NINE LIVES

A MUSICAL ADAPTATION, VOLUME 1

by Colman deKay & Paul Sanchez,

based on the novel by Dan Baum

Mystery Street 2011

Paul Sanchez producer

Wes Fontenot, Mark Bingham engineers Nine Lives

New Orleans' musical renaissance, so well documented in the HBO series Treme, has reached its apotheosis with this expansive project. Paul Sanchez, a versatile singer-songwriter who performs in dozens of different contexts around New Orleans with many of his cohorts, joined forces with lyricist Colman deKay and several local musician buddies to write forty songs based on Dan Baum's best selling novel, Nine Lives. Sanchez then enlisted over 100 musicians to realize this dream, and they took this three-ring circus into Piety Street Studios, where Sanchez - abetted by engineer Wes Fontenot and resident master of mixology Mark Bingham - proved an able ringmaster.

Baum's novel is tough to boil down because it concentrates less on narrative than in character development and point of view. The book focuses on nine disparate citizens of New Orleans as they experience life in the years framed by two hurricanes, Betsy (1965) and Katrina (2005). Nine Lives Vol. 1 presents the characters singing a little more than half the songs written for this adaptation. deKay and Sanchez, who used Baum's own words to unify the script, wisely chose to record these songs before mounting a stage production; this allowed them to concentrate on realizing each song fully as possible, without worrying about enforcing a narrative. The result works more as a great series of songs about New Orleans than as a souvenir cast album of show tunes.

The singing alone would make this recording a standout. John Boutte' opens the proceedings with "Fine In The Lower Nine," a slam-dunk anthem that will make history as this production's musical brand. Along with Trem star Wendell Pierce, Boutte' rolls out the sing-along R&B chorus about country life in the Lower Ninth Ward in 1965. "We're in our blue heaven," goes the out-chorus, in reference to local resident Fats Domino, "down on Deslonde Street." Given the devastation that was eventually visited on this neighborhood, it would be impossible to write this song today in any other context - but as a piece of theater documenting a way of life a half a century ago, it makes perfect sense.

Boutte' also sings on the finale, "Rebuild Renew", and contributes two songs, "Feel Like A Lady" and "To Be Continued". Other family members of this talented family - Lillian, Tricia, Peter, and Tanya Boutte' - also have key roles on Vol. 1. Sanchez, in the role of Dr. Frank Minyard, sings most of the songs and thus provides a strong continuity. Shamarr Allen, who wries, sings and plays trumpet, also produced two of the album's most important tracks, "House Of Dance And Feathers" and "We Are The Band." He is an invaluable resource - as is Alex McMurray, as Officer Tim Bruneau, rocking out on voice and guitar in "Jump Out Boys." McMurray makes crucial contributions on guitar and banjo throughout, while the ubiquitous pianist Tom McDermott is so perfectly cast that he acts as a shadow musical director for Sanchez. The late, legendary drummer Herman Roscoe Ernest III makes his last studio appearances in these tracks. And there are more star turns than I can list, by local favorites the Dixie Cups, Allen Toussaint, Irma Thomas, Walter "Wolfman" Washington, Andres Osborne, Harry Shearer and literally dozens of others.

The hero behind the scenes of Nine Lives is Matt Perrine, whose arrangements for a range of New Orleans settings provide shadow and light throughout this fascinating history. The mood and balance of the story told here skirt the unconscious depths of the imagination, a dreamscape of New Orleans based on things that actually happened to real people, now told as a story designed to strike a resonant chord in every listener. Perrine's nuanced genius and the broad palette of his own playing on tuba and bass bring operatic life to this tale. Of a city that, in the 19th century, was known for its presentations of opera, there could be no more fitting evocation.

John Swenson

ordering info: threadheadrecords.com

Various Artists: Nine Lives: A Musical

Adaptation, Vol. 1 (Mystery street Records

0001; 44:01/45:04; ????) This wrenching

adaptation of journalist Dan Baum’s book

about nine intersecting New Orleanian lives

spanning Hurricanes Betsy through Katrina

represents the sound of the city in a way

that’s never been tried before. Screenwriter

Colman deKay teamed up with Cowboy

Mouth front man Paul Sanchez (and on many

tracks, vocalist John Boutte) to retell the story.

