Jeffery Broussard & the Creole Cowboys Jan 26 at Founders Brewery

Historically sung in French, zydeco music and dance has flourished for generations and remains a lively hallmark of Creole culture in the United States. Jeffery Broussard is the latest in a proud lineage of goodwill ambassadors willing to bring zydeco culture to the world stage

Broussard will play just about any instrument you hand him. In addition to accordion and fiddle he plays bass, drums, and guitar. So it's no surprise there are many musically inclined youth in Broussard’s hometown of Opelousas LA who have approached him for lessons. Like a lot of kids before them their first instinct is to infuse a contemporary feel into otherwise customary music forms like blues and bluegrass. When aspiring musicians arrive at the doorstep of Jeffery Broussard he often has to break it to them that he prefers the more time-honored method of instruction.   

“When they first show up I have to ask them, what is it you want to learn?” Broussard said during a recent interview. “I tell them if they’re looking for the hip-hop style of zydeco you’re in the wrong place. They have to know up front that I teach to keep the traditional style of zydeco going.”

Get an early start on the Mardi Gras carnival season on January 26 when Jeffery Broussard brings his band, the Creole Cowboys, to Founders Brewery in Grand Rapids.

You can say Broussard came by the tradition honestly. He was born into a zydeco family. His father Delton Broussard was a noted zydeco accordion player who fronted his own group, the Lawtell Playboys. Jeffery was eight when he began playing drums with the family band. Back then Delton Broussard & the Lawtell Playboys were known as innovators in Cajun country by how they melded modern R & B and funk with the well-established roots sounds of people like Clifton Chenier. Later on Jeffery’s first band, Zydeco Force, also became part of this nouveau zydeco movement.  

But Broussard ultimately preferred the more standard approach to music. He often plays the single note accordion, frequently used for the time-honored two-step social dance. He’ll also break out the fiddle once or twice during the night if someone calls out a waltz.

Broussard doesn’t read music; he is self taught and plays everything by ear. This can pose a challenge when it comes to teaching.

“I advise my students to bring a camera or cell phone to record their lessons,” Broussard said. “I’ll play the song at normal speed then I’ll break it down slower and slower until I’m playing just one note at a time. Then they can watch the recording at home when they practice.”

Broussard is not the only multi-instrumentalist in the Creole Cowboys. Jeffery says that he and his bass player, who also plays fiddle, will switch axes on certain songs to further the dynamic of the performance.

There must be something about playing zydeco music at this time of year that makes Jeffery Broussard want load up the van again and drive all the way up north in the snow.

“I grew up around it,” he said of the zydeco tradition. “It’s about our culture. After my father passed I felt like I wanted to do something to keep his legacy going. This is one way I can do that.”

Jeffery Broussard and the Creole Cowboys, 8:30 pm, Jan 26 at Founders Brewery. Free.

More info about the band: jefferybroussard.com 

CDs of 2013: "Dig Thy Savage Soul" Barrence Whitfield & the Savages

Dig Thy Savage Soul (Bloodshot), the new release by Barrence Whitfield & the Savages, charges at you with the ferocity of a feisty boxing contender in the brightly lit ring of roots rock-n-roll.

Looking swift and decisive at the outset Whitfield pummels the punk region early. His smooth vocal punches find their mark with a gruff, effortless flurry. There is deft offensive execution on the gritty rocker “Hangman’s Token.” Always quick to the spot with the rockabilly shuffle Whitfield remains on balance throughout. He scores often with uppercuts of R&B, letting the hands go, so to speak, on numbers like “My Baby Didn’t Come Home.”

Whitfield surrounds himself with veteran corner men for this one. Peter Greenberg (guitar) and Phil Lenker (bass) are worthy conspirators (and original Savages) from the first-wave Boston punk scene. Tenor saxophonist Tom Quartulli (The Toasters) brings good organic energy (“Bread”) and does all he can to further the rockabilly aspect.

The tracks on Dig Thy Savage Soul clip by as quickly as 12 two-minute championship rounds. With time to spare Whitfield and company score an impressive TKO (Total Knockout). 

Available at Bloodshot records store: Dig Thy Savage Soul

Music to Calm Your Inner Beast: Barrence Whitfield & the Savages Nov 14 at the Tip Top Deluxe

A good preacher tells you two things in church every Sunday: this is where it’s at and this is where you should be.

Barrence Whitfield is a Boston-based rock and soul singer whose spirit and legendary performances are somehow in line with the weekend service. They both count on the power of their uplifting message to reach audiences;  hoping somehow through the faith-based energy some affirmation returns. Only the best practitioners are considered true entertainers and performers for the Lord. In similar manner, by virtue of his gospel-truth hard rockabilly shuffle, Whitfield lays bare each night his passion for all things otherworldly.

