Wednesday, June 11, 2025

Embracing The Obstacles To Find Your Way




Lately, a lot of my fellow musician friends that I have worked with over the years have reached out when they are playing in New Orleans and I have been saying yes to their offers to come hang out.  From The Saenger Theatre to Tipitina's and many of my favorite New Orleans venues I'd love to play, I went to hang out and reconnect.  When I'm back stage and I hear the rumblings of the crowd, it takes me back to my beginning.  


In New York, right after we finished So Long I began to learn how to play live and before I played a handful of shows there was a huge crowd and a label and all the things that come with it.  I handled it though and expected myself to handle it no matter who was in the audience.  


I remember playing at The Hammerstein Ballroom in New York.  My parents had flown in to see me.  I met them outside and showed them to their private seats in the Opera balcony.  When I went back stage, I climbed way up over the ballroom and looked down below.  I was wondering what they were thinking.  I was very glad to be giving them this moment as they had always worked so hard to give us opportunities to grow and prosper.  


The picture above is from our last back yard show here in Lafayette.  We do between 2-4 of these in the spring and in the fall.  The weather here gets really humid and makes it difficult to produce these events, but these nights are really special and we have really found a loving audience here.  


This past week I finally got back into my recording studio and looked into the material we recorded in Woodstock two years ago.  I have resisted making my own records lately as the attention spans have changed over the past 5 years.  I still love the format of a full album concept and still prefer to work in that capacity.  I don't want to be a content creator with a slow drip of singles.  At this point, song writing is easy and is a steady drip because I have chosen the path of integrity and didn't sell out.  I love playing small, private shows but would love to work with a booking agent to build my career in small theatre's like The Saenger or even get back to The Bowery Ballroom.  There I said....I put it in the universe.  




 

Saturday, May 10, 2025

If You Must Know

 



I'm fucking bored.  I'm horrified with this modern life of idiocy.  I sometimes hate music, most of it seems like attention getting spectacles and fizzes out like a sparkler.  Nothing sticks, just bedazzles and flips off of your grand piano and sings you a tacky song in tights.  Are you fucking kidding me?!  I'm so tired of being Mr. Nice Guy.  


I remember kissing Oscar Wilde's grave.  A reverence for a bygone era.  Of course they were blessed with their own collection of idiots and rulers.  You'd think we would have learned by now and not be repeating the past with no expression of our own.  Everything feels like a well curated Instagram to build tourism.  I'm so tired.  Thanks for listening.  I used to put all this into song.  I just don't feel like adding to the noise anymore.  I'll figure out how to get up tomorrow I guess.  I'm searching for something new.  I despise doing what the others are doing. Just what the hell are they doing?

Tuesday, May 6, 2025

"An Impossible Journey"


 Last week we drove to New Orleans to see a friend of ours play a concert at The Saenger Theatre.  I texted Nels Cline to see if he could put us on his guest list for the show and after party and he responded with a quick thumbs up.  How did this life happen to me, I thought.  

During the show they were in the middle of playing "Impossible Germany" when Nels just disappeared as he played the guitar solo.  How does he do that?!  My mind wandered and thought back about my journey to this night.  I was thinking of the 3 year period in Brooklyn where I dedicated myself to becoming an artist and learning all the things to make my first record "So Long".  Seriously, I did not grow up playing music and I had the audacity to think that I could do it.  I did have something powerful trying to come through and I needed a vehicle or a canvas to set it free.  Childhood tragedy and nothingness turned me into a raging wannabe artist and I put myself in front of the work and just powered through, night after night, day after day.  It added up.  It was the hardest, most insecure years of my life up until that point.  It felt foreign, everything was new.  

The record came out really good and we stumbled onto our sound.  It was fresh and combined many kinds of music we loved.  Although, at this time, I had let go of my love for New Wave and was exploring a more roots kind of sound.  We began to make our home made packaging with the brown paper from banana boxes.  My daily routine would be going to the the cafe ordering a coffee from the dude Kyp from TV On The Radio and then hitting all the bodega's for the brown paper to make record covers.  We made so many of these records and stuffed the CD in it and sent them off into the world.  