The story is not an easy one to tell, rendering

numbers like the emotion-drenched opener,

“Fine In The Lower Nine,” more compelling

than the tongue-in-cheek “King Of Mardi

Gras.” The theatricality of the latter, with its

harpsichord and booming Harry Shearer con-

tribution, would border on cloying without the

context of the full album. But the scope of the

project is so impressive that combing through

the story lines becomes part of the fun. DB

ordering info: mysterystreetrecords.com

SHAMARR ALLEN AND PAUL SANCHEZ

Bridging the Gap

(Threadhead)

01 August 2010 — by Jacob Leland

Shamarr Allen is a born front man, the kind of artist who embraces a showy star turn. Throughout his career performing and recording with brass bands, jazz ensembles, and his recent funk-rock projects, listening to Allen perform has meant hearing his sensibilities and his powerful trumpet drive a band’s rhythms and shape its sound. On Bridging the Gap, his collaboration with veteran New Orleans singer-songwriter Paul Sanchez, Allen’s charismatic musical presence is uncharacteristically subdued.

In its style, arrangements and rhythms, Bridging the Gap is primarily governed by Sanchez’s whimsical roots-rock. It doesn’t feature many star turns at all. The CD’s 10 tracks highlight the duo’s mutual influence and the fun Allen and Sanchez obviously have making music together. The ideas they trade showcase the ease with which they’ve assimilated their diverse musical backgrounds and personal biographies to a shared vision of feel-good music. At times, it takes on the flavor of a backporch jam, rather than a studio record. Bridging the Gap covers Cat Stevens, Kanye West, Willie Nelson and John Lennon without departing from its own sound. The duo’s shared voice emerges further on their new original songs about the city that shaped the collaboration. As Allen’s rap vocal on “Hurricane Party for a new New Orleans” suggests, they’re very much in this thing together.

Projects like Bridging the Gap often risk sacrificing musical and conceptual coherence to their eclectic ambitions: trying to say everything at once, they can end up saying nothing. The performances here sidestep that problem with a clear vision and purpose. Bridging the Gap finds an easy New Orleans groove, lays back in it expertly and effortlessly, and invites the listener along.

PAUL SANCHEZ

Farewell to Storyville

(Threadhead)

01 December 2009 — by John Swenson

reviews.paulsanchez The Threadhead Records phenomenon has reshaped the profile of the local recording industry, allowing veteran musicians to make albums that might otherwise not have happened, giving deserving new artists a jump start on their careers and even producing such delightful one shots as this year’s Christmas release. No musician has benefited from this breakthrough more than Paul Sanchez, who has established himself as an important solo artist since leaving Cowboy Mouth with no small help from the label. This is the third Threadhead-financed album Sanchez has made,
and each has been remarkably different.

Sanchez has been preparing to make Farewell to Storyville his whole career. It’s an impromptu,
mostly solo session in which Sanchez tells stories about each song before singing it, a standard folk music format that he’s perfectly suited to. When Sanchez left his New Orleans home for New York City in the 1980s to make his mark as a songwriter at the height of the fast folk and anti-folk movements that emerged out of the city’s post-punk club ethos, he played numerous gigs that resembled this session. In fact, one of the songs here, “Breaking My Back Up Front for You Baby” was written during that period. Toward the end of his run with Cowboy Mouth, he began playing acoustic house parties that also mirrored the shape of these performances. Folk music of this type is often autobiographical and there’s no shortage of such material here.

“Gonna play you some songs and tell you some stories,” he begins by way of introducing
“Knives to Grind,” a reminiscence from his childhood in the Irish Channel. “I Dreamed I Saw My Father,” a song with the feel of a Fred Neil ballad, is a bittersweet rumination on a man Sanchez says he really didn’t know. He explains how Lillian Boutté introduced him to “Farewell to Storyville,” a song about days gone by that Sanchez gives a languid reading with vocal support from Debbie Davis. The song is poignant in New Orleans today, a point Sanchez brings home by following it with “Falling with Nowhere to Land,” a post- Katrina lament. “It’s my story,” he says. “It’s our story, it’s anybody’s story that’s lived here in the last few years.”

