JazzFest: Week One!

JazzFest started off with a bang last Thursday and just kept right on until yesterday. One day of rest today and then we get thrown back into it. There’s so much to write about and you folks who didn’t make it into town have been asking, so here goes my recap of Saturday and our performance.

Our set on the Gentilly Stage was an amazing experience. Dave and I had made a goal a few months back to do a mostly original set this year, which we met. Before leaving out from Los Angeles in late March we uploaded six new, original demos for free download on our website. Go get you some! Four of them made it into the line-up along with our originals on Set Two, one from our first release and some popular covers we play. Deciding to take a chance, we closed out the show with a cover of Pat Benetar’s song, Love is a Battlefield which the very talented guitar player, Chris Adkins did a killer arrangement of. We were asked to learn it for The Big Easy Awards and it was so much fun that we decided to add it in! Someone caught the last couple of minutes on camera, too which is super cool. Click here to view it! And here’s another video of our version of, Plastic Jesus.

Joining on stage was my long time musical, business and all around partner, David Brouillette (upright bass) as well as Chris Adkins (guitar), Dave James (guitar), Steve Spitz (pedal steel guitar), Clyde Thompson (fiddle) and Chris Pylant (drums).

JazzFest 2012 Gal Holiday set

Cryin’ Over You
Give Up Honky Tonkin’
Rainy Nights, Sunny Days
Not The One For You
Don’t Think Twice
The Long Black Ribbon
Louisiana Waltz
You Mean The World To Me
Send Me Away
Plastic Jesus
I’m Coming Home
Love Is A Battlefield

After out set was over I had a quick word with festival promoter, Quint Davis and then booked it to the CD tent for a signing. This is the first year I was asked to do one and I felt quite honored! Three sisters, all under 10 came with their mom toward the end and I have never been so entertained. They were all dressed in hot pink and chatted with me, telling jokes and generally cracking me up. What a time!

Then Dave picked me up and we went back to the Gentilly Stage where an air-conditioned trailer awaited. By this time the backstage area was starting to become a literal circus with the arrival of the New Orleans Bingo! Show. I got a cute snap of Dave with our good friend, cellist Helen Gillet and he took one of me with another friend, vocalist extraordinaire Debbie Davis.

It’s a shame to go to JazzFest and not eat the food…and I’m not talking about the sandwich plate in the trailer. I dashed off to get some crawfish bread and a couple of beers while Amanda Shaw was setting up. The festival provides awesome viewing stands in the wings at the two biggest stages and we took full advantage while eating our snacks. We have two friends in the band, Tim Robertson (guitar) and Ronnie Falgout (bass) and the show was really great. I’ve been watching Amanda for years, as we all have in New Orleans and as she grows up (21!) she is really becoming one hell of a performer. She’s got the moves down and puts on a super show.

Want more? Because there’s more…

Having a four o’clock interview scheduled with WWOZ in the Hospitality Tent, I popped into the paddock and the Lagniappe Stage for a shady seat to watch Meschiya Lake and dem Little Big Horns. She is one of my favorite singers in New Orleans and has been picking up steam in NOLA and far beyond. If you like traditional style jazz singing you HAVE to check her out.

I also made sure to get to the Fais Do Do Stage to see the Carolina Chocolate Drops who I have loved ever since hearing a piece on NPR years ago. They are dedicated to creating fresh takes on African-American songs that helped to shape popular music in America. Y’all know how much I love the history of music, so of course I love their band! They are so terrific on stage; fiddle, banjo and guitar all singing and stomping. They added a cellist, too which I was happy to hear included on their album that I received as a birthday gift on Sunday.

The craziest thing about walking around JazzFest after our set this year was that I felt like somewhat of a rockstar, which is a new thing to me. I can’t tell you how many times during the day I was stopped to sign autographs, take photos or chat. It’s really amazing, totally humbling and we have you guys to thank for it. Lots of love to all our fans and here’s to JazzFest Week Two!


