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Best Of The Batch: Paul Sanchez - Between Friends
By: Matthew S. Robinson (Associate Writer)

Artist: Paul Sanchez
Title: Between Friends
Label: Independent

Having spent 17 seasons as the part of the suave, six-string support squad for N’awlins’ best party band, Cowboy Mouth, Paul Sanchez once again steps out of the shadows to offer his own take on music….Sort of. Though he has penned every one of these diverse tracks, Sanchez has again deferred performance rites to his musical friends (hence the title).

But what friends they are! From The Cowsill’s Susan Cowsill to Better Than Ezra’s Kevin Griffin to Hootie-man Darius Rucker, Sanchez knows how to pick ‘em- both in terms of songs and singers.

Drawing on both his familial and personal homelands, Sanchez presents the mournful cowboy song “Mexico,” the Latin-tinged anti-war warning “Wake Up” (delivered affectingly by Crescent City gem John Boutte) and the Cajun-esque rouser “Wake-y-up-o,” which, along with “Itty Bitty,” demonstrates his ability to write for big and little people alike.

Apparently, Sanchez can also look at similar situations from very different perspectives. For example, Theresa Anderson’s “Lonely Wasted and Blue” is a Vaudevillian bouncer that deals with the same lack of companionship as Griffin’s gentle ballad “Someone Again.” Such is the way of a great songwriter - that his creations can remain meaningful and beautiful even when delivered by others – and such is the way of this album.

As the Canal Street ferry churned across the Mississippi on a recent afternoon, Paul Sanchez and jazz singer John Boutte stood at the rail, watching St. Louis Cathedral recede.

Boutte, a committed French Quarter-ite, relished the Algiers-bound perspective. "Sometimes it's good," he said, "to see things from the other side."

Sanchez smiled. "That's what I'm doing. But I'm taking it to the extreme." more....

The first thing you've got to realize is that this is not Cowboy Mouth. While Sanchez is a member of the college-popular, pound'em sound and shake'em rock band, his solo work is of a whole different league. In fact it's almost hard to believe these two are connected at all.

Sanchez, on his fifth CD, "Sold Out at Carrollton Station", sings his melodies in soft and gentle voice that is nothing like the let it go, let it go energy that made Cowboy Mouth Famous. Recorded amidst an enthusiastic uptown crowd, most of the songs on the live CD are a folksy, slow strummed tribute to the all-night escapades, cheap liquor and crawfish stews that make New Orleans the place that it is.

A few of the songs may sound familiar like "laughable", which Sanchez sings with Cowboy Mouth, but when you take away Le Blanc's fast and furious drumming, these songs have a much more peaceful, less intimidating feel. Sanchez breezes through the music with enough Louisiana references to satisfy most proud cajuns but retaining enough of a rock n' roll feel to reel in the college crowds.

The Sonoma Valley boys (Eddie Ecker, drums and vocals; Brendon O' Donnel, bass guitar; Skeeter Hanks, vocals and percussion; Mike Mayeux, lead guitar; and John Herbert, harmonica) add a subtle, low-key background to Sanchez' heartfelt lyrics.

My personal favorite, "I got drunk this Christmas", tells the tipsy tale of new Orleans holidays in a way that illustrates the gloriously lazy, perpetually festive attitude that only New Orleans understands. "I hope santa's bringing, an icy sloe-gin fizz," sanchez sings to the yelping delight of the audience. "It's so nice that you know the words to that line," he chuckles afterward. "Only in New Orleans ladies and gentlemen." Only in New Orleans indeed.

In the supercharged rock enviroment of a Cowboy Mouth show,Paul Sanchez's appeal lies in his aw shucks demeanor. With his stiff necked rooster strut, he looks like a regular joe who got called up from the front row,and his songs establish a familiar, barstool intimacy that compliments Fred LeBlanc's fiery proclamations. On his solo recordings, Sanchez cranks that intimacy knob to 11. He's not some faceless singer staring out over the crowd at open mike night; he's your best friend, sitting in your living room, and you're the only person in the audience.

That atmosphere made earlier solo efforts like Jet Black and Jealous winsome affairs,and it's absence on Sonoma Valley is cause for a tinge of regret. Songs like "Same Old Disguise and "Footsteps I Hear" mark a new level of sophistication in Sanchez's songwriting, although his penchant for agreeable melodies remains intact. The new found lack of immediacy also makes it harder to imagine most of these songs reborn as Cowboy Mouth rockers. A couple of exceptions are "Nasty Evil Clown"(with great understated tuba work from Monte Montgomery) and the Irish Boy-styled sing-a-long "All Are Welcome In Heaven", with the appealong notion that God's "only been kiddin'/with all this religion /and there ain't no such thing as Hell". "I Can't Stand You Now(the hate song)" also echoes with the direct, hummable storytelling of Sanchez's most familiar work.

His solo records also give him a chance to flex his balladeer muscles, and the first two songs -"Sleep Well Tonight" and "Sonoma Valley" are handsomely sung, smartly written, and easily memorable, as are most of the 17 songs here. Sonoma Valley boasts a fine roster of guest musicians (especially John Boutte). It might lack the accustomed entre nous quality, but it shows that Sanchez is only growing as a songwriter.