Musical Friends & Family
Well,
I've already told you about how Bo cleaned
Miss Weston's yard and allowed me to hang out and ask a million questions. From
my recollection Bo always did play music. When
I was in high school Bo played in The
Claudettes Combo with Charlie Laneaux
and brothers Irvin and James Baker
from Pass Christian. Bo played everywhere and anywhere. Later he teamed up with
his wife Dee to become Guitar
Bo & Miss Dee. My guitarist, Bob
Welch, says that Bo was
one of the people he learned from and looked up to when he was first starting
out as a young player in Pass Christian. Bo
is a great versatile guitar player who sometimes plays as many as two and three
parts at once. His repetoire is endless!!! Bo and Dee
still play anywhere and everywhere and I respect and care for them a whole lot!!
In
the entire scope of things I have folks that I've been close friends with for
a much longer period of time but I have to say that the closest friend that I
have is someone I've looked up to from the very beginning of my musical career.
When I was sixteen and playing in my first band, The
Saxons, Baton Rouge's Duke Bardwell
was already a rock and roll star as a member of The
Greek Fountains. They were the biggest regional band hailing from
Baton Rouge, a town that always had great music scene. The band all wore
madras plaid pants and sported beatle haircuts, released some hit records and
played a lot all over the south. The
Greek Fountains would eventually feature Big
Luther Kent along with Duke
on vocals as well as singer songwriter Casey
Kelly
(Danny Cohen). Duke went on to play and record with folk artist Tom
Rush before forming Cold Gritz & Blackeyed
Peas with Luther Kent.
Gritz was one of the most unique bands to
ever emerge from this part of the country. Many of Duke
Bardwell's original tunes from the Gritz unreleased
album are still some of my all time favorites.
Duke's
real claim to fame is that he played Elvis
Presley's touring band 1974
and 1975.
Duke also played and recorded with many others
like Jose Feliciano,
Kenny Loggins,
and Emmylou Harris.
Duke and I have seen each other through good and bad times and played some really great music together over the years. Duke is my closest friend and still the musician whose opinion matters the most to me. He has always been there for me for as long as I've known him. Duke and his wife, Rebecca, live in Florida and Duke has just released a CD titled Angels Wings. Duke continues to work and play with several bands ( Hubba Hubba and Dread Clampitt) locally around the Destin, Florida area and on occasion, gets over here to play with The Jam Band.
Jerry Jumonville is a staple on the New Orleans music scene today. On any given day of the week Jerry might be playing an afternoon gig on Bourbon Street or a jazz gig with his quartet somewhere around the city. He has been playing around New Orleans since the early sixties. When Jerry was a teenager he used to sneak into The Jazz Room to see Charlie Fairley play. Jerry left New Orleans and moved to the west coast along with a host of other crescent city expatriots in the late sixties. Jerry toured with Mac "Dr. John" Rebbenac as well as playing on most of the original Dr. John Atlantic label recordings. Jerry also played with Delaney and Bonnie and accompanied them along with Janis Joplin and Full Tilt Boogie, The Band and The Grateful Dead on the notorious Festival Express train tour across Canada. Later Jerry played with Van Morrison and was featured in the role of Bette Midler's bandleader and saxophonist in the movie THE ROSE. Jerry also played the sax solo on Rod Stewart's "Tonight's The Night" smash hit. While serving as Ricki Lee Jones' bandleader and arranger Jerry would open each show with an unaccompanied solo version of the classic Harlem Nocturne. Jerry Jumonville is a consumate professional whether as a sideman, arranger or bandleader. He is a musical brother and always a welcome addition to my band.
Her tallness, the piano queen herself, Marcia Ball is six foot plus of long legged pure boogie woogie rockin' energy. I've known and been friends with Marcia for twenty years or more. Originally from the town of Vinton (home of The Big Oaks club) in southwestern Louisiana, Marcia Ball has been based in the Austin, Texas area for more than thirty years. This lady is the queen of that New Orleans Professor Longhair style of piano. She attended L.S.U. in Baton Rouge while playing in a group named Gum with some guys that I knew. When she moved to Austin Marcia became Freda of Freda and the Firedogs, soon to become a very popular local Austin band. I first started listening to her on the tail end of the progressive country movement when she released her "Circuit Queen" album. Marcia holds the unique distinction of playing for my mardi gras krewe's "Kinski" mardis gras ball three years in a row. Folks on the Gulf Coast are still talking about those parties. I've booked Marcia and her most excellent band on a number of occasions and they have been a joy to work with. I always enjoy hanging out and hearing my old friend so gracefully tickle those ivories.