“The energy comes from being in church and watching the people react every time the preacher would say ‘Raise your hand,’ or ‘Go down to your knees,’ or ‘Do you feel it! Do you feel it!’” Whitfield exclaimed during a recent interview.

So far the spirit has moved Whitfield in mysterious ways. It has hastened him into jumping off the stage onto unsuspecting people and swinging from a chandelier at a college party while the movie Scarface showed behind him. His R & B shouter-styled songs often lead him to convulsing in a writhing fit on the floor, but not before true believers of the truth drop down and really join him. 

“I think with what we do there’s more conviction than most these days,” Whitfield said of his high-octane presentation. “It’s more real and more to the soul. I think the energy in music today is lacking. It has to lack when you’re listening to melodies that go Bing, bong, Bing, beep-beep-beep-beep-beep (pinball machine sounds). How much can move to that other than to jump up and down and smile.”

With Barrence Whitfield & the Savages you’ve got a preacher’s presence and garage rock-n-roll going full-bore at one time. The edgy punk vibe comes courtesy of guitarist Peter Greenburg and bass player Phil Lenker. Greenburg and Lenker go back to 1983 with the Savages and then legendary first-wave Boston outfits DMZ and The Lyres. Whitfield says these crucial influences are held together like a lit candle that starts melting immediately until finally the wax is all over the table.   

“We just go out there and play our butts off until the sweat is pouring off our brows,” Whitfield said with a laugh. “By the end of the night it looks like we’ve taken three showers and a sauna. That’s the look, the energy you get. You see it, you’re enthralled with it, and you become part of it.”

Whitfield and company arrive November 14 in Grand Rapids at the Tip Top in support of their latest CD Dig Thy Savage Soul (Bloodshot).

“The new CD has been in people’s minds and ears,” Whitfield said. “It’s been accepted and doing well for the time it’s been out. We’re very pleased about that.”

If you’re ever in the market for a singer with a preacher’s good energy you could probably find someone. But if you’re looking for one with all that plus a little star power to keep things interesting, you turn to someone like Barrence Whitfield.

“We just get out there and play our music and take care of business,” Whitfield said. “We aim to grab hearts, minds, and ears.” 

Barrence Whitfield & the Savages wsg The Boss Mustangs, 7 pm doors, November 14, Tip Top Deluxe, GR

More info: www.barrencewhitfieldsavages.com/

Mato Nanji & Indigenous at the Kalamazoo State Theatre Nov 9

Photo by Bruce Haley

In 15 years of playing professionally Mato Nanji of the band Indigenous has shared the stage with some of the finest musicians in the world. In other instances this timeworn phrase might ring hollow. But for Nanji (which means “horse” in the Nakota (Sioux) language) it’s pretty much the truth. The guitarist’s bold, slashing, blues and rock style found favor early among the top movers and shakers in the music business.

In 2000 Nanji and Indigenous fielded a timely break when B.B. King caught their act and invited them immediately on his Blues Festival Tour, which is known for welcoming newcomers as well as veterans. Nanji got to see Tower of Power, Buddy Guy, and Taj Mahal practice their craft nightly.

“That was a very cool experience,” Nanji said. “It was an honor to get out of the gates and play with these people so soon.”  

In 2002 Nanji was hired to play guitar on the Experience Hendrix Tour, an all-star tribute celebrating the music and legacy of Jimi Hendrix. Nanji performed nightly alongside David Hidalgo and Cesar Rosas of Los Lobos, Billy Cox from the Band of Gypsys, Jonny Lang, and Brad Whitford of Aerosmith.

“I’ve been with the Experience Hendrix tour since the beginning when they were doing just one-off shows here and there,” Nanji said. “They do a tour every year now, about 20 dates or so. I’m also on a DVD they put together in 2004. I think they’re planning another tour for 2014 so I’m looking forward to that."

Nanji lives every guitar player’s dream when he performs ‘Little Wing’ on stage. He says one of his favorites to do live is ‘Hear My Train a Coming.’

“I would get up and back up Billy Cox when they do ‘Stone Free,’” Nanji said of the Hendrix Experience. “It’s really cool, it’s really open. I have the opportunity to play ‘Manic Depression’ with Robbie Krieger (The Doors) and Dweezil Zappa. I enjoy that a lot.”  

Nanji grew up in sparsely populated South Dakota where few blues performers ever rolled through town. But many American Indian households contained varied and interesting record collections and this is where Nanji was exposed to the rock and pop sounds of the 1970s. His Dad was a musician who showed him the way around a guitar. He also was influenced by the soul and rhythm and blues LPs in the house.

