuit Boys.Kash granted Bayou Hack Press permission to use his facebook post about Bruce MacDonald.