Sanchez brightens the mood with the merry Spanish language tune “Mota Mota Mota,” a reflection of his time spent in Central America after the storm. Themes of displacement, grief and plain old mental maladjustment continue to float through the album, taking different shapes. He lightens the mood, though, with the comic “Walked in the Club with Twenties” and sends everyone home smiling with the dark humor of “Enjoy Yourself, It’s Later Than You Think.”

When a record like this works, you leave it feeling you’ve learned something intimate about the singer’s life, like a good conversation with a friend. Sanchez will have a lot of new friends after they listen to Farewell to Storyville.

VARIOUS ARTISTS

A Very Threadhead Holiday

(Threadhead)

01 December 2009 — by Alex Rawls

The artists that cut or are cutting albums for Threadhead Records came together to record A Very Threadhead Holiday, a charming, often irreverent Christmas album. The album succeeds in being seasonal (if not always holly and jolly), and it represents the musical personalities of those involved. Craig Klein’s “Christmas on My Mind” is a good-natured slice of classic New Orleans R&B, and the Kinky Tuscaderos’ Mary Lasseigne’s “All Jacked Up for the Holidays” is modern rock without being too hip to celebrate. Glen David Andrews leaps out of the speakers for “Santa Got High for Christmas,” and while it works, he could benefit from noticing how Susan Cowsill makes “The World at Christmas Time” hold up for over five minutes with a series of hooks dotted throughout the song. In Alex McMurray’s world, a drunken St. Nick passes out at the kitchen table after ruining Christmas in “Santa Let Me Call You a Cab.”

The album’s better balanced than that run-through might suggest. For every “Drunk This Christmas”— producer Paul Sanchez’ contribution—there’s John Boutté’s hushed and beautiful “Holding You This Christmas” and Debbie Davis’ playful “Hanging Up My Stockings.” Her cover of the Squirrel Nut Zippers’ Christmas song and husband Matt Perrine’s sousaphone version of “Carol of the Bells” are the only songs that weren’t written for the album, but they add a light-hearted, seasonal quality to the proceedings.

Burning Wood

PANIC OR BLISS? IT DEPENDS ON THE DAY. "Burning Wood" is a daily dose of truth. We will focus on music, and just about anything else that may wander into our streams of consciousness.

NEW FROM THREADHEAD RECORDS

2 excellent new releases from the fan-funded, New Orleans inspired Threadhead Records Label:

PAUL SANCHEZ- FAREWELL TO STORYVILLE

Singer-songwriter Sanchez' offers up more than most on this autobiographical musical journey, as he tells stories about the inspiration behind the music, and mesmerizes the listener with his heartbreaking voice and heartfelt words. Each song is an engrossing slice of life and Paul Sanchez welcomes you into his world with the warmth and grace one expects from the great people of the great city of New Orleans.

A VERY THREADHEAD HOLIDAY
The impressive Threadhead roster of artists gets their yule logs on and delivers one of the finest Christmas CDs in recent memory. Susan Cowsill, John Boutte, Paul Sanchez, Matt Perrine, Glen David Andrews, Shamarr Allen, Ingrid Lucia, Alex McMurray and more all contribute to this collection of mostly original tunes served up in a New Orleans style.

Where Y'at Magazine

John Boutte’ & Paul Sanchez
Stew Called New Orleans
Threadhead Records
This CD captures the true flavor, feel, and culture of real New Orleanians. John Boutte’ & Paul Sanchez make several references that only locals can understand on their latest collaboration together, Stew Called New Orleans. Filled with acoustic guitar strumming and trumpet playing by Leroy Jones, these classic song writers take listeners on a story filled adventure of tales through the city including an amusing ‘oops my drink smudged your digits on a napkin’ in “Two-five-one,” and “Call Me Superstitious” referring to a little voodoo. One of the most enjoyable tracks is the simple and soul searching honesty on “Hey God” featuring John Boutte’ on vocals, Paul Sanchez on guitar and Leroy Jones’ perfectly timed trumpet solo and accents. Sanchez croons out a bluesy version of “I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say,” and keeps the blues coming on “An Empty Chair.” The CD finishes with a classic “American Tune” by Paul Simon, completing this perfect local stew full of beautiful bites. Be sure to grab this one and enjoy throughout the warm summer days ahead as it screams NOLA love.
–Sheri McKee

Stereophile

Paul Sanchez

Exit To Mystery Street
Threadhead Records

By Robert Baird

This is as close as you as you can get - at least until the live album that seems inevitable - to hear what the Rolling Road Show sounds like.

