Gulf Coast (label)
21 July 2020 (released)
14 August 2020
This one really put a big smile on my face.
Like a tall tumbler of iced Southern Comfort on a hot, humid day the album is both refreshing and more than a little intoxicating.
Loisiana’s LeRoux have been around since the mid Seventies, originally as a backing band for Clarence ‘Gatemouth’ Brown and Clifton Chenier )as the Levee Band) and then in their own right as The Jeff Pollard Band and eventually their most famous title.
The music is hot and steamy New Orleans flavoured Southern Blues rock with a huge feel for funk and groove and a wicked sense of humour. Really, what’s not to like.
The current line-up is Tony Haselden – vocals, guitars, Rod Roddy – vocals, keyboards, synthesizers, Jim Odom – guitars, Nelson Blanchard – keyboards, vocals, Mark Duthu – percussion, Randy Carpenter – drums, Jeff McCarty – vocals, Joey Decker – bass, backing vocals with only Haselden & Roddy from the original band line-up.
As an album there really isn’t a single track that doesn’t work but I do have some slight issue in that every track sounds as though a different band were playing it – sometime a Little Feat style groover, sometimes they are in Allman Brothers Band territory or they might stray into a Doobie Brothers tight jam sound – that having been said though, every track has some charms.
There are some real standout numbers: the title track is a fast Blues-rocker with great percussion and some gorgeous guitar while ‘Lucy Anna’ has a wonderful and infectious honky tonk piano line and really complex rhythms.
Well worth a punt, it really does catch the ear.
