Showing posts with label David Egan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label David Egan. Show all posts

Friday, November 28, 2014

The Lil' Band O' Gold - The Promised Land

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 52:37
Size: 120.5 MB
Styles: Cajun, Roadhouse blues
Year: 2011
Art: Front

[3:48] 1. Spoonbread
[4:35] 2. I Don't Wanna Know
[2:22] 3. Teardrops
[3:40] 4. Ain't No Child No More
[5:20] 5. Dreamer
[3:29] 6. Sunshine
[3:38] 7. Runaway's Life
[4:36] 8. Faster & Faster
[3:17] 9. Hold On Tight
[3:17] 10. Hard Enough
[3:44] 11. Memories
[3:34] 12. Evangeline Rock
[4:14] 13. The Last Hayride
[2:57] 14. So Long

Lil' Band O' Gold resurrected swamp pop tradition while putting its own stamp on the rock music coming out of Southwest Louisiana. The nine-piece supergroup, consisting of singer/guitarist C.C. Adcock, singer/accordionist Steve Riley, singer/pianist David Egan, saxists Dickie Landry, David Greely, and Pat Breaux, bassist Dave Ronson, pedal-steel guitarist Richard Comeaux, and legendary drummer Warren Storm, rarely performed outside its home base in Lafayette, LA, because of its members' commitments to other bands. However, appearances at Midsummer Nights Swing at Lincoln Center Plaza in New York City in 2000 and concerts at the Crawfish Festival in Stanhope, NJ, and at Swamp Stomp at Wolf Trap in Virginia in 2001 exposed the group to an audience outside its home state of Louisiana.

Adcock co-founded the band with Riley in 1998 during Monday night jams at the Swampwater Saloon in Lafayette, LA. The two friends dreamed up the idea for the group during a late-night meal of pork chop sandwiches at the famous Maison Creole restaurant in Lafayette. Both wanted to revisit the honky tonk sounds of their swamp pop heroes from the '50s, '60s, and '70s. Legendary drummer Warren Storm, who had performed with Slim Harpo, Lazy Lester, and Lightnin' Slim in the '50s, became the centerpiece and drawing card for the rest of the group. Storm was known in the region for his string of solo hits and for his session work with Dale & Grace, Freddy Fender, and John Fogerty. With Storm on board, there was no problem for Adcock and Riley to attract other notable musicians to the group. Before joining Lil' Band O' Gold, Adcock performed as a solo musician and released a self-titled CD on Island Records in addition to producing and performing with Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys, which included David Greely. Warren Storm continued to play at the Four Seasons Lodge in rural Louisiana. Dickie Landry, who had performed with Talking Heads, Laurie Anderson, and Philip Glass, returned to his parish roots in the group. David Egan, who doubled as one of the group's songwriters, continued to perform in File. Percy Sledge, Joe Cocker, and Irma Thomas have covered his songs. Dave Ranson continued to play with slide guitarists Sonny Landreth and John Hiatt. Pat Breaux, who had recorded with Storm and who continued to perform in Beausoleil, saw the group as a throwback to his years as an R&B player. Pedal-steel guitarist Richard Comeaux, who was also a member of River Road, an Acadian-based country act, brought another spirit to the group.

Lil' Band O' Gold recasted traditional Cajun rockers into roadhouse boogie with the help of a dynamite rhythm section and the St. Martin's Horns on its 2000 self-titled debut CD on Shanachie Records. The band revved up "Parlez Nous a Boire (Let's Talk About Drinkin')," written by Cajun pioneer Dewey Balfa, after revisiting "Shirley," originally done by John Fred & the Playboys. Its version of "7 Letters," which was a hit for Warren Storm in the '50s, showed a slow balladic side of the group. Rockabilly from the '40s and '50s got the call on the band's remake of Moon Mulligan's "7 Nights to Rock." "Allons Rock 'N Roll," a Cajun rocker made famous by Lawrence Walker, who pioneered the cross-pollination of rhythm & blues and swing with Cajun music, epitomized the band's efforts to embrace all kinds of music from its heritage. ~Robert Hicks

The Promised Land mc
The Promised Land zippy

Sunday, August 10, 2014

David Egan - 2 albums: You Don't Know Your Mind / David Egan

Album: You Don't Know Your Mind
Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 45:22
Size: 103.9 MB
Styles: Contemporary blues
Year: 2008
Art: Front

[7:27] 1. You Don't Know Your Mind
[2:51] 2. You're Lyin' Again
[2:43] 3. If It Is What It Is (It's Love)
[4:04] 4. Bourbon In My Cup
[6:16] 5. Love, Honor And Obey
[3:14] 6. Money's Farm
[4:10] 7. Small Fry
[3:15] 8. Best Of Love Turned Blue
[4:09] 9. Sing It
[3:39] 10. Proud Dog
[3:29] 11. Smile

