SqueezeBoxBoogaloo

Random Musings – from Geoff

May 2003

The CD Launch
The SqueezeBox Boogaloo CD launch was a great success. Held at the Bridge Hotel – under the impramateur of Rockin Dopsie, who played there some years ago (also known as Good Rockin Dopsie – the “good” being a term of zydeco knighthood according to Jules Holland’s commentary in his great video crawl through Louisiana.

We wisely took Russell’s advice, and played at ground level rather than using the mega raised stage.
With the colourful crawfish (?crab) backdrop behind Alan’s drum kit, off we kicked with our usual opener – Zydeco Boogaloo. The dancing started during Eric’s singing of Geno Delafose’s “C’est pas la peine brailler” – there’s no use crying; but really got moving once Vanessa and Michael led zydeco dance instruction between sets. Vanessa is a great teacher (usually found teaching Afrocuban dance at Bondi Pavilion), and Michael kept up the guys end well.

There was plenty of top dancing for the rest of the night, as SqueezeBox was joined by Kerry on 2nd rubboard, Dominique on viola (sounded fantastic on the Creole song), Ian on harp, Stuart on tambourine, and Robert sitting in on drums.

The sound quality was great – thanks to David, a sound engineer who, among many projects, did the sound for 3 INXS albums. Thanks to Judy and Ruth, ably selling CD’s (but keep your day jobs, boys!). It was great to see Gil Onyett, from 2RDJ, who has given SqueezeBox a rap on his blues show (we were #1 on his Top Ten listing for 5 weeks! The formula for calculating his top ten is complex, and involves use of inverse ratios)

So thanks to everyone who came along to the Bridge Hotel to get us off to a flying start with the CD. Hopefully we’ll put up some photos from the CD launch shortly.

Drum Media Coverage
The Drum Media ads, photos, and bylines turned out well, with strong support from the Bridge Hotel (we were billed together with Terrance Simien and Eric Burdon – and who out there hasn’t sung along meaningfully with “We gotta get out of this place” or strummed the chords of “House of the Rising Sun” – (I once played the folk version of the Rising Sun at a musical gathering – all major chords – and got howled down). In the giveaway section in Drum Media, 5 discerning souls (who are they??) each won a CD for answering the question “What is the origin of the word Zydeco” For those wondering – it is generally accepted as coming from the words of a popular song “Les haricots sont pas sale” -the snap beans are not salty (i.e. the food’s no good). So Les haricots became the word zydeco. For the post-graduates, there is a Talmudic dissertation on the complex twists and turns that finally led to the acceptance of the word zydeco in Michael Tisserands tome “The Kingdom of Zydeco”

CD Review
The album also garnered its first official review from Michael Smith of Drum Media. Here are some excerpts from the well crafted critique:

“There’s certainly nothing deep and meaningful going on, lyrically or musically, but then, that’s not the point with zydeco. It’s not about exorcising any ghosts of past injustices, or the pleasure and pain of its cousin, the blues. SqueezeBox Boogaloo tackle that cousin quite nicely on I’ll Apologise, but othewise it’s pretty much uptempo all the way, even when the lyric – I’m thinking of You Stole My Monkey – is a little on the dark side”

“For all that (immersion in the authentic purveyors of this most celebratory of American roots music genres) you obviously can’t keep the Aussie pub rocker out of the kid, or at least his guitar player, Eric Richard, whose solos owe more to Barnesy that the Bayou (obviously not literally). Not that that’s necessarily a problem. Tofler might be smitten by the zydeco tradition, but he’s written songs that are firmly based on his contemporary experience as an Australian living in Bondi. And the Australian abroad for that matter. So the purists out there aren’t going to be finding much in Take You Everywhere to match the classic canon, despite the inclusion of Clifton Cheniers’ Tous les Temps en Temps”

“Overall, this is a pleasant little sashay rather than a blinder of an album, more enthusiastic than passionate, and that’s OK. The music is definitely a live experience ..”

Travels in Louisiana
This is now going back a while but it is accompanied by some photos.

On the drive to Lafayette, I had to get out of the car to look at the Atchafalaya Swamp.

Great name and the photo captures the tangled feel, but I was back in the car in 2 seconds, chased by mosquitos.

I had a great 3 days in Louisiana in November 2002. Highlights are captured on some of the photos on our site – going to El Sido’s to hear some great acts e.g Roy Carrier and the Night Rockers

and Nathan and Zydeco Cha Chas, and watch the dancers in action.

I missed Buckwheat’s performance, but had a chat with him.

Opelousas was the highlight, with a fun conversation with Cheryl Castille in the WhatBayou Trading Post.

She took a few of the CD’s on consignment (have a look at her fun website) and directed me to a great concert – the LA Purchase Bluegrass Band.

Although all the music was enjoyable, the standout was Constant Sorrow – from the fantastic movie Oh Brother Where Art Thou. Radio interviews were a lot of fun – KRV in Lafayette, Johnny Wright and John Freeman in Opelousas,

and Paul Marx in Eunice.

Everyone has a hero – and my zydeco hero is Lyn August – so at the Eunice Radio Station, I did the hero worship thing of writing the SqueezeBox name on their wall, next to Lyn August. Stayed at a great B&B in Lafayette – T’freres.

Top ambience and cooking – well recommended for next time y’all in Lafayette.

On the last night before flying out of Louisiana to the snow of Boston, I drove into New Orleans – quite a contrast between the delerium of the French Quarter and the more country feel out West in Opelousas and Eunice. Pleased to have had sold a few CD’s there – “Coals to Newcastle etc” The Louisiana people are so warm – hopefully SqueezeBox will get to play there sometime… in the meantime, we’ll keep playing “Bondi Zydeco Night”.

Terrance Simien in Sydney
A couple of weeks after our CD launch, it was great to return to the Bridge Hotel to see one of the top Louisiana zydeco exponents - Terrance Simien – fronting a classy zydeco band. Simien’s rich, expressive voice, reflects his church choir youth. Besides providing great zydeco rhythms, the band also ventured into soul and reggae – and one of their encores surprisingly was “we all live in a yellow submarine?” As always, it was dance music, so people were bopping around – occasionally rewarded by mardi gras beads thrown from the stage. Stefan from Psycho Zydeco was invited up to play, and I was thrilled to also be invited up to do a couple of tunes on Simien’s one-row button accordion. Hopefully Sydney will continue to get people of Terrance Simien’s calibre here – Richard Keogh from the Bridge Hotel is an enthusiast so that’s a plus. A percussionist from the band – Shma (?spelling) who was dressed in a leopard suit, and a great dancer, said that he’ll be returning to Sydney for a few months later this year, and will hopefully come along.

We are looking forward to our upcoming gigs at the Western Sydney Blues and Roots Festival (May 3) and Golden Sheaf (May 4). We’ll miss the Mardi Grass in Nimbin.