Donald J. Arceneaux Sr.
April 15, 2020
Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes reporting new deaths, increased cases
April 15, 2020
When the coronavirus pandemic forced restaurants and bars to close and festivals to be canceled, local recording artist Ben Labat couldn’t help but think of his peers who make a living performing in front of live audiences.
“This virus is putting a strain on so many different things. All of a sudden, the brakes got put on anybody who’s playing live,” he said. “For quite a few of my friends and fellow musicians, that’s their only source of income.”
“Everybody wants to try to do their part to help somebody,” The Raceland native continued. “Well, I know music: I’ve been doing it for the better part of my life…So I reached out to a few guys I know who can sing or play an instrument at the professional level onto some recordings.”
Thus, ‘The Bayou Fever Sessions” was formed, combining the talents of some local favorites to create some “quarantunes” for everyone to enjoy.
Local musicians Travis Thibodaux, Josh Garrett, Jeff McCarty, Seth Stogner, David Guidry Jr. and Steve Junot have contributed to the project so far, recording their vocals or instruments at their respective home studios and then sending them to Labat to piece together.
The community supported the group in its infancy, Labat noted, with people donating nearly $2,000, allowing him to give each of the five full-time gigging musicians (Garrett, McCarty, Junot, Thibodaux and Stogner) $350 so far.
“That’s just a super cool thing to do,” Garrett said. “He was able to pay us for that recording and there’s a product that comes out of it too. So that’s kind of a neat way to hold everybody up.”
Junot also commended the efforts of Labat: “He’s raising all the money; he’s doing all the promotion. Basically, we’re just recording some tracks. To me, he’s doing all the dirty work, and I’m super grateful for that. That’s awesome on his part.”
The collaboration was twofold, in a sense, as it also helped Labat complete some tracks he had previously written. “I had a bunch of songs: acoustic demos in various states of completion that I needed a spark or something to push them forward,” he said. “Sometimes you hit a song, you can knock it out in a day. But some of them kind of sit around for a little while, and you need that extra bit of inspiration to finish it and make it complete.”
“I’m flattered that these guys, when I reached out to them, were like, ‘Hell yeah, Ben, we want to sing on those songs. Those are cool,” Labat added.
He is also extending the invitation to other local musicians, Labat said, encouraging them to submit their recordings after receiving the raw files to possibly join the project. “It’s almost a way to rethink how music is created to some degree…It’s almost like a remix competition,” he said.
To keep up with the group and learn how to donate or join, visit the Facebook page. Fans can also support the musicians by purchasing these custom T-shirts as well.
The first single from the project, “Tough Love”, is scheduled to be released this Friday, Labat said, and will be on all streaming platforms and iTunes.
“These songs are inspirational, hopeful songs that kind of poke fun at the current situation,” he continued. “A couple of the songs are written, recorded and released during this quarantine period. Some of the songs are a little bit older that just didn’t have a place in any one of my albums I’ve released before. They’ve been sitting in song purgatory for a little while waiting for their moment — and I think we’ve found their moment.”