Photo: Ed Treece


Photo: Lucas Davenport

Photo: Ron O’Connor

Photo: JonGunnar Gylfason

Viva Cantina…TONIGHT!

Hi all! We’ve got a show tonight at Viva Cantina in Burbank, CA. This continues our Thursday residency there but please note that the time is now earlier, 6:30-8:30. The Reverend Martini has moved the old Weber’s Rockabilly Night into Viva Cantina and is doing a Thursday thing there after us. Next week…Dave Alvin!

Our set is now nice and early so bring the family for some great Mexican food, tasty Margaritas and good country music!

New Gal Holiday original song!

We’ve been recording demos of new original songs and here’s the latest. Please let us know what you think!

You Mean The World To Me

Update: America’s Got Talent

This is a quick update for those interested parties. We did not make it to the next round of Auditions. But that is okay. We are America and we have talent. We don’t need a television show to tell us that. Thank you for your support!

F**k You, I’m Folk

Some of our long time New Orleans fans might remember back more than a few years ago to a Gal Holiday show at d.b.a. when yours truly had a Jameson fueled microphone moment in which I tried to explain why we’re not a country band. As everyone now knows, the “establishment” has ceased categorizing bands like ours as Country and started using the broadly generic term Americana. While there are many groups, like online magazine Turnstyled, Junkpiled who continue to campaign for the return to proper classification in the genre, I fear that we will be lumped in with Folk music for many years to come.

Two events transpired which added to the steaming brew in my brain which so erupted as previously mentioned. The first of which was a phone conversation with one highly respected female manager, “Jane” who is the driving force behind her well known Louisiana musician husband. Jane mentioned that if we ever decided to submit our work to the Grammys, we would NOT fall under the Country category but rather submit as Americana/Folk. This was my first concrete assertion of something I had been suspect of for a while.

The second event that set the wheels of our new movement in motion was something funny that happened to Domenic, a fellow musician who at the time was our roommate when Dave B. had his recording studio in the French Quarter. Dom was looking for a dobro guitar in a catalog and having difficulty finding one. Maybe it’s listed in guitars? No. They’ve GOT to have one somewhere in here! Hmmmm. He flipped the pages and there it was, nestled amongst the mandolins and banjos under FOLK instruments. WELL.

*On a side note, I can certainly understand the dobro being classified as a folk instrument. Without going into a deep discussion of what Folk music specifically IS as well as its history, suffice it to say that I guess ALL instruments of the stringed variety are “folk” instruments. And all that said, Domenic’s music would most likely be considered “Folk Rock” or as he says, “Cosmic Rock’n'Roll for the Soul.”

We had a good laugh about it and the thoughts kept stewing in my noggin. And then Dom had a t-shirt made that gave a name to our new movement…F**k You, I’m Folk. That phrase hilariously sums up all the frustration and the resignation to what I find an interesting subject. Yes, we are most certainly Americana. But technically aren’t jazz, blues, zydeco and even rap? It just seems like such a BROAD generalization and the grouping with Folk seems a bit odd to me.

So why talk about this now, years later? I’ll tell you why gentle reader. Because recently, another incident came up that made me think about what the differences actually are. But first a little back story…

On our last trip to New Orleans this past fall, we introduced our new sound which we are calling, The Recessionaires featuring Dave B. driving the rhythm section with his slaps and popping of strings. Born out of necessity on the road during these tough economic times, we’ve stripped the band of drums for our smaller shows, a la Wayne Hancock who totally rocks this style. Our intention was not to change the sound of the band so drastically that our status as a “dance band” would be affected and so far we’ve gotten a positive response. In a look to the future with a simultaneous nod to the past, we’re taking things back to the real roots of the style with great songs and solid playing. It has been a highly rewarding decision all around in choosing to experiment with this new “drummed down” sound. Here’s a video of us debuting this sound at Mimi’s in the Marigny in New Orleans, taken by Andrew Evans, Nat Geo’s roving blogger.

A couple of weeks ago we showed up to a gig in California without drums and a comment was later made that we had scared the promoter half to death. He’d heard the band before WITH drums and thought we were going to “Folk Out” on his dance night. I wish I’d had Domenic’s t-shirt on that night!

