Cover by Kennith Humphrey ; Story by Alex V. Cook.
Country Roads 2008 Cover and story on up-and-coming musicians.
In the May 2008 issue of Country Roads, Alex Cook wrote about up-and-coming Louisiana musicians.
This story was selected by the Country Roads magazine editorial team as the representative piece for 2008 in the archival project "40 Stories From 40 Years"—celebrating the magazine's 40th anniversary on stands. Click here to read more stories from the project.
I remember when I first heard someone being described as an old soul, it was about a young saxophone player who possessed a depth beyond his young age. It made perfect sense, music is about sound, which is about reverberations, and it fits that the finest musicians feel the reverberations of the past rattle the work they produce today. Louisiana has a lion's share of musical history, but what makes us special is that we foster young artists who take those waves of sound and history that rumble up through antiquity, across the power lines of the soul, and forge their own futures with them.
The Pine Leaf Boys are a perfect example of this. No less an authority than Rolling Stone critic David Fricke described their 2007 Jazz Fest performance as having, "free-range ambitions in soul, Canned Heat-style boogie, zydeco (the country funk of black Louisiana) and Mardi Gras Indian chants. They did it all— sometimes all at once — in their Jazz Fest set with the tight, headlong delight that makes Blues de Musicien (Arhoolie), their second album, the next best thing to a Saturday night dance in Lafayette."
The Pine Leaf Boys maintain a perfect balance of tradition and progression, playing long forgotten songs that have dropped out of the Cajun repertoire with whirlwind gusto. Their tunes often start as traditional two-steps and waltzes, but their momentum is like a boulder rolling down a mountain, converging in a frenzied synergistic maelstrom by the time the song is over. Blues de Musicien, their second CD for the world famous Arhoolie folk label, is a mix of traditional, and originals. "Zydeco Gris Gris" opens with a snake-charmer fiddle run from Cedric Watson before it erupts, in wild zydeco revelry, replete with possessed hollers and that unmistakable swing, while "Wild Side of Life" demonstrates their prowess at Cajun dance hall favorites. The Pine Leaf Boys are the perfect way to introduce yourself to Cajun music, and to find out where it is going.
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Story by Alex Cook
Page 1 of “Young Faces, Old Souls” published in the May 2008 issue of Country Roads.
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Page 2 of “Young Faces, Old Souls” published in the May 2008 issue of Country Roads.
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Story by Alex Cook
Page 3 of “Young Faces, Old Souls” published in the May 2008 issue of Country Roads.
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Page 4 of “Young Faces, Old Souls” published in the May 2008 issue of Country Roads.
Three of the best blues guitarists I have ever seen all descended from the great Louisiana bluesman Raful Neal his sons Kenny Neal, electrifying the air with ethereal strafing runs, and Lil Ray Neal, doling out impeccably tasteful Chicago-style licks, and grandson Tyree Neal who lays down some serious powerhouse soul blues of his own. At eighteen, Tyree finished second at the International Blues Conference Blues Challenge in 2002, but the left handed phenomenon has been rocking an upside down guitar for as long as he can remember. "Yes, everyone in my whole family plays some kind of instrument, so it was known that I would do the same. Raful Neal made it like that." The Neal family suffered a serious blow in 2004 when Raful died, followed by the death of Tyree's aunt, popular blues singer Jackie Neal, in 2005. The closeness of his family is a big part of Tyree's music. When asked his greatest moment as a musician, he offers "Being able to work with the late great Jackie Neal on her last CD and being music director of her band ... I miss her so much!"
[Read this 2023 profile on bluesman Kenny Neal.]