I met Eric in 1969 when I went to see a friends band play and Eric was the bass player. Eric was a monster bass player back then and ever the professional. We tried several times to put band together but they never worked out. Eric spent a lot of time on the road playing in Florida, Jackson, Mississippi and Shreveport, Louisiana before moving back to the coast in the mid seventies. Eric played in The Dock of the Bay Music Company with my ex-brother in law Tommy Moran and former Blood, Sweat and Tears singer, Jerry Fisher. Eric also did a stint with Dr. John and played with Boz Scaggs and Tony Joe White. To this day he is my favorite bass player and someone I'm proud to have as a musical brother and friend. Eric and I have been playing some fun music together lately in a Jam Band with other long time friends Tommy Moran, Johnny Hozey and Steve Sandberg on Sundays at a club locally. Recently Eric has joined The Pat Murphy Band replacing Paul Robinson on bass and vocals.
I first met Mike Keel in Coach Murphy's World History Class at St. Stanislaus when I was a senior in high school. Mike was two years my junior but hip to all the music just like I was. He was just learning guitar but already had a Fender Stratocaster and a Pro Reverb amp. Mike used to set up equipment for Tomorrow's Dawn and we've been friends ever since. By the time I started Gris Gris with my Cousin Chuck , Mike was a natural for the other guitarist and the band really clicked when he came on board. About three months after I was drafted into Corruption , Mike joined us and we had three guitar players!! After The Catahoula Band broke up Mike joined me filling in on guitar with several of my bands. Mike is an extremely versatile guitarist whose real forte is jazz. Mike is now working on the road with the alternative rock band Better Than Ezra.
Jimmy Prima is my main man in the drummer department. He has played in my band on and off since about 1990. Jimmy's daddy, Leon Prima, was a great New Orleans trumpet player and owner of the famed 500 Club on Bourbon Street back in the forties and fifties. Leon was not as famous as his brother, Louie Prima, but every bit the musician. Anyway Jimmy grew up in that musical family environment. He played in drum and bugle corps as a kid doing all those hip second line street beats in the Mardi Gras parades. Jimmy Vincent who was the drummer for Sam Butera and The Witnesses gave Jimmy his first set of drums. I tell people that Jimmy ruined me because I have a hard time playing with any other drummer. He is also one of the funniest individuals I have ever met!! Nobody plays New Orleans r&b and swing shuffles like Jimbo does. He's the Man!!!
When I was about twelve my best friend was a guy named Donald Gavagnie. We're still good friends. Donald's first cousin was a guy named Leo Thomas who lived over in Mandeville, La. Leo would spend a lot of time over here and hang out with Donald and I doing all the little boy things like tromping in the woods catching snakes, building model cars and generally being little delinquents. At about the time I started playing music Leo got a set of drums. When I was playing in The Saxons and The Lost Souls, Leo was playing with The Chateaus and The Fugitives. Back in our early twenties Leo and I went through a period trying to put together a band called Earl J. Higgins and The Monotones. It never worked out but to this day we still call ourselves The Monotone Brothers. In the mid seventies Leo switched to playing washboard in a jug/bluegrass band named Cornbread. Leo doesn't just play washboard, he attacks it. He has an electric washboard named Nadine with pickups that plugs into an amplifier and he uses effects with it!!! Washboard Leo is known internationally as the Jimi Hendrix of the washboard. He and his wife, Connie (my monotone sister) have lived in Arkansas for about ten years with Leo being a featured headliner on the shows at Branson/Silver Dollar City, Mo. Leo will always be my zany monotone brother !!!
The first time that I ever remember seeing Deacon John and The Ivories was at the Bay Waveland Yacht Club for a Fourth of July Dance (Deacon still plays at the yacht club every Fourth of July weekend!). This was about 1965 and I was about sixteen at the time. The music was all up in my bones. . Deacon was already a New Orleans legend and ALWAYS had a great band. Some of the players that have passed through Deacon John's band include James Rivers, Sam Alcorn, Bob and George French, Zigaboo Modeliste, Amadee Castanell, James Booker, Art Neville and many, many more. John Moore started out playing around New Orleans in the mid fifties. His background was the church and his gospel influenced preaching style of singing quickly earned him the name of "Deacon John".
Over
the years he and I have become friends and I'll try to see him play whenever the
opportunity presents itself. His version of Jerry Butler's
"For Your Precious Love" makes the
hair on the back of my neck stand up. Deacon
is internationally known as one hell of a slide
guitarist. He also has always been widely respected as a first class
bandleader within the New Orleans music community. He played guitar and sang on
many of the classic New Orleans records released in the sixties. Deacon
John recently released an absolutely incredible film and CD of seminal
New Orleans rhythm and blues classics entitled Deacon
John's Jump Blues.
