Michael Juan Nunez and Drew Landry-Blue Moon Saloon, Lafayette La. 2/11/11

Michael Juan Nunez and Drew Landry

Written by Patty McGehee

Jonno, Juan, and Drew - photo by Patty McGehee

Dan, Larry, and I drove over to Lafayette Friday night to go to the Blue Moon to see Michael Juan Nunez and Drew Landry perform. In spite that it was a freezing cold night, about 100 people showed up to fill up the back porch.  The Blue Moon Saloon management had two butane heaters out there, but they barely made a dent in the chill.  

The three of us thought we were dressed warm enough, but since we rarely get below freezing temperatures here in South Louisiana, we were not prepared for the temperature as it dropped below freezing as midnight approached. I had on three layers and boots. It did no good. I got very cold in spite of this.

Patsy Grace and Jonno Frishberg took the stage first. It was hard to hear the performance because Patsy’s voice was not miked up very well and the crowd was not ready for a folk song type of performance at that point. I felt badly for her because the audience was too wound up to give her the quiet she needed to get her song across. After a few minutes the sound man upped the vocals and it made it easier to hear her beautiful voice.  It was bad circumstances. I was unable to take photos at that point because the digital camera had not cooled off to the temperature outside yet. Patsy did not introduce herself until she was almost finished. Later that night I asked her if she was scheduled to perform again sometime soon somewhere. She said, “No.” I think someone should have gone up before she started and introduced her. That would have been the polite thing to do.

Patty and  Drew  - photo by Dan McGehee

Drew Landry got up and sang two 

songs by himself. Drew writes songs 

with profound lyrics that have a 

deep connection to the soul of 

Louisiana. I am very much 

impressed by his writing abilities. 

Drew Landry - photo by Patty McGehee

After he was warmed up, it was wonderful to hear him play with a full band. Michael Juan Nunez was on lead, Chad Willis on bass, Jermaine Prejean on drums, and Jonno on fiddle. This set was fun to watch because Drew was excited and very happy to be on stage backed up by such talented friends. He played the song that he recorded with Dr. John about the oil spill. My favorite song was “Ninety Proof.” Drew gave me a copy of a CD with that song on it awhile back. I have wanted to hear a live performance of that song ever since. I was not disappointed.

Becca - photo by Patty McGehee

Drew sang “Would You Carry My Cross” accompanied by his mother, Becca Begnaud. She was beaming and very happy to be singing with her son. Becca and Drew sing harmony very well together and that was a treat. This is an especially well written, touching song. Drew’s dog, a Rhodesian Ridgeback named  Jackson was up on stage, getting into the action by stepping on Juan’s pedals, eating ice, and just snooping around. He finally went to sleep on top of Chad’s jacket right in the middle of all that music.

When writing his songs, Drew taps into the culture and traditions of native Louisiana, past and present. The next two songs he performed exemplified that experience. “Grobec,” the song also known by some fans as “The Game Warden’s song,” is haunting and forceful. It tells the story of a stubborn old timer that refuses to respect the importance of wild game conservation and lives to regret it. I really LOVE IT.

Juan and Drew - photo by Patty McGehee

The second song is about cock fighting. I think the lyrics go, “You can’t make a living with a chicken on a chain.” As I have mentioned before, cock fighting is part of my family history. I am not proud of it, but it “was what it was.”  The lyrics of  this song (written by a Mr. Richard) do not glorify it, either. It is about the sad fact that life fortunes and livelihoods were caught up in the ins and outs of gambling at the expense of the lives of chickens in a very inhumane manner. (Cockfighting was made illegal in Louisiana on August 15^th, 2008.)

Drew,  Jackson, the dog,  and Chad - photo by Patty McGehee

Drew Landry - photo by Patty McGehee

Jermaine Prejean - photo by Patty McGehee

The crowd was wound up and really into the performance, while taking turns huddled up to the butane heater. I found it impossible to get up under the heater because there were so many people there. I got progressively colder and colder as time went on.

Drew ended the set with a song named “The Family Farm” and stepped down to let Michael Juan Nunez set up for his part of the show. Juan’s show had the same lineup except for Joe Gary (Hawley Joseph Gary III) on drums. This was because Dudley Fruge is on a cruse with Roddie Romero and The Hub City Allstars. At first I was disappointed to see Dudley gone, but Joe made up for the disappointment when he kicked ass on several of the songs.  

