Jo Walston and Dean Schlabowske / Olivia Perillo photo
by Dominick Cross
OPELOUSAS, La. — At first glance, one could assume that the Sunday double-header at the Whirlybird was a cool way to pass a good time on a hot June afternoon in Louisiana.
It was more than that. It was about beginning anew and all that comes with it; it was about moving on, but not without a hint of sorrow.
It was a debut record release event for a couple of talented and edgy honky tonkin’ transplants who have set up their base camp in Lafayette.
It was also the return gig of a string band, long-time absent from the local scene due to the illness and death of one of its co-founders, the pandemic, and the unexpected find with the addition of a youthful musician.
And it all worked out.
The house was nearly full, the music was pretty damn good and the scent of some tasty Cajun fare, by Jolie Meaux’s Porch, Wine & Gravy, wafted through the air.
If you get a chance to see Deano & Jo and/or the Cat Head Biscuit Boys, do it.
In some ways, while it was recorded in 2022, the debut release by Dean Schlabowske and Jo Walston, Deano & Jo, was decades in the making.
But first, a little background.
Among other bands, Dean may be best known for his 25-and-counting years and a dozen recordings with the “Cash meets Clash” sound of the Waco Brothers out of Chicago.
Likewise, Jo and Austin’s Meat Purveyors, known for “punk grass tales of redneck debauchery and woe,” go back to at least 1998 and have six CDs to show for it.
And with both bands on Bloodshot Records at the time, touring together was a natural fit.
“We played a lot of gigs together over the years,” said Dean. “The Waco Brothers and the Meat Purveyors were kindred spirits right from the start. We all became good friends.”
Dean would sometimes head to Austin for his side projects and “play with Jo’s band because they were great people and great players,” he said. “So we had a bunch of projects over the years long before Jo and I were a couple.”
Together in different configurations, Dean and Jo have three recordings.
“We did stuff together before that, but it was more like my projects that I had Jo sing on,” said Dean. “Whereas this is definitely our project.”
Deano & Jo at the Whirlybird, Sunday, June 25, 2023 (left to right): Cameron Fontenot, Jason Norris, Jo Walston, Pudd Sharp, Jean Torres, and Dean Schlabowske. Dominick Cross / photo
The first inception of Dean and the Meat Purveyors was called Deano and the Purvs. Ice Cold Singles followed and then, sans the Purvs, it was Trash Mountain Trio.
“I will say that compared to all the ways we’ve worked together in the past,” said Dean. “This is really different because it’s a true musical partnership.”
The project was recorded at Staffland Studio by Chris Stafford and is out on Plenty Tuff Records. The initial sessions began in April, but overdubbing/mixing sessions “took the better part of 2022 to complete,” Dean said.
“Once it was done, it took a little while to get on a release schedule because we decided to put it out on the label that my band, the Waco Brothers, has started called Plenty Tough Records,” he said.
In addition, the Waco Brothers had a new recording hitting the streets, “and I didn’t want to try to promote the two records at the same time,” said Dean. “So we held off an extra few months because of that, too.
“It’s felt like it’s taken forever to get out,” he said. “But it’s finally here.”
In the past, Dean would let Jo and band know he had songs and a record in mind and they’d all go from there.
“It was more like them sitting in on my side project,” Dean said. “This is more a real reflection of Jo’s and my shared passions and tastes in music.”
Think George Jones, Ray Price, Loretta Lynn and Buck Owens in the country music realm; bluegrass faves include the Stanley Brothers, Hazel Dickens and Jimmy Martin — with a twist and even a shout or two.
“It’s a synthesis of each of our approaches,” said Jo.
The Deano & Jo release features compadres from the past and present.
The new album includes Mark Rubin (Bad Livers) whose bass brings the “sound of punk rock bluegrass, kind of, or high octane, like edgy bluegrass,” said Jo. “And that’s what got me involved and helped me formulate what it is I liked about bluegrass and what kind of band I wanted to have.”
Rubin, a resident of New Orleans these days, hopped on board and “he did all of his parts in one session in one day. And then we overdubbed from there.”
So, with Jo on acoustic guitar and Dean on electric guitar and Rubin on bass, the basic tracks were laid down.
Beth Chrisman, of Austin via Alaska, joined in on fiddle. She’s currently with Silas Lowe.
“Actually, the Meat Purveyors met Beth in Alaska when we played up there in Fairbanks way back in the late 90’s, early 2000,” said Jo. “She was just starting to learn how to play fiddle.