It isn't really surprising that as a songwriter David Egan has had cuts on albums by the likes of such blues and blues-rock singers as Joe Cocker, Solomon Burke, Percy Sledge, and Etta James, since he writes songs in what comes across as an authentic blues style, songs that sound like they could have been written in the 1940s and '50s instead of the '90s and '00s. As a performer on his second solo album, You Don't Know Your Mind, Egan provides another batch of songs that would be worthy covers for some of the same performers. (Actually, "Sing It" has already appeared as the title song of an album by Marcia Ball, Irma Thomas, and Tracy Nelson.) The only downside of his ability to write material so steeped in tradition is that they can sound a little too familiar, even on first hearing. The title song and the closing song, "Smile," are both barrelhouse piano numbers that could have come from the repertoire of Professor Longhair. "If It Is What It Is (It's Love)," a duet with Jennifer Niceley, might have been written and performed by Fats Waller in the '30s. "Money's Farm" and "Sing It" are both set to New Orleans second-line rhythms and might as well be by Dr. John or the Neville Brothers. And while one is tempted to sing along to the feisty, allegorical "Proud Dog," it wouldn't be hard to drift over to such dangerously similar tunes as Hank Williams' "My Bucket's Got a Hole in It" and Joe South's "Games People Play." Egan's renditions of his songs are a cut above merely being good publishing demos. He is also steeped in the Louisiana style as a performer, playing excellent keyboards (for which he is not credited on the album, though that must be him) and singing in a thin but soulful tenor. Still, more distinctive stylists in the blues and soul vein will want to pick up this disc for possible cover material. ~William Ruhlmann

You Don't Know Your Mind mc
You Don't Know Your Mind zippy

Album: David Egan
Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 55:09
Size: 126.3 MB
Styles: Contemporary blues
Year: 2013
Art: Front

[3:53] 1. That's A Big Ol' Hurt
[3:25] 2. Call Your Children Home
[5:31] 3. Outta Mississippi
[3:38] 4. Blues How They Linger
[5:31] 5. Dance To The Blues With Me
[3:23] 6. One Foot In The Bayou
[6:18] 7. The Outside
[5:03] 8. Funky Dreams
[4:12] 9. Dead End Friend
[5:45] 10. Sad Sad Satisfaction
[4:21] 11. Rootbeer Baby
[4:02] 12. Every Tear

This is the third solo album from Shreveport, Louisiana born David who was born in nineteen fifty-four; family life for David was steeped in music, a household where conductors, singers and musicians often visited. It was later, while attending Centenary College in Shreveport that he was told by an honest professor that music was more likely his forte; so, he enrolled to study Jazz Theory and Composition at the North Texas State in Denton. After some time spent in Nashville he returned to Shreveport and began working with his childhood friend Buddy Flett in the R&B band The A-Train, from its beginning in nineteen seventy-six until the band parted in nineteen eighty-six; he also spent two years as part of Jo El Sonniers’ back-up band but, it was in nineteen ninety-two when his composition “Please No More,” was performed by Joe Cocker on the album ‘Night Calls,’ that he decided to focus solely on his song writing career.

Over the years since then he has become a well renowned writer and accompanist to artists such as; Irma Thomas, Etta James, Jimmy Witherspoon, Solomon Burke, Tab Benoit and the Fabulous Thunderbirds, to name but a few.

The twelve self-penned numbers are immersed in a wonderful concoction of very late night after hours Jazz and gloopy New Orleans swamp music. His vocals possess the svelte and elegant languor of Charles Brown and Nat King Cole; he also displays a marvellous understanding of the latter’s Jazz orientated piano phrasing. The almost drawling, rolling urging Jazz inflected piano of “That’s A Big O’l Hurt,” is joined by a breathy and equally moody baritone saxophone that is luxuriously and effortlessly delivered by Dickie Landry. The driving, urging rolling piano shuffle duties of “Outta Mississippi,” are backed by Bruce McDonalds’s angry burning fuzz guitar that is straining at the leash well down in the mix, all the while Dickie’s screaming alto saxophone rides over the top strengthening the urgency of the number. The absolute highlights of the album are the slow burning emotional builders that are “Every Tear,” a simple, sincere declaration of love that burns itself into your soul and “On The Outside,” a Jazz / soul piano driven tale of a man’s realisation that he will always be excluded despite all his best and sincere efforts. Highly Recommended! ~Brian Harman.

David Egan mc
David Egan zippy