This Sanchez solo record showcases his tuneful, solidly crafted songs. The latter work in an impressive variety of styles, from the Latin beat of "Adios San Pedro" to the personal, straight-from-heart folk rock number, "The Key".

On "Sedation" Sanchez obviously channels The Beatles, and in "Hoob-a-joob" the good time, second-line rhythms lead a NOLA street parade.

The short, regal melody of "Dancing With Fear" and the happy trad-jazz romp, "For The Rest Of My Life", complete this impressive songwriting showcase.

Offbeat Magazine

John Boutte and Paul Sanchez

Stew Called New Orleans
Threadhead Records
By Robert Baird

Friendship has its privileges, and in the case of singer John Boutte and Paul Sanchez, that means getting together and knocking out a record in a single session. What you hear on this well-played, extremely well-sung yet laid back session of singer-songwritery, blues jazz is not ambition so much as confidence in each other’s abilities and the easy grace that comes from music making in a town and in a “stew” of genres you love and understand.

An engaging, one-two meld of Sanchez’ songwriting and Boutte’s reedy, Sam Cooke-like voice, this varied collection waggles back and forth from “Two-Five-One, (a Sanchez send-up of the jazzman’s chords) through a not-done-to-death Jelly Roll Morton cover, “I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say,” to a beautifully realized version of Paul Simon’s “American Tune,” with—let’s git legit!—“harmonies by J.S. Bach.”

Both players outdo themselves in the singing department with Boutte delightfully wending his way through lyrical tangles like those in the Todd Duke/Paul Sanchez tune, “Don’t Smoke Around Suzie,” easily this set’s strongest number. He kills funny, angular couplets like, “You can huff glue ’til you’re comatose / eat fried chicken and Oreos you can clog your arteries ’til you stop your heart / but smokin’ ’round Suzie will tear you apart.”

For support the pair took no chances, booking top shelf trumpeter Leroy Jones, who began music as a teenager with Danny Barker and went on to star with Harry Connick, Jr.’s band. His horn’s dance with Boutte’s vocals on “Call Me Superstitious,” is a highlight. Boutte’s longtime guitar player Todd Duke and bassist Peter Harris complete the quintet.

The connection between Boutte and Sanchez is real. The piquant blend of their simpatico philosophies on life and music, so charmingly mixed in these 11 cuts, is the kind of splendid soul that speaks best for itself.

Burning Wood

TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2009

If It's Tuesday, It Must Be Street Date - 3/24/09

JOHN BOUTTE & PAUL SANCHEZ- STEW CALLED NEW ORLEANS
Currently available exclusively at the coolest record store in the world, the LOUISIANA MUSIC FACTORY, long time pals and New Orleans' treasures John Boutte and Paul Sanchez have released a record that is the pure embodiment of the great city it's named after. "Stew Called New Orleans" is a heartfelt, spontaneous, and jovial collection of original songs (as well as 2 choice covers by Paul Simon and Jelly Roll Morton) by two artists who have lived through the best and worst New Orleans has to offer. With the help of another frequent collaborator, the great Leroy Jones on trumpet, Boutte and Sanchez create an album that sounds like Sam Cooke, Dan Hicks, and Louis Armstrong sitting on a back porch, easing the day away. I love these guys!

Shamarr Allen

Box Who In?
Offbeat Magazine
By Aaron Lafont

“I’m like a diamond in the rough / and it’s tough ’cause the game keep calling my bluff,” Shamarr Allen quips during an impromptu rap breakdown over the rhythms of Dizzy Gillespie’s “A Night in Tunisia.” Yes, it’s true: Allen is certainly one of the brightest diamonds in the rough to emerge from the Crescent City in recent years. That was made apparent upon the release of the up-and-coming trumpeter’s solo gem, Meet Me on Frenchman Street.

