New Orleans music is heavy on jazz, funk, Southern soul and second line brass bands. But the city’s rich musical heritage touches on just about every type of American music including folk, country, rock, gospel, R&B and blues. The Deslondes, an emerging Crescent City roots band, embrace all the styles to create a tasty musical gumbo with a strong base of country rock.
The Deslondes bring their musical gumbo to The Crepe Place on Wednesday, July 15.
“Just living in New Orleans, we’re influenced by music that we’re near, that we hear on the radio, or that we hear our friends play,” says bassist/vocalist Dan Cutler. “It’s a lot of different types of stuff—a hodge podge. We sort of just pick and choose what we like.”
The result of the Deslondes’ hodge podge of influences is a sound that you might find at a roadside honkytonk, a roots festival, or on college radio. With laid-back rhythms, deep grooves, a bluesy tone, and call-and-response hooks, the band bridges classic country riffs with thigh-slap-inducing rhythms worthy of a rowdy Saturday night or a rafter-raising Sunday morning. Imagine the Flying Burrito Brothers taking over a rural church gathering and you’re on the right track.
With its wide net of influences and hard American roots leanings, the band fits right in in New Orleans, in part because they give people something to dance to—which is no accident. The nearby town of Lafayette, Louisiana, which has an abundance of dance-focused Cajun and Zydeco bands and what Cutler calls a “big dancing scene,” provided a dose of inspiration for the members of Deslondes who would go there and see how it’s done. They took what they saw and added their own electrified touch to it.
“We were really into [the acoustic] stuff,” Cutler says, “but we also wanted to plug in sometimes and expand the stuff that we heard. When we started the band, people were really into country music and folk music, but they wanted to dance too, so that gave us a little bit of a niche there.”
The band’s name, which is pronounced “Des-a-lond,” comes from Deslondes Street in the Holy Cross neighborhood in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward, where the band formed several years ago. Created by singer-songwriter Sam Doores, the Deslondes is now a five-piece that includes Doores on vocals and guitar, Cutler on vocals and bass, Riley Downing on vocals and guitar, Cameron Snyder on vocals and percussion, and John James Tourville on pedal steel and the fiddle. The band is run collectively with all the members bringing songs and ideas to the table and everyone having a say in the direction of things.
“We wanted to create a vehicle for our own songs as well as Sam’s songs,” says Cutler. It seemed like the natural thing to do. Everybody has different strengths and we compliment each other as much as we can. It works out.”
For several years, Cutler and Doores were also in Hurray for the Riff Raff, a New Orleans-based folk-blues band that’s making a big name for itself among both roots music fans and indie appreciators. But as momentum picked up for the Deslondes, the two decided to make it their primary focus.
“We came to a crossroads and wanted to work on our own project,” says Cutler. “It was good. It was an amicable thing and everybody was happy. It worked out,” he adds. “[Hurray for the Riff Raff frontwoman Alynda Lee Segarra] has a great band now and it’s great to be in this thing that’s really ours, and be able to dedicate all our time to it. We couldn’t do that before.”
The band’s new, self-titled debut album reflects a talent for seamlessly blending styles and eras and is a showcase for the deep reach of its members into American roots music. Now out on the road touring in support of the album, the Deslondes are following in the footsteps of their travelling troubadour inspirations including Woody Guthrie, Townes Van Zandt and Hank Williams.
“Everybody in the band loves to travel,” says Cutler, “which is really important if you’re a touring band. Everybody gets sort of itchy for it and it’s a good excuse to see the country.”
Info: The Deslondes, with Haymarket Squares, Miss Lonely Hearts. 9 p.m. Wednesday, July 15. The Crepe Place. Tickets: $8.