“So now she’s in Austin and she plays with everybody,” she said. “She’s fabulous. She did some great solos on the record. You can tell the love is there, it’s nice what she did for us.”
From Dean’s “Chicago alternative country world” came Robbie Fulks and some flat picking.
“Robbie was another label mate at Bloodshot and a pretty celebrated songwriter and phenomenal guitar player,” said Dean.
Locals Stafford and Chas Justus added their talents on steel and guitar, respectively.
“Nobody plays drums,” said Jo.
Dean concurred: “And no one plays drums.”
Well, on Sunday, the set will be a tad different from the CD.
“I will say that compared to all the ways we’ve worked together in the past. This is really different because it’s a true musical partnership.”
Dean Schlabowske
“We decided we needed to do more of what I’d call a ‘standard lineup’ with electric bass and drums for the show,” said Dean.
The line-up will also look a bit different as summertime is road time for many musicians. So the line-up will be Cameron Fontenot, fiddle; Jason Norris, mandolin; Pudd Sharp, bass; Jean Torres, drums; and Dean and Jo.
Back to the recording, you’ll find previously written originals from Dean’s extensive songbook and a few covers by the couple’s honky tonk heroes and bluegrass stars.
“We wanted to do some bluegrass/honky tonk cover versions that we felt were a little more deep cuts, like, not things that you’d expect to hear,” Dean said.
A Texan with 36 years in Austin, Jo was joined by Dean for three years before the couple moved briefly to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Having visited Lafayette independently and together, the couple knew they’d moved to an area high on homegrown roots music, which isn’t too distant from the honky tonk, bluegrass and alt-country that has defined their music careers.
“We knew that we had simpatico, musical passion with the whole rootsy music and Americana,” said Jo. “Cajun kind of goes hand-in-hand with honky tonk and bluegrass.
“We just decided to try to jump in and meet as many people that we could vibe with on that level as soon as possible,” she said. “But you have to do that when you move to a new place anyway.”
Austin may still be weird, but more so, it’s a pricey place to live. Although the couple moved to Milwaukee to look after Dean’s ailing mother, “the plan was always to get back down south,” said Dean.
Jo Walston and Dean Schlabowske / Olivia Perillo photo
“Both of us had been to Lafayette and loved it. Loved the culture and the music,” he said. “It’s affordable, which was a great contrast to anything we could do in Texas.”
“I’m a Southern woman,” said Jo. “My people go on back, way back and I just needed to get back down here — at least close enough.”
So, with Lafayette conveniently located between New Orleans and Houston and Austin 5.5 hours away, it made for a smart move in more ways than one.
“For me, it’s kind of a perfect place to be,” said Jo. “We love the people and the music and the food and the way that people, even if they’re really old, like 80, 90 years old, people are out there partying and dancing and stuff.
“We want to go out like that,” she said.
“Hopefully a pleasant march towards death,” Dean added.
So they settled in Lafayette in 2022 and kept a low-ish profile on the music scene. As a duo, they played a fundraiser with other bands not too long ago and have spent some time on the Whirlybird stage — that kind of thing.
“For the first year we were here, we decided not to play live and so, really, it was just a matter of getting the sessions together (for the recording), which didn’t take as much time like if we were trying to do gigs all that while,” said Dean.
But the itch to do the record had to be scratched for personal and professional reasons.
“It felt to me like we wanted to just jump in because we found Staffland, we found Staff (Chris Stafford) and we’ve been wanting to do a record for a while,” said Jo. “When we moved here, we knew that we weren’t able to gig if no one knew who we were.”
So they secured Staffland Studio for a recording session and got to know Stafford and other local musicians in the process.
Dean said it was also a way to make some friends “who play music around here before just immediately trying to get gigs and form a band with people we don’t know.”
Going forward, another full record is not in the near future, but “we want to go a bit more modern route and record and release singles digitally,” said Dean. “We want to be an act that plays really regularly and regionally.
“We’re hoping at one point to get it to where we can play once a month in the Lafayette area and once a month in New Orleans,” he said. “And then a smattering of other gigs at places that we can drive to in a day.”
In the meantime, “we just want to keep writing and releasing new music and hopefully solidify a group of local musicians that are playing with us,” said Dean. “And once we develop a little bit of a following, we’ll actually be able to pay them decently.”
As a prolific songwriter, “I want an outlet for that and it’s pretty easy now that we’re in the digital age,” he said.
“Yeah, we’re just going to keep making music because what else is there to do that’s good,” said Jo. “It’s really one of the few things left that’s just fun.
“We’re going to do it,” she said. “We’re going to keep doing it.”
