New Shows and new projects

Hi folks,

Well, it has been quite an eventful week or two around here. Barack Obama nominated for president, then the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and then the arrival of Hurricane Gustav.....and that was just Thursday through Monday. Fortunately, we were spared any real damage from the hurricane, and in fact, found the time to record the first two demos of new Bluerunners material. We will continue making demos with our eyes on making a full length record in the coming months.

On Fri, Sep. 19th we head to The Saxon Pub in Austin, TX. We love playing the Saxon, and this will be a special night as we share the bill with Shinyribs, featuring Kevin Russell of The Gourds, and Paula Nelson. The show will be broadcast live on KGSR. We're hoping to debut a couple of new songs there. Shinyribs will kick off at 9 p.m., followed by Paula Nelson at 10, and Bluerunners at 11. Then on Sat, the 20th, we are psyched to be back in Dallas, TX at the All Good Cafe. We are long overdue to play Dallas, and look forward to a great show.

So, things are moving. Hopefully, we can dodge Hurricane Ike and keep our momentum going.

best for now,
mark

ps: Check out: http://bluerunners.ning.com. This site was set up by our friend Bob Cooper in Philadelphia, as a place where friends and fans of the Bluerunners can meet each other. Check it out and tell us how you like it.

New friends, new babies, and new music

Hey folks,
Sorry for taking so long since my last post. I thought being on the road would give me lots of time to write, and fill up the blog with colorful characters, and anecdotes from our travels. Turns out, being on the road is very time consuming. I absolutely enjoyed our runs this summer, but I didn't have a lot of down-time. Down-time on the road is called sleeping....then eating...then sleeping again. Driving is also important, and you don't want to do your sleeping while you're doing your driving.

Actually, this was some of the easiest touring I've ever done. With just three guys, it's easy to make decisions, and get the gear set up, and get on to the good part, which is playing the gigs. Out of the entire four months of touring, I think we only played three rooms that we had been to previously. The coolest thing about this is all the new friends we made. We made a point to reach out, and make ourselves available to meet folks after the shows, and what a pleasure that turned out to be. In the past, we ...OK...I avoided this at all costs. It's weird, because I'm up there confessing my sins, exposing my fears, and screaming about all of it....while the audience is drinking and dancing, and having a blast. It's fun for me too, but it's a different kind of fun. It's the kind of thing you almost dread doing, but then can't live without doing. Music is a strange and powerful thing, I can attest to that. Anyway, it was great to meet so many new friends. It meant a lot to me and Will and Frank to meet you all. I especially want to thank the folks who traveled a long, long way to see us. That was very humbling. I've done that more than a few times to see a band I liked, and I know how it can kill the rest of your work week. Still, I also have great memories of showing up to work, out on my feet, with my ears ringing blissfully from the show the night before. I hope we did that for you too.

OK, on to the important news: two new additions to the Bluerunners' extended family. Both Ade and Rob made babies this summer....actually, they helped their lovely wives, Laura and Roquel make them. Ade and Laura welcomed young Nate Antoin Huval (their first!) and Rob and Roquel made room for Ms. Lily Roxanne Savoy, sister to the already famous Ms. Ella Savoy. Everybody is healthy and happy. To recap, this makes 5 Bluerunners youngsters. John and Kathleen Maloney have a strapping young lad, Ben; and Cal and Melissa Stevenson had their bouncing baby Beckett just about two years ago.

Another thing, for those of you wanting a new record...it's coming. We have a bunch of new songs, now it's just a matter of getting into the studio. We've never been very fast about putting out new material, and that doesn't look to change right now. At least, we've started kicking around the idea amongst ourselves, that's the first step.

Red Beans and Rice Revue

I love this band. When I was growing up, in the late Seventies, here in Lafayette, LA., they ruled the dance halls. Most times the clubs would be so packed with revelers that you could just make occasional glimpses of the musicians through flailing arms and legs of the dancers. But that sound! There was no problem hearing the amazing music coming from these guys. It was the sound of South Louisiana...rock and roll, blues, Chank-a Chank...the Beans did it all. And the best thing, for me personally, they did it with the gigantic guitar sound of Tommy Shreve. He played a red Gibson 335, that I can still hear when I close my eyes. These guys had soul! I don't think folks were as conscious of musical genre's back then....or at least, nobody made a big deal if the band played soul, rock, and country in the same set. People just danced and enjoyed the music. In my mind, there was no higher calling than to be in a band. It was the coolest thing ever. This is the band I grew up on. This is why The Bluerunners sound the way we do. There were so many great bands and musicians during this time; Clifton Chenier, A Train; Little Queenie and the Percolators; Sonny Landreth with Blues Attack, Beausoliel, Bas Clas; Rockin Dopsie (senior); Bo, Brian and Edwards, and of course all the Swamp Pop guys, like Tommy Mclain, Warren Storm, GG Shin, and TK Hulan. And that's just off the top of my head, there were many, many more artists playing here at that time. Oil field money and expense accounts bank rolled the whole scene, and the party just rolled on and on.

