Recipe: Turkey Pâté en croûte
November 1, 2012
Editor’s Picks for November
November 1, 2012
His face contorted into what looks to be a painful expression, Josh Garrett’s left hand dives low on his guitar’s neck as he bounces at the knees amid a rapid-fire solo.
At the juncture of soul, ache, desire and an appreciation for sharing these emotions with yet another audience, the Gonzales-based blues musician deftly navigates murky feelings, his influences swirling throughout the set, each surfacing and conceding to the next.
The Josh Garrett Band, which also consists of Terry Cheramie, Dave Foret and Nelson Adelard, has been through many of these live shows. The group travels throughout the country, performing in the Midwest and frequently in Tennessee. The local blues band has been the recipient of national attention since its latest album release last year, but that’s not necessarily how they gauge success.
“People ask if (we’re) successful – my answer is ‘Yes,’” Garrett says. “I get to do something I’m passionate about every day. If you make enough money to continue playing music, there’s almost a success in that.”
Garrett was born in New Roads but moved with his family to Houma before he could walk. He learned guitar chords from his father as he was growing up and “just kind of ran with it from there,” performing in various bands since his high school days.
At 17, Garrett enlisted with the National Guard, mostly working hurricanes with his Houma unit. “Then the world started changing,” he says.
Garrett was deployed overseas for Operation Iraqi Freedom III. He was a member of the 10th Mountain Division, and nine fellow soldiers in his platoon lost their lives. The time he spent in the Iraqi warzone had a profound impact on his life.
“A lot of the tunes on ‘Changed Man’ were about that (experience),” Garrett says of his first record, which he released upon return. “I just wanted to get something out. It’s almost like painting – it just makes you feel better.
“That’s when I decided that music was going to be my career, when I got back.”
He had also decided that blues would be his avenue. Not long after the debut album, then under the name Josh Garrett and the Bottomline, the band landed a contract playing Bourbon Street Blues, a nightclub in Nashville, Tenn. Of course, his hometown’s allure never subsided and he eventually brought his music back to Louisiana.
“The food and the people are different in south Louisiana than they are anywhere else in the world,” the 33-year-old says. “Nashville is great, I like Nashville, but I’ll be in south Louisiana for the rest of my life.”
And south Louisiana has welcomed him back. Garrett frequently plays at Big Mike’s BBQ Smokehouse in Houma, and was featured in the inaugural Best of the Bayou Festival this year. He followed that performance a few weeks later with his participation in Voice of the Wetlands Festival’s “Friday Night Guitar Fights.”
Garrett was the hometown participant, sharing the stage with Elvin Bishop, Mike Zito, Bill Davis and festival host Tab Benoit, among others.
The guitarists rotated – as many as six were on stage at a time – and were joined by a bassist and drummer for much of the exhibition. Each played one of his songs while the others followed; solos, battles and showmanship were scattered throughout.
“Those were stellar musicians on stage,” says Garrett, adding that Benoit is an influence to all local blues musicians. “It’s almost complete improv. … Music is like a language, I think, and especially roots and blues music. Once you learn how to speak the language, you can kind of follow where other roots players are going to go. You can kind of feel where everything is going to be.”
“String of Problems,” the Josh Garrett Band’s latest album, reached No. 1 on the Louisiana Roots Music Report radio airplay chart and No. 44 on the national roots airplay chart. Last month, more than a year after its release, the album was at No. 11 on the state list, in proximity to blues productions by Anders Osborne, Dr. John, Jon Cleary and Chris Thomas King.
“It got airplay, really, all over the world,” Garrett says.
The album ventures in various directions, but it’s tied together with the sounds of south Louisiana and the songwriting and blues riffs Garrett self-produced. It features Grammy winner Chubby Carrier’s accordion, Waylon Thibodeaux‘s fiddle and Mark Levron’s trumpet.
The music transitions from a knee-buckling groove in “Sleepin’ On the Levee,” to a swampy slow-down in “I Miss My Baby,” to the sassy, exasperated and vibrant title track.
Garrett says he hopes to release his fourth album sometime early next year. Although it’s not yet named, the independent songwriter has already hit the recording studio. He says the zydeco and New Orleans accents on his music will remain in place.
With the way “String of Problems” was received, the new work could push the band into a higher level of prominence. But don’t expect the production to be overwrought.
“I write the most honest music I can,” Garrett says. “If I’m happy with the music and it’s real to me, I think it comes across to real as everybody else. But I think as I get a little bit older, I’m starting to really figure out how to deliver emotion and all that stuff in the music.”
Emotion is exposed on blues guitarist and songwriter Josh Garrett’s face as he performs at the inaugural Best of the Bayou Festival. The Gonzales resident is working on his fourth album, which he says he hopes to release in the first half of next year.