It didn't take long until we got word that our little record was buzzing and gaining traction in places like Toronto and right there in ole New York where we were living.  It wasn't exactly a buzz in my neighborhood in Williamsburg but more a buzz in the music industry, which I guess was better.  My friend John Ellis was on tour with Charlie Hunter and Norah Jones before she became a star.  John was always super sweet and took me serious as I began my quest to make music.  When he got home from tour we sat and listened to the whole record and when it was over he said, "how the hell did you do it?"  A guy named Sean was their tour manager and Norah's manager at the time and he loved the record and wanted to manage me to help me get started.  It didn't take long before he led me to another manager and we began to really put together a live show.  Think about it.  I had just made my first record and never played a live show.  I had a lot to learn.  The buzz was buzzing and folks wanted to see me live.  I guess that's why I titled this one "Impossible Journey", cause it sure felt that way.  

And then out of the blue, the whole band boards a plane to Nashville with only 10 songs to play Bonnaroo music festival.  As the van approached there were huge lines of folks waiting to get in.  We went in through the artist entrance, onto the artist lounge area.  My stomach was in knots, but I was excited when I stepped out of the van.  There was an excitement in the air, with a crowd gathering and there he was Mr. Bob Dylan, just hanging out.  Tweedy and Dave Matthews were talking to him and Danny Clinch was around with his camera.  He was about to do a photo session with me before my show.  How the hell did I get here?!


 







Friday, February 21, 2025

This American Life




 In 2008, after traveling around making my second record "Louque The Drifter", I met up with Josh Werner in Williamsburg, Brooklyn with a handful of guitar songs. Post 911, New York and America went right on sipping their lattes and life went on as politicians lined their pockets. One couldn't unsee the horrors of that day in September if you were there. All we could do is create and express the inexpressible.

At this point, I had made "So Long" which was very loop based and very Trip Hop/Groove heavy. And then with "Louque The Drifter" I was exploring Reggae and Folk and Old Country as a travel record, going from Paris, to Toronto, NY, Louisiana and Jamaica. I was also friends with the Freak Folk movement stars such as Coco Rosie and Devendra Banhart, so I put a little of that in there too.
Most people don't know that "So Long" inspired the Cassidy sisters to make their own music under "Coco Rosie". That's how I ended up on stage with them a few times. Once in Paris and then in New Orleans. Josh would go on to play with them and WuTang, Lee "Scratch" Perry and many others.
I was always so possessed by the next record and new songs coming to me. The industry side of things seemed broken and it kinda freaked me out and still does. So if you have found my music and really appreciate it, reach out to me to book a private event or help out in some way. I'm more creative now than ever.
https://youtu.be/6LHriSEmazk?si=xqONF-S23lr_T-Ea



Tuesday, February 18, 2025

"So Long" Stories (Jules)


 This picture is how it all started.  This is my friend Donovan Guidry.  We met in an acting class at the University of New Orleans.  In New Orleans after college, I fell into modeling and signed with an agent and the next thing you know they are preparing me to speak to a camera in commercials.  I landed the very first job I auditioned for and made a quick few thousand dollars.  This indeed got my attention, though the idea of speaking for a living with my cajun accent intimidated me.  

Fast forward to when I moved to New York to study at The Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting.  There was a voice class and every day we laid on our backs and moved the tongue around over annunciating.  My big Cajun tongue was lazy and always kicking and screaming among the British actors with their perfect diction.  I hung in there enough to be pulled aside a few times by the teachers and they would tell me that I was an artist.  It didn't matter how it sounded coming out of my mouth.  

At the same time, Donovan was finishing his studies in New Orleans.  I'd leave him song ideas on his answering machine.  He was a Hip Hop head and loved beats, and didn't care about music theory or any of that.  The combination of the acting teachers confidence and Donovan would be the kindling to get me going.  

I convinced him to move to New York and we lived for a short time in my 200 sq. ft. apartment in the East Village.  When my parents visited they laughed and said, "I can't believe my son is living like this"?  It was great simplicity.  No microwave, a fridge and basic stove and a futon on the 5th floor and my fire escape went right to the roof for afternoon hangs at sunset.  