When not on the Hendrix tour Nanji stays busy with Indigenous. He says they might get to do some festivals in Europe in 2014.

“We’re starting to break a little ground over there, I think,” Nanji said with a laugh. “We’ve been trying to get our music out over there.”

The Indigenous and Jonny Lang tour arrives November 9 in Kalamazoo at the State Theatre. Lang and Nanji have a friendship that dates back before the Hendrix shows.

“I’ve known Jonny on and off for a long time,” Nanji said. “I actually met him when he was about sixteen. He’s from Fargo ND which is north of here, and we've known each other from the Minneapolis music scene. He’s been real good to my band. We’ve always had opportunities to play together and tour.”   

Jonny Lang wsg Indigenous, 8 pm, November 9, State Theatre, 404 S. Burdick St, Kalamazoo MI 49001

More info at www.kazoostate.com 

Peter Karp & Sue Foley at the Tip Top June 9

A potential list of famous male/female musical duos might look like this: Johnny Cash & June Carter Cash, Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell, Ike & Tina. Recognizable names from country, soul, and rock. It’s tough to think of one from the blues.

Peter Karp & Sue Foley, one of the more dynamic musical duos on the scene today, could squeeze onto this list as blues. But since they consider themselves primarily as songwriters they will have to think up their own blues guitarist songwriter, co-ed team entry.

“We play blues guitar but we’re also songwriters,” Peter Karp said. “Nobody thinks of blues as singer/songwriter. Maybe it’s because there is a notion that the blues is filled primarily with instrumentalists like guitar players and harmonica players.”  

Sue Foley made her name in the roots music scene of Austin TX in the 1990s. The Kingston, Ontario-based singer released several well-received albums before joining Karp.

“The idea of a male/female blues duo is not really a popular thing I guess,” Foley said. “It’s even more unusual as singer/songwriters.”

Peter Karp went from a mobile home park in Enterprise, Alabama to artsy-fartsy film school at NYU. He says the under-appreciated fact about the blues is that storytellers have been around since the beginning.

“You listen to Robert Johnson and Robert Johnson was the original Bob Dylan,” Karp said. “His guitar playing supported what he was doing but he told such great stories that people are still playing and singing his tunes eighty years later.”

Part of the reason blues duos like Karp & Foley aren’t often pegged on the AAA radio dial is because the music industry is so micro-categorized. Karp is careful not to differentiate himself between the seemingly competitive but highly similar styles of folk and blues.

“I never distinguish between songwriting and blues,” Karp said. “Today everything is niche marketing. They want to know if you are Americana or what. Are you contemporary blues? Traditional blues?  It’s ridiculous. You have to sell stuff, sure, but in the end its all music.”

Karp & Foley are one of the few artists from the blues world who can walk into the Bluebird Café in Nashville, an intimate listening room famous for acoustic music performed by the composers, and hold their own. Their most recent release, Beyond the Crossroads (Blind Pig), contains 12 original songs written individually and together. That fact alone seems to fit one definition of singer/songwriter. 

“The thing about original blues was the story,” Foley said. “It was not as much about the instrumental prowess so much as telling the story of what was happening. Memphis Minnie, who is my favorite artist ever, was a singer/songwriter. She wrote her own songs and she just happened to play guitar.” 

There are facts to suggest that some blues “purists” want to keep the tradition by keeping it airtight under glass. Karp agrees there’s nothing wrong with that. But he also says the genre has to breathe to survive.

“It’s all about communicating and connecting with people,” Karp said. "You can either make them cry, laugh, or dance. But we’re all doing this together. That’s the beautiful thing about music.”

“Originally we were going to call ourselves Butterbeans & Susie but that name was already taken,” Foley said with a laugh. “If you’re telling your own story in song why not count all the early blues artists as singer/songwriters.”

Peter Karp & Sue Foley and band, 9 pm (8 doors), Sunday at the Tip Top Deluxe in Grand Rapids. $10

Visit Peter and Sue’s website: http://www.karpfoley.com/ 

Joe Louis Walker at Dreamers in Muskegon 5/18

If they ever make a movie about the life of firebrand blues guitarist and soul vocalist Joe Louis Walker they should title it From the Tenderloin to la Ville des Lumières. And they should make a movie about Walker because he's everything you've ever heard about the American blues experience. The journey of The Man So Nice They Named Him Thrice is one of the total human experience today.

Just a snippet of his career accomplishments would make a great story line. The plot takes a nice turn when Walker returns to San Francisco State University to finish not one but two college degrees.

Walker, the youngest in his brood, grew up in San Francisco but his parents were originally from the South. Money might have been tight but his folks took the time to instill an essential work ethic.