Family legacy is not the only reason Tyree plays the blues. "1 play the blues because it's something that I can feel, something I've experienced or can relate to and so can others. Your age is not a factor,- you're going to feel my music. It's the true life stories I tell." His second CD, All Grown Up, features rapper Tyrell, "Bro Bro" Neal, his cousin Syreeta Neal and, via modern technology, his late aunt Jackie. Tyree has also expanded into writing, performing and producing hip-hop and soul under the name "Main Line." Whether behind a mixing board or on stage, Tyree Neal is in it for the long haul. When asked the perennial career question—"Where do you see yourself in five years?"—he answers without hesitation "Living comfortable, doing bigger things, working with more experienced artists, and being signed to a major record label to continue to give the world more of Tyree Neal!"
Not every artist from Louisiana sticks fast to the traditions they came up in.*Covington's Amanda Shaw started out studying classical violin, embracing Cajun music and on her third album Pretty Runs Out (Rounder), she takes on crossover country pop with marked taste and maturity. "My goal is bringing things like Cajun music and rock music together, " explains Shaw. "It is really cool, too, that both Cajun dancers and people who are ready to rock come out to our shows." We tend to think young artists are groomed for stardom, but Shaw paints a different picture of how she got into it. "I started playing professionally when I was about eight. Musicians would call me up and say we are playing at this time, why don't you bring your fiddle?" She cut her teeth with Cajun acts around the south allowing her to find her own particular voice. "None of it was rehearsed or written down for me," she explains. "They would just tell me what key the songs were in and that was it. I was on my own. I am so thankful to them for that because it helped me to learn some of the old traditional Cajun tunes that I still love to play in my sets." Pretty Runs Out shows Amanda's astute handling of lyrics as well the violin. On the title track, she offers a sobering warning to the coiffed divas gracing CMT, "Read beyond the magazine pages/They don't tell you a supermodel ages," where with "Chirmolito" she and co-writer Shannon McNally create a smoky blues tribute to Mexican construction workers who helped rebuild her house after Katrina. My favorite on the disc, however, is "Garden of Eden" where her fiddle is an aurora borealis flashing across the sky over the swamps and hurricane-damaged streets. Her music is one of the highlights of the IMAX hit Hurricane on the Bayou, but there is a universal nature in her frank but optimistic lyrics: "Living in the Garden of Eden, I don't know why we'd want to tear the whole thing down." That positive outlook and determination is reflected in what she said when asked what it takes to make it as an artist. "You have to really enjoy what you do and make goals for yourself. I love playing music, it's in my heart. 1 live for everyday and 1love my life."
Hurricane On the Bayou
The Figs have taken a completely different tack by cutting their own path. "Although our music is not traditionally Louisiana music, the foundation is,”explains Carolyn Helm, upright bass player for the acoustic female sextet from Lafayette. "We were taught at some point to play hard, sing loud and to make the people dance." The group started out as a jam session for women who wanted to give music a go. Jillian Johnson, who plays tenor ukulele and sings, says, "Most of our friends are quite talented musicians (the Red Stick Ramblers, the Pine Leaf Boys, the Lost Bayou Ramblers and so on) and the thought of playing music with them was, and still is in many ways, quite intimidating. The Figs are the original six girls that came to that garage jam session, many of whom did not know one another, or know one another very well, anyway. The only thing we had in common was that we all wanted to sing, and that seems to have worked out for the band."
The Figs' shows are filled with lovely harmonies and a sense of being delightfully out of phase with modernity. "Country, Folk, Americana, Rockabilly, Old Time and Bluegrass are the labels we've received, though we're not really 'enough' of any of these things to make it so," says Johnson. 'The music is old fashioned, but not exactly old; it rocks, but it's not exactly rock n' roll, and it's sweet, but not too sweet. In so many ways, our sound as a band has been defined by both our strengths and our limitations as singers, musicians, songwriters and so on." Also, it bears mentioning that they take their stage presence seriously, dressed to the nines in vintage and handmade outfits, that Johnson describes as part of their overall art. "It's a visual experience as well as a sonic one, and if your style of dress reflects the music you're playing, it only enhances the experience for everyone."
Alex V Cook is a Baton Rouge-based music critic and author. He listens to everything and writes about most of it.