After hearing a few songs he quickly felt relief and mentioned that he didn’t even miss the drums. Which is a comment we’ve been getting a lot. Nothing against you drummers out there, but y’all are LOUD. Which is why we’ll reserve our use of drums for festivals and larger rooms and stages like Rock ‘n’ Bowl and Tipitina’s in New Orleans. And because I truly do believe that we’re stuck being categorized where we are for quite some time, I will embrace it and proudly announce to world…F**k You, I’m Folk.

Gal Holiday listed as Top 11 Best New Orleans music of 2011!

He Said/She Said NOLA said so.

He and She Said:

The only thing better than the food in New Orleans is the music. If you’ve travelled a bit you know that the list of cities where you can drop in on incredible musicians on a random Monday or Tuesday is a pretty short one (NYC, L.A., Austin…are we missing any?) Given that, we’re sure we could produce a list of the great sets we didn’t see a mile long. But, in no particular order, here’s a list of what we did see that rocked our world. With apologies to Spinal Tap, here are the eleven most memorable sets in a year filled, as always, with great sounds. Consider checking some of these musicians out in 2012:

Gal Holiday at Balcony Music Club: BMC at the corner of Decatur and Esplanade is one of our favorites. Live music every night of the week with no cover. Before she relocated to L.A. to chase bigger things, Vanessa Niemann and her band held down a Sunday night set here which became one of our favorite ways to wind down the weekend. Three guitars, including pedal-steel, Vanessa’s terrific vocals, and arrangements of very old-school country unlike what anyone else in town is doing.

read more on their blog…

New review for “Set Two” by Turnstyled, Junkpiled!

We got a cool new review for “Set Two” by the online L.A. Americana music magazine, Turnstyled, Junkpiled. Here’s the content but please visit their website, too.

Gal Holiday and the Honky Tonk Revue
Set Two
By Gerry Gomez, Contributing Writer

Gal Holiday and the Honky Tonk Revue’s latest album, Set Two, welcomes the listener with a beautiful grinning picture of Vannesa Niemann (aka Gal Holiday) on the cover. That radiance continues on the inside on the package, as Niemann sings and is accompanied by fiancee Dave Brouillette on bass, with other players thrown in the mix, performing their way through rousing interpretations of “classic country” tunes and one really spirited version of “Plastic Jesus” – a comedic song about dashboard Jesus’ written by Ed Rush and George Cromarty in 1957. They do it with complete sincerity and give it great new life. There are also a few originals that sit perfectly next to the classics.

Niemann and Brouillette are originally from Louisiana, but have relocated themselves to Los Angeles, in hopes of seeing what fortunes may await them in Sin City. That’s good news for local lovers of classic country music: it is Gal Holiday’s credo to play only the real deal. Set Two shines with staples from the hard working groups live set, such as, “Yes, Ma’am” “Jones on the Jukebox” and even a honky tonk version of Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice.”

The original “Louisiana Waltz” is a tale that hearkens back to bygone days and departed loves still swaying together, that is reminiscent of the Brian Wilson’s female led pet-project, American Spring’s “Tennessee Waltz” not only in terms of tempo, but also the wonderful sultry sweet female vocals that drive this song. Leading into the other original, “I’m Coming Home” which will get porch swing in motion faster than a V8 on an open stretch of highway. Vanessa’s personality really livens up these old feeling tunes and with Brouillette’s solid bass crossed with overall strong production, the songs leap through the speakers and get the toes tapping. Great music to put anyone in a good mood, done with class and very welcoming, sexy vocals.

Gal Holiday’s star has been rising since coming to La La Land. They’re playing all over town with some anticipated shows coming up most notably, TurnstyledJunkpiled.com’s own sponsored Harvelle’s Holiday Hullabaloo (Friday at 9pm). Catch them and you’ll be two-stepping the night away. Tickets can be purchased here: http://longbeach.harvelles.com/show.cfm?id=70791&cart