The picture above is at the airport.  I don't know why we are both in suits but it was a big day for both of us.  We didn't know we were about to make a record, just two Cajun voyagers on a quest to find their art and purpose. We dropped off his bags and went off into the Friday night sights, alive with the sounds of the city.  At the time, I was listening to a lot of 50's and 60's jazz music.  Artists like Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Chet Baker, and some Charles Mingus.  Mingus would become my working nickname during the recording of "So Long". Quite funny, cause I was such a beginner.  

There was a glow at "Jules" on this first night.  A friend of mine joined us, who was from France and was a film maker.  There was always a jazz trio playing live and the space was perfect French simplicity.  No silly American frills, just a great space and vibe.  It was a thrill to live inside this excitement for Donovan moving to the big city.  I had just done it a year prior.  It was a jittery feeling, but exciting.  He was there to maybe pursue film making and took classes at the New School.  

It is very important to note the significance of living in such tight quarters at these times.  We weren't in New York to impress anyone with our living quarters, the rent was now cut in half to $400 a month.  Breathing room was always so important to me.  It allowed me the space and time to dream.  Don quickly found interesting waiting jobs at really cool restaurants and that's how we met Mac Premo, but that is a whole other chapter and it needs to stand alone.  Though it is very hard not to get into it now. Ha.  I remember going to a vintage home goods store across the street on 5th avenue with Mac and discovering Serge Gainsbourg.  I love these sign post in life.  Large shifts can happen in a moment.  Every night we'd be exhausted.  We'd eat rice and beans and watch the Yankees in the World Series.  We slept on a futon, with our heads on opposing sides and we brainstormed until we fell asleep.  I can't express how important it was that we were forced to live this way that summer.  So many ideas were pouring out, and then out of the blue we start dreaming of actually making a record.  

As we made plans to move over the East River to Williamsburg, Brooklyn we found ourselves on 48th St. buying a bunch of gear to build a small home studio so we can carefully craft our music without the pressures of the studio.  We despised the idea of working with the older pro's who had their tried and true ways of working.  We listened to a lot of Digable Planets and A Tribe Called Quest and I had just discovered Trip Hop through the timeless classic "Dummy" by Portishead.  There was a Reggae shop on 3rd avenue at the time and my new friend, Ras Kush was teaching me about Dub music and so many Jamaican singers.  This was important for us too.  There were tons of records on the wall, all from Jamaica and they had crafted their own sound, out of the sounds of the compressed airwaves from New Orleans.  This was a huge connection for us.  We would go on to weave this through the songs and the mixing style and singing styles would hugely influence "So Long".  

We had braved it and found a place on the Southside of Williamsburg for $1200 a month.  Before we moved we discovered Joni Mitchell's "Blue" album and we were floored by it and listened to it over and over.  The longing, with a hint of sadness really spoke to us.  I didn't understand the feeling at the time, but now 30 years later I see it as a tinge of sadness of letting our old selves go and braving the new.  

We were reinventing.  On Friday nights, I'd hit the streets and would think to myself that there were high school football games happening back home and no one seemed to care.  On Saturday night, I hopped in the subway car after LSU beat the great Florida and no one seemed to care.  It was like I ripped off my old suit and became anew.  Shaving my head helped me in a way to become something else and let my old self go.  

" The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions" - Ralf Waldo Emerson






Sunday, December 29, 2024

Letting Go Of Resolutions

 


Another year has come to pass.  At the beginning of this year, I made a list of things I wanted to make myself do, mostly music related......like putting oneself out there.  Ha!  It always feels silly in this day and age for a mature adult to be putting himself out there, along with the millions of peacocker's grasping for their 15 minutes of fame.  

