INTERVIEW: Cowboy Mouth enters an ‘Alternate Reality’
Photo: Cowboy Mouth’s new single is called “Alternate Reality.” Photo courtesy of the band / Provided by Michael J. Media Group with permission.
Cowboy Mouth, the New Orleans-based rock group behind hit songs like “Jenny Says” and “Hurricane Party,” is still bringing its unique brand of sonic joy to audiences around the country. This summer has been a success for a number of reasons, one of them because the band released its highly anticipated new single, “Alternate Reality.” Plus, there are promises of a full album coming in 2025.
For frontman / drummer Fred LeBlanc, the good times are still rolling. He’ll take the band on a fall tour this September and October, stopping in Texas, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and his home state of Louisiana. This follows summer gigs in New York, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Delaware, Mississippi, Tennessee and Michigan. The members of Cowboy Mouth still get around, just like they’ve been doing for decades. But don’t mention the past to LeBlanc; he doesn’t live there anymore.
“I’m not nostalgic,” the drummer said in a recent phone interview. “I’m nostalgic about family and history and things like that, but as far as the band goes, nah. In fact, I didn’t really start looking back until lockdown because all of a sudden I was off the road for the first time in 30 years, and I started doing these acoustic shows on Facebook. A lot of bands were doing that.”
When he sat down and played for his fans on Facebook, he realized he would need to change things up every few days, otherwise the streaming concerts would feel redundant. This caused him (forced him) to become nostalgic and look back at the band’s catalog of tunes, everything from “Kelly Rippa” to “Everybody Loves Jill” to “Broken Up.”
“So I started looking back at the older albums and the older songs,” he said. “Wow, this is really pretty good. Not to pat myself on the back, but I realized, we have a strong catalog of songs here. I started relearning some of the old ones that we hadn’t played in a long time. It was real eye-opening and the stories that people tell you about coming to see the band, or how that song affected them, or this or that. Every musician of any note gets that. It’s not unique to us, but the fact that you get such tangible evidence that what you’re doing definitely helps some people get to the end of the day, that’s just nice to know. That’s a real reward.”
“Alternate Reality,” the new single, is a song with a subconscious commentary on the current moment. LeBlanc said he wrote the tune by looking at the world and simply reacting to what he saw. Make no mistake about it, this is not a political song (the drummer is not a fan of that “p” word and mixing it with his art form), but it is a tune that portrays some feelings he’s been having as of late.
“I’ve noticed over the past few years, honestly ever since the lockdown, people have been scared,” he said. “They’re broke. A lot of people are on edge, and running a small business, like a band is, you kind of notice the trends that are going on in the world because they affect what we play, they affect how we approach the show, they affect your pocketbook. I’m not a political commentator in terms of saying rah, rah, rah, my team or their team or whatever. I’m really not big on entertainers who do that, but at the same time, I’m noticing everything that’s going on around me. You just kind of write about it, that need to escape the world around you, like in the lyric of: ‘It’s been too damn long since I just got in my car and drove it way too fast.’ Kind of letting go, that’s what a Cowboy Mouth show is.”
Seeing a Cowboy Mouth show is a seminal experience, and one could argue that a fan is not a true fan until they take in a live gig. For LeBlanc, he likes to lovingly steal a compliment that a “big, old country boy” paid the band a few years back. This music lover came up to the drummer and said Cowboy Mouth’s gig is like a gospel tent revival without the religion, and that’s exactly how LeBlanc sees it, too.
“It’s a way of getting people to cut loose and celebrate who they are, celebrate the moment we’re living in, just because,” he said. “That’s very much a Louisiana / New Orleans thing.”
In addition to LeBlanc, the band consists of guitarist John Thomas Griffith, bassist Brian “Bruiser” Broussard and guitarist Frank “Frankie G” Grocholski.
Cowboy Mouth, a rock band from a jazz town, has played every conceivable venue available. This reviewer caught them in New Jersey at the annual Crawfish Festival in Sussex County. They had hundreds of concertgoers on their feet, jamming to the tunes. Other nights, people can find them in their native New Orleans at a ballroom-size space. They’ve also made the circuit on the City Winery properties around the country, offering more intimate, but no less raucous tent revivals.
“I used to think in terms of this venue is better for this or that, but we’ve played every show known to man,” LeBlanc said. “I was telling my kids this the other day. I’ve played in front of 160,000 people and held them right in my hand, and I’ve played for an audience of one. In this band, we’ve played every single size room there is, and you just figure out what works best for the moment, how to approach it. At the end of the day, it’s not that it’s all the same, it’s just that there are some things you have to remember as a performer. Number one, it’s a service industry. Just because people are there to hear what we do or see what we do, it’s still a service industry. I mean, at the end of the day, Mick Jagger still has to sell beer. If you keep that mindset, there really isn’t anything you can’t do in terms of being a performer, in terms of getting an audience to go where you hopefully want them to go.”
LeBlanc added: “Do I have some favorite venues? Sure. Tipitina’s in New Orleans, I love. The Windjammer in Isle of Palms, South Carolina, I love. I enjoy the City Winery in New York City, probably because we sell it out every time. I’ll take that. There are a lot of great venues. Antone’s in Austin is great, House of Blues Chicago, House of Blues New Orleans. We’re very fortunate. Plus, I love playing big festivals, and I love playing small clubs. Pretty much I’m just grateful anywhere we get to play.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Cowboy Mouth’s new single is called “Alternate Reality.” Click here for more information and tickets to upcoming concerts.