“My family used to pick different agricultural stuff in the area,” Walker said by telephone during a recent interview. “They taught me to take advantage of hard work to open doors that might not have been open to them.”

As a teenager Walker was soaking up the psychedelic rock music of the day and hanging around with people like Mike Bloomfield, Jimi Hendrix, and Jorma Kaukonen. He was learning the blues first-hand from Lightnin’ Hopkins at places like the Matrix. Walker would soon embark on a series of lifetime gigs at Eli’s Mile High blues club in Oakland.

He was heralded as one of the best of his generation with all the well-deserved notoriety imparted. But to hear him say it, one of the best things he ever did was to go back to school.  

“I went back to address some unfinished business and further my personal development,” Walker said. “I took time to work on self and music. I found that I was able to become more fluent in all things that were connected to me.”

During his time at SFSU Walker had given up the blues rock and was playing in a gospel group called The Spiritual Corinthians. When he was done with school he decided it was time to return to the blues.

“I found I could bring different sensibilities to the blues with a gospel background,” Walker said. “I was getting fresh handle on what I was trying to accomplish and the blues is my mother tongue.”

Walker never strays far from the gospel tradition. “Soldier For Jesus,” from his latest release Hellfire (Alligator), features harmony vocals from The Jordanaires and all the energy and exuberance of get-up-and-shout praise music. 

Although Joe Louis Walker has yet to field any offers for a film about his life, he says he might have a project which puts to use his bachelor’s degree in English (he has another in Music).

“If I ever write a book I’m going to call it ‘From the Projects to Paris,’” he said with a laugh. “It feels like I’ve gone from the outhouse to the penthouse.” 

An Evening with Joe Louis Walker, 9 p.m. (doors 8), May 18 at Dreamers Blues Bar, 978 Pine St, Muskegon 49442. Tickets $15 advance, $18 day of. Call the club at (231) 728-9157 for more ticket info.

More Things on The Man So Nice They Named Him Thrice: http://joelouiswalker.com/

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Interview w/ Jeb Puryear: D the B @ the Intersection April 13, 2013

When guitarist Jeb Puryear first caught wind of the old time fiddle players at traditional music gatherings around Ithaca NY in the early 1970s he was convinced the sound was already an international phenomenon. The founding member of Donna the Buffalo, his popular American roots music and jam band, also noticed how these events provided everybody a chance to be part of something larger than themselves.

"I thought fiddle music was going on all around the world,” Puryear said from his home in Ithaca. “I figured if I could learn to play like that I’d have it made. As I got a little older I realized it was only going on here and a few other places.”

Puryear wasn't alone in feeling a sense of community at these events. He and a future yet-to-be-introduced band mate were about to find each other and, in turn, a lifelong joy of learning and playing music together.

“I’d go to these music festivals and play in the fiddle contests," Puryear said. "It’s a very social music. You’d bring your instrument and you could play with all these different people. That’s how I met Tara (Nevins).” (Nevins, an old-time fiddle player herself, helped co-found D the B)

Puryear feels that artists provide a service, of sorts. This utility gives all people--front of the house and back of the house--an equal chance chance to participate. In his view, music is a conduit.

“If you’re at one of our shows and the sound is good, you’re in it as much as anyone; just as much as the person playing guitar or drums,” Puryear said. "We have an ability to go out as a band and connect with this thing that we all enjoy. We’re fortunate that when we do other people have a similar ability to connect to it.”

D the B carries a socially-conscious sticky note. Puryear credits his father, who was on the academia staff at Cornell University in New York, with showing him how to live outside the norm.

“He was one to stop paying attention to societal expectations. He grew to dislike academic circles. Often the main topic around the table was what was working in society and what was not.”  

Puryear credits the early fiddle exposure, as well as the music of the Highwoods String Band, for how his guitar style sounds today.

“My guitar playing is half trying to make fiddle sounds that I remember and the other half is trying what I heard Jimi Hendrix do on guitar,” he said with a laugh. 

Donna the Buffalo finds continued success by fusing thoughtfully crafted lyrics and indigenous American sounds, like Cajun and zydeco, with Caribbean island rhythms. The consistency is entirely groove-laden. Together these elements provide an opportunity for positive individual interaction.

“I think people are looking for more of a bond to earth and a new humanity,” Puryear said. “By creating with our music we’re able to tap into the nice feeling we get. It also allows us to express ideas about the way we feel things ought to be. More often than not this comes down on the loving side of living.”

Donna the Buffalo wsg Big Dudee Roo and The Turnips, Saturday, at the Intersection. Doors 7, show 8.

Tickets:  www.etix.com 

The Bar: www.sectionlive.com

Heed the Herd: www.donnathebuffalo.com/