I woke up thinking of Warhol today and New York.  Last night I went to the theatre to see the new Bob Dylan film and I really enjoyed it.  I remember pulling up to Bonnarro music festival in our van with my band and Bob was right there in the back stage area before us about to go onstage.  It was surreal.  All I had done in the three years leading up to this moment, was grind out my first record So Long.  I had barely played live and here I was before the music messiah and I had 9 songs to my name and was about to play live.  People talk about imposter syndrome, but this was a crazy experience for me.  I didn't grow up playing music.  I just loved music and albums and artist for so long and I finally started buying equipment and was insanely curious to see what was in me.  

Of course when I was younger I would have taken the fame, but I was about 30 by the time I signed with Atlantic and was too wise to not see the pageantry before me.  I didn't want a life of smoke and mirrors.  I wanted to really make art, unaffected by artifice.  This morning we woke up and watched our usual Sunday morning show.  There was a woman talking about resolutions and letting go of our entanglements of the past and the anxious future.  My past does tie me up in knots.  I know I did the right thing as I have finally chased the imposter inside of me away.  Now I stand firm in knowing that I put the work in, and find myself in a sea of posers.  In a way, Dylan was a poser.  He is a great artist but he was damn good at posing and playing the game.  I think he really loved the attention.  I remember in my label years, meeting artists and noticing certain ones had this thing about them that strung people along.  Those people scared me.  They felt insanely self centered and self important.  Kind of like Ricky Henderson talking about himself in the third person. It all seemed silly to me.  I could have poked my chest out and faked it and made millions or I could duck out into the wild and find my art.  




Last Sunday, we played our annual Christmas concert in Lafayette and it felt like a prayer.  I never really had a goal with my music path.  None other than to find my art and meaning beyond success and recognition.  My friend Lane was there taking pictures and he helped me to see what I'm doing in a new light.  It's very micro but I believe the guy at the microphone.  That to me is success.  This year I hope to find the courage to lean in to the mic a bit more in the silly noise of the world.  Hoping to make a difference.  Happy New Year.  I'm ending it with a 8.5 handicap in golf.  It's been nice since moving to Lafayette after years in New York and New Orleans, where I pretty much gave up playing golf.  It's sunny today, I may go tee it up.  Much love.  







 

Friday, August 23, 2024

"Greetings To The End of Summer"

 


Greetings to you and the end of summer.  It's hot as hell here in Louisiana but I always love the optimism of the approach of fall.  I haven't really touched my guitar in a month or so.  Well I have to record some things, but I put away my catalog of songs for a bit.  It's like that for me from time to time.  I see these bands that tour constantly and a part of me is envious but I know all too well the realities of that world.  It's not always easy working for the man or the machine.  

These days, when I'm not playing music, I work on houses and gardens with my ear buds in listening to podcasts or records.  It's not exactly like I drew it all up when I moved to NY back in the day but there have been many surprises that have come my way that I didn't plan for.  

I never dreamed I'd become friends with the folks writing me.  I started answering emails and rethinking how music was going to be in my life and it is kind of working.  I like it and I like them.  So many different folks out there that feel familiar to me and Margaret.  Another thing that is staring to happen is artists are reaching out to me to collaborate and produce their records.  I'm in the middle of one now for an artist in Atlanta called "Weston J".  It's his first record and I know all too well what it's like trying to do that for the first time.  It's hard to trust but if you find the right people, it's easier.  And he loves my catalog, so it has been really fun and inspiring for both of us.  I'm reminded why I got into music in the first place.  I love the studio and the act of recording a time capsule.  I love sound.  

I came on to write today to say hi.  I don't write enough these days for the public as I've been doing some private journaling lately.  I see the numbers and people are reading blogs still, I guess, so I figured I'd say hi.  I've been doing the work, trying to tap into some of my traits of when I was 27 and moved to NY.  I was very brave and had a lot of wisdom to leave my hometown and a very cushy existence to find my art.  I had audacity to buy a bunch of equipment and to learn how to use it all to make "So Long".  I feel like there is a lot of noise in the world now, with social media, politics and especially in music.  But I know that I'm on the top of my game and that someday, I'll get what I need for my music path to open up just a bit.  In the meantime, you'll have to find me.  I won't be the guy hooping and hollering for your attention on a big stage.  Not my style.