Deacon John has influenced me probably more
than any other musician in the type of band that I carry and how I take care of
my business. I'm proud to have him as one of my
friends.
Augie Meyers is another one of those guys like Duke Bardwell and Deacon John who I always admired and looked up to when I was coming up as a kid. Like Deacon John and Duke Bardwell karma has hooked me up with this guy. Augie is THE KING of the Vox Continental Organ. That sound is his signature. Along with his partner Doug Sahm in The Sir Douglas Quintet, Augie burned up the AM airways in the mid sixties with hits like She's About A Mover, The Rains Came, and Mendocino. He was always one of my heroes.
One night Freddie Fender was playing at Casino Magic and my friend David Anonius (see departed brothers) was doing sound for the show. I heard that Augie had been working some dates with Freddie and David told me to come and I could go backstage and hang out. Augie was standing around and we started talking. a little while later he candidly told me that he noticed my left arm and asked had I had polio. Imagine my surprise when he told me that he also had polio in his leg. I had never noticed this but an immediate bond was formed and we've been friends ever since. I will always try to get out to see Augie and hang out whenever the opportunity arises and Augie has come out and sat in with us in the past. Augies solo album White Boy Blues is one of my favorites and Augie is one of my very special friends.
I met Tommy Moran when he was playing in Corruption and I was still in Gris Gris. He was a monster guitar player even back then. When we were in The Catahoula Band he decided that he wanted to take up pedal steel guitar. This is a difficult instrument by any standards yet a month later he was playing it on stage and a year later he was touring behind nashville recording artists. Tommy goes back to playing flattop guitar standing on a chair with his daddy's band The Dixie Revelers when he was about ten. His dad, Big Tommy, is a great fiddle and flattop player so it's in his blood. As I said Tommy played behind Nashville recording artists like Moe Bandy , Joe Stampley and John Conlee but in my mind his crowning success was as guitarist for my favorite piano player, Mac "Doctor John" Rebbenac. Tommy played all over the world with Mac and recorded several albums with him. Tommy is my musical brother and was married to my baby sister, Carleen, for almost twenty years. Tommy and I are once again sharing a stage in The Jam Band featuring Tommy, myself, Eric Watkins, Johnny Hozey and Pat Murphy Band drummer Steve Sandberg. We play once or twice a month at a local club and have been packing the place. Lots of fun!!
When I was playing in The Subway Prophets and Tomorrow's Dawn , Danny Perniciaro was guitarist for the other local band, The Agents. He was a couple of years younger than me but always had his act together on the business end. Later he founded Corruption and this band worked a lot because they got connected with booking agents before I even knew what booking agents were. Danny and I got to be friends when he asked me to join his band Corruption. We played together in Corruption and later became The Catahoula Band. Danny was always a writer and wrote some of the great original country rock tunes that we did in The Catahoula Band. He's also developed into a pretty fine fiddle player. Danny is now known as Nashville recording artist Danny Roy and has enjoyed some success. He's on the road 10 months out of the year but it's always great to see him and have the opportunity to share a stage with him.
The son of my dad's brother Charles, Chuck was an only child and I was the only boy in my family. We have always been close. Chuck's dad was in the navy so he lived in all these mystical places growing up on Midway Island, Hawaii, and California. He was an avid surfer both in Hawaii and then Southern California. We both started music about the same time. My Uncle bought Chuck a 1963 candy apple red Fender Stratocaster and a Super Reverb amp (yes, I'd kill to own these instruments now also). Chuck could play all the great surf tunes and was a good guitar player by the time he was fifteen. When I was eighteen he lived with us during the summer and played with The Subway Prophets. He told us about a great band that played for his prom in southern California called The Doors. He brought the first Paul Butterfield Blues Band album and Country Joe and The Fish albums and hipped us to the Grateful Dead and the whole California scene. He played in Tomorrow's Dawn also and later helped me form Gris Gris. Chuck has gone through some dark times but in his day he was as explosive as any guitar player I've ever played with and he is really the person that hipped me to Chicago blues. Chuck has recently bought a couple of guitars and I'm hopefull that he'll get back out and start playing again. He's still my bro.
The first time I ever saw John Bezou he was playing in a band named THE NUDLES ( which were the initials New Universal something aka ..really weird name ). They were playing a dance in Pass Christian about 1966. Fast forward to 1980, and I was looking for a guitarist for The County Line Band. John and his family had moved to the coast and were building a home. John just walked into my business one day to buy electrical supplies and we got to talking about music. This began a musical relationship that lasted almost thirteen years. John is a versatile guitarist and vocalist. In 1993 John left the band when Jerry Lenfant departed the group. Rockin' John is still my crazy musical brother !!
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