Michael Juan Nunez - photo by Patty McGehee  

Juan’s set was very clean. He played quite a few songs: “Water and Steel,” “My Cadillac,” and “Bulldog Bite.”  His slide playing is impressive. 

Jonno was hanging in there adding a bit of psychedelic fiddle.Juan got the crowd wound up during "Pocket Full of Jesus,”  yelling into his “Mainline” telephone/microphone. The crowd loved it!

MJN on the Mainline - by Patty McGehee

Michael Juan Nunez - photo by Patty McGehee

Chad Willis -photo by Patty McGehee

In my opinion, the two best songs of the night were “Don’t Mind Gettin,’ and “Rusted Blade.” During “Rusted Blade,” Chad took out a bow to use on the double Bass and Jonno made these wicked noises with the fiddle that made that song just a might bit more sinister than it already is. It was amazing.  

Jonno Frishberg and Michael Juan Nunez - photo by Patty McGehee

  

After Juan’s set, Drew came back to do an encore of sorts. He began to play the crowd pleasers, like “Mid South,” a song about wrestling that requires audience participation. Everyone there knew when and what to sing. Almost at the end of the  the night, he played a funny off color song just for his sister, who was in the audience. It was hilarious.  The final song was the Bobby Charles Guidry tribute song, "He ain't worrin' no more."

As soon as the music ended, the people left abruptly. Usually after a show at The Blue Moon, people mill around and visit but it was below freezing and most people were miserably cold. I had an urge to high tail it to the car myself, but not before telling Juan goodbye. He was freezing cold and exhausted at this point. He hugged me and shook hands with Dan and Larry. After a few exchanges of pleasantries, it was apparent that he needed to just pack up and get out of the cold. We bowed out, telling him and Drew we would see them on March 11^th at Bourque’s Social club.

I tried to drive back, but while driving over the Atachafalaya Basin, I realized I was too tired to drive. Once off the bridge, I let Dan take over the wheel. I got in back and drifted off to sleep while the three of us were plotting out next trip to see Juan at Bourque’s on March 11^th. I slept all the way back home. It was a very good night and I think somewhere around Baton Rouge, I began to get the feeling back into my frozen feet.

Joe Gary on drums way in the back - photo by Patty McGehee

The Wayne Blue Burns Band at The Wild Salmon, Lafayette, La. 1/28/11

Tee Don Landry invited me to The Wild Salmon to see his band, so we slipped out of Ponchy around 7:00 Friday night and drove over to Lafayette just in time to have a short visit with the band members before they kicked off a set of traditional Blues, Delta style. In an area of Acadiana where Cajun and Zydeco music is King, it is refreshing to see a   standard Blues band for a change.

 Tee Don Landry was on drums, Wayne Blue Burns on lead and rhythm guitar, Bobby Matthews on bass, and Matt Vogel was on rhythm and lead guitar. Tee Don is an accomplished rub board player who says that the drums are his favorite instrument to play. Tee Don, Blue and Bobby have impressive credentials. They have  toured with several legendary Louisiana bands in the past. Blue toured with Clifton Chenier, Ernie K Doe, and Buckwheat and  and Bobby toured with Sunpie Barnes and Nathan Williams. Tee Don played rub board with Lynn August, Zydeco Joe, and the Creole Zydeco Farmers.Matt Vogel is the young blood here, holding his own with the big dogs very well.  Rather repeat what has been written down before, I will include a link to their web bio so you can see for yourself how impressive their collective talents are.

We got to The Wild Salmon just after 9:00 expecting the band to be up and running. Instead, the band was having an issue with the set up. They had sent a sound man over earlier to set up, had done a sound check and all was well. They had left and relaxed the afternoon away to find that someone had come to the club after they had set up and had taken a section of the sound system off of the premises.

So Mojo, who was working the sound system, had to piece together things at the last minute. The band was unable to kick off the gig at 9:00 as they had planned, due to no fault of their own. Tee Don visited with us for a while explaining the problem. I spent the time wandering around taking in the place. It is a large place, very messy, with lots of stuff covering the walls. I went into the bar area to find very friendly people raging in age from 21 to 80, all relaxing together and getting along just fine. People were fast to introduce themselves to me and the bar staff waited on me quickly.