Cat Head Biscuit Boys
The late Bruce MacDonald, left; with Roger Kash. / Olivia Perillo
It wasn’t like the Cat Head Biscuit Boys were calling it quits when guitarist/vocalist and cofounder, Bruce MacDonald, died late April 2022. After all, the band had been on hiatus during the long illness that would take his life, and there’s also the COVID thing.
“Bruce was sick for a long time, so that kind of derailed us,” said Roger Kash, who with MacDonald and Ben Shank were the nucleus of the band. “Our sound revolved around me, Bruce and Ben, the fiddle player. We just had this unique thing.”
As time passed (about three-and-a-half years), Kash and Shank concluded they missed having a band, Cat Head Biscuit Boys in particular.
“I miss playing out a lot and so did Ben,” said Kash. “So we decided to do it again.”
Once the decision was made to keep the Biscuits (Kash’s nickname for the band) playing, filling the roster, well, at least filling one position, was daunting.
“I was having a hard time finding a guitar player because I was always thinking we’ve got to find somebody like Bruce — which is impossible.”
As it happened, thanks to a tip from Chas Justus, a phenomenal guitar player himself, a guitarist was a bass player away.
Eric Moody, bassist with the Biscuits in their last rendering, happened to have a guitar-playing son in Ethan Moody, who plays with Jeffery Broussard and the Creole Cowboys.
Kash asked Eric if his son “could cut it.” The dad’s three-part answer was: a) “Oh, yeah!” b) “He loved that band.” and c) “He’d love to do it.”
It was all settled at the first rehearsal a couple of months ago.
“He was great. It sounded different, obviously,” said Kash. “He was really into it, very enthusiastic. He picks things up really quick.”
Kash had some reacquainting to do himself.
“I hadn’t played a lot of material in years, so it was me, like, relearning this stuff,” he said. “Or re-remembering this stuff even though we played it for 10 years.”
With a nod to Shank — “Ben would always bring in these great choices of things to play like he always did” — so keep an ear out for familiar tunes from days of yore, with some new music.
Cat Head Biscuit Boys are: Ben Shank, fiddle; Eric Moody, bass; Ethan Moody, guitar; Roger Kash, mandolin and mandola.
“I was having a hard time finding a guitar player because I was always thinking we’ve got to find somebody like Bruce — which is impossible.”
Roger Kash
“The only thing with Bruce being gone is that all three of us, me, Ben and Bruce would share lead vocal duties,” he said. “But Ethan can sing. Ethan’s got a good voice. So we’ve slowly got to work up songs for Ethan to sing.”
In the meantime, Kash will sing a majority of the songs with Ben taking on some. “And I think Ethan’s going to probably have one that he’s going to sing on Sunday,” said Kash. “He’s a such a sweet kid and he’s just a really good musician. We’re kind of lucky to have him.”
The Biscuits, if you are wondering, is a string band.
“We’re definitely a string band. And we play all different kinds of music and songs that we love, songs that other people don’t cover that we have our own arrangements for,” Cash said. “It’s an interesting mix of stuff.”
Cat Head Biscuit Boys at the Whirlybird, June 25, 2023 (from left): Ben Shank, Eric Moody, Roger Kash and Ethan Moody. / Dominick Cross photo
Take “Going Up The Country” by Canned Heat. You’ll think again when you hear it played Sunday.
“It’s got that flute part in it. Ben rearranged it where. He’s playing that flute part on the fiddle,” said Kash. “We’ve got a real nice arrangement for that.”
There’s a good chance you won’t hear (just yet) the late David Egan’s “Creole Tomato,” a mainstay with the Biscuits.
“Now we’ve got to figure out who’s going to sing ‘Creole Tomato,’ which is probably our best known song,” Kash said. “It was on that little record that we made (four-song, self-titled EP on Valcour Records (2017).”
MacDonald, who was in Egan’s band for years, sang the song for the Biscuits.
“So it’s hard for me to hear it without Bruce singing it,” said Kash. “But we’ll eventually bring it back. Either me or Ben will sing it. We’ll see what happens.”
Kash said while he hadn’t contacted other venues just yet, he’s already hearing from a couple.
“I guess the word is out,” he said, noting the Biscuits have a gig next weekend at Atmosphere and at The Hideaway on Lee in July. “And then Black Pot Festival called and wants us to play there, too.
“I guess we’re back,” Kash said. “Sorta, kinda.”
(Fun fact: Cat Head Biscuit Boys’ first gig was Shank’s wedding about a dozen years ago.)