In the 80's things went to shit for a while. The clubs closed or switched to DJ's spinning records. Cajun food became blackened anything, rather than what it had always been, round steak and rice and gravy. And worst of all, the music got separated into specific genres, with all kinds of arbitrary criteria. I still haven't really accepted that part. It used to be all the bands down here were funky, and bluesy, and if they threw in some Cajun and/or Zydeco that was all the better.

I just want to throw in a bit about the clubs of that time. Namely, Jay's in Cankton, Hamilton's Club, Grant Street Dance Hall, Goin' West, Boo Boo's, Mother's Mantel, and Antler's. Some of them are still around, but most have been plowed under. I went looking for Jay's one time, and when I found it there was nothing but a dilapidated shack with weeds growing right through the middle of the place. Only the rusted out sign that was propped against the debris let me know I was in the right place. The faded letters still said Jay's Lounge and Cock Pit. It was a real kick in the stomach. This place was legendary. It epitomized the era, the people, and the music....and it was a crumbling old shack.

Anyway, I wrote this song about it:

Cankton
(click link for the mp3)

In most cases, I find nostalgia to be a huge bore, but I truly loved this time of my life. Nothing will ever sound like that again

Last year or two

Hi Folks,

This is Mark from the Bluerunners. We've been going through some changes in the last year or so, and I wanted fill you in about what we're doing these days. It's a long story, so I'll cut to the bigger aspects. About two years ago, our bassist Cal Stevenson told us he needed to stop traveling because he and his wife Melissa were starting a family. Then, about a year later our accordion player Ade Huval told us that he and his wife Laura were also starting a family, and he needed to stop going on the road as well. We hadn't even found a replacement for Cal, and now we need to find an accordion player too. And believe me, we searched and searched for suitable replacements. What we found is that those two guys are irreplaceable. So what to do? Our drummer Frank suggested he could play the bass lines through a module connected to his drums. That's right, play both the drums and the bass at the same time. I had never heard of such a thing, but, Frank knows a lot of things that I have never heard of, so we gave it a try. Then, as things often happen in situations like this, an accordion became available to me, and I figured why not, I'll give it a go. Never played a keyboard in my life, but now I'm going to be the accordionist for our band. I figured, if Frank can play two instruments at once, I should be able to at least play one at a time. It took a LOT OF WORK, and I don't like work, I prefer play time and naps, but we got it together. We started playing gigs as a trio in the winter of '07, and now we're starting to get the hang of it.

The main reason we've been able to get this going so fast is Willy. Frank and I have been able to rely on Will's considerable talent on the lap-steel to play the bulk of the solos, while we are hanging on trying to play the rhythm changes. It's been really exciting to watch him grow as a musician and carry the load while Frank and I are getting stage legs under us.

Our first gig as a trio was in Austin, TX at the Saxon Pub. Leave it to Austin to have music lovers who are cool and open minded enough to receive something new. They were so generous and supportive that night. Had it gone badly, we may not have had the courage to try it again. Thank you Austin!

This entire experience has reminded me so much of the days when we started the band. The fear, the excitement; the long hours practicing; every gig requires so much concentration....and when it goes well, the feeling is unbelievable. This is just the kick in the pants we needed, though I would have never chosen it. Who really wants a kick in the pants?

I want to thank a bunch of folks who have helped us through this process. Most importantly, our manager, Michael Rosenbaum. He has gently guided us through this whole thing, and trusted us when we told him we could make a trio work. Also, our original bass player Robert Savoy has been a great help, even filling in on a couple of gigs. It was a blast to play with Rob again, and he has also helped with advice and support. Ade and Cal have also come through for us in a big way, and will continue to sit in with the band from time to time when we play around home. Our producer, Ivan Klisanin, has also been a big help getting us through the sonic logistics of playing four instruments with only three guys.

We're hitting the road in a couple of weeks: East Coast from Florida to New York. Then back home for a couple of days before hitting the Mid-West. Come check out what we've been doing!

best for now,
mark