I was taking in the stuff on the walls, an eclectic mix of Americana folklore from vintage TV, Nascar, old  Rock n roll pictures, photos of patrons and beer posters. Assorted junk lined the walls arranged in no logical  fashion.  Dan and I found a table second back from the band and found two chairs that looked as if they might just hold us with out breaking. Most of the furniture had seen better days.

After getting situated, I left Dan at the table to go meet Blue and Matt. Blue is tall and lean, in great shape for his age. Matt is even taller an seemed relaxed and ready to play. Bobby slipped in right before they started and I was unable to meet him at that time. Tee Don was telling me all about the band and everyone's connections to the music world. It was fascinating stuff. At that point, Mojo was working hard to straighten out the snafu with the sound system. In a little while, he had the band do a necessary sound check and they were prepared to be up and running in no time.

Meanwhile, I slipped back to watch and visit with some boys playing a game new to me. They were playing Beer Pong. They had a ping pong table set up with cups of beer on each side. They threw the ping pong balls, trying to get them into their opponents cups of beer. If the ball went in your opponents cup, the opponent had  to drink the beer. The object was to get the opponent drunker than you were. It looked like  all four  guys were getting equally drunk to me. They  were washing the balls that fell on the floor in a cup of beer on the side. It was hilarious stuff.  It got sillier and sillier as time went on. They were very nice to me and explained it all to me and even offered me a chance to play with them. I would just have to buy six beers to be "in." They were using Pabst Blue Ribbon cans at the time, and red and blue cups. Their t shirts were all splashed up with beer and they seemed to be having the time of their lives. I bowed out and went back to sit with Dan.

The band kicked off their first set to play standard blues. It was a clean set, with Matt and Blue taking turns on lead and rhythm. I was pleased to hear that Matt was holding his on with sophisticated  rhythm that backed up Blue's lead quite well. Tee Don had great timing, the bass and drums holding down the groove in synch. Blue sang  the Blues  standard "The Thrill is Gone" with a hint of vibrato at the end of the phrases that made it become his own.Dan and I were in agreement that the set was tight and well done.

Bobby, Blue, Tee Don and Matt by Patty McGehee

Tee Don Landry by Patty McGehee

Bobby, Blue, and Tee Don by Patty McGehee

Blue and Matt by Patty McGehee

Blue Burns by Patty McGehee

The band took a break and Tee Don came over and we visited for a while. He introduced me to Mojo. I then realized that Mojo was the MUSICIAN Mojo of the Bayou Gypsies, a band that I have heard of but have never gotten to see. He explained that he was off on the road most of the year and did not play locally. We  began discussing all sorts of stuff about touring, who knows who and other assorted stuff. Tee Don had to slip off to get out of the cigarette smoke for a while. I got to talk to Blue again, and I met Matt and Bobby.

Matt, Patty, and Bobby

Tee Don, Patty, and Blue

The second set kicked off and two other musicians showed up and the  show shifted into another groove. There was a third guitarist, Norman "Slim"  Hammer and a harmonica player named  Sonny J. This set was not as dynamic as the first set because the two newcomers did not know how to enter in and out of the Jam as well as Matt and Blue did.  It was still good, but the real hard core synch was gone and the band focused on being a dance band. The crowd was up and  dancing, having a ball.

Bobby  Matthews by Patty McGehee

Blue and Matt by Patty McGehee

The smoke got thick and  I had to retreat out front to get away from it. Young women were piling in at that point, paying their cover, and walking back to watch the Beer Pong players. I guess we watched about 20 young women come in at that time. After a break outside, where we could still hear the music very well, we went in and stayed back towards the door getting fresh air.  Dan and I found ourselves dancing a bit. The band covered "I got Loaded," which was a crowd favorite.

Mojo, Patty, and Slim

Bobby and Patty

Second break found us and all of the band outside getting away from the smoke. Bobby and I had a long conversation about how he had stayed home not touring for about 15 years and was eager to get back into  touring again. We visited and had a nice time out there for about a half hour, taking photos and just talking. The band went back for a third set and Dan and I stayed for about three songs. I had about enough. It was late, about 12:30 by then, and I was staring at the reality that we had an  hour and a half ride was ahead of us.

It was hard to slip out without saying goodbye, but I knew I had some things to do Saturday morning that meant I had to hit the road. As we walked out, I looked back to see that three couples were up and dancing. The place was packed and everybody was having a great time.

http://wayneblueburnsband.com/page1/