Musically, Box Who In? is an exciting blend of funky rock, deep grooves and urban-soul fusion. “The World is a Ghetto” and the brass-rap jamboree “Party All Night” and at over an hour’s length is jam packed with fresh material such as the sweaty, soul burner “Spread My Wings” and the hip-hop stomper “Rock Da Mic.”

“Bad Habit,” a tune co-written by songsmith Paul Sanchez, with its stadium-sized riffs, gushing chorus and tricked-out trumpet solos best captures the idyllic vision of the young, urban rock-star.

Shamarr Allen and the Underdawgs

Box Who In?
Where Y'at Magazine

Shamarr Allen and the Underdawgs break out of the box and blend hip-hop, jazz, funk, and even some Latin rhythms together, producing an incredible musical collection entitled Box Who In? Allen begins with what sounds like screaming guitars licks, but it’s an effected trumpet and a memorable melody on “Bad Habit,”, written by Allen and New Orleans songwriter Paul Sanchez, which infuses the classic pattern of New Orleans rock and brass sound throughout. Allen does his own thing on “Crazy (‘bout New Orleans)” blending together an infusion of modern jazz resembling “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley. Last year at Jazz Fest, Allen did this song and had the crowd in an uproar; this version seems to be the same style and just as compelling for those of us that believe the same. He does a little scat and even some rap, showing his musical diversity and realm to jump straight into several genres without missing a beat. Allen also brings in some big name friends on Box Who In? with “A Night in Tunisia” featuring Soul Rebels, “Rock Da Mic” featuring local New Orleans drummer Stanton Moore, “Spread My Wings” featuring Yolonda Windsay, and Party All Night” featuring Left Side Brass Band. Allen’s style seems daring and willing to take chances as a young musician, which is so refreshing since he pushes that creative freedom of self-expression to another level. That self-expression can be heard in the lyrics of “The World Is A Ghetto” and “America” that heavily hits the rap beats and provokes true thought that most will agree with. Overall, Shamarr Allen and the Underdawgs have produced an incredible thought and theory provoking collection by blending the best sounds together infused with local flavor, which will most likely land Box Who In? as one of the top selling local CDs this summer.
–Sheri McKee

Andrews latest CD takes him back to his roots

By: Geraldine Wyckoff Contributing Writer

Posted: Tuesday, January 20, 2009 5:23 pm

GLEN DAVID ANDREWS: Walking Through Heaven's Gate

On his new album, Walking Through Heaven’s Gate, Glen Andrews proves once again that his soul remains deep into old school. The trombonist/vocalist went straight to his roots to record the gospel CD at the Zion Hill Baptist Church in the Tremé neighborhood where he grew up.

   Andrews’ choice of material for the disc—tunes like “Jesus on the Mainline, “Just a Closer Walk with Thee” and “Rock of Ages”—also speaks of his love of and dedication to tradition. With his powerful and emotion-packed voice backed by his band and the church choir led by the dynamic organ of Charisse Mason, “Walking Through Heaven’s Gate” becomes one big hallelujah.

The title tune, an original by Andrews and guitarist Paul Sanchez, fits naturally among the classics. It opens quietly with Andrews accompanied simply by the organ. It and then takes off swinging.

Andrews calls in several special guests vocalist John Boutte to sing a stirring rendition of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” On a rousing “We Will Walk Through the Streets of the City, Andrews vocals wonderfully interact with the trumpet his cousin, Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews. The album and the service end stirringly with the Black National Anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing” as poet Chuck Perkins recites a moving poem about families.

Whether he’s clowning at a second line or singing and testifying at the over 90-year-old Zion Hill Baptist Church, Glen Andrews, brings a similar, natural spirit. It’s the spirit of the neighborhood where he was born and nurtured. It’s the spirit of those who came before.

This article was originally published in the January 19, 2009 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper

Paul Sanchez: Exit to Mystery Street(Independent) “Sanchez has made the record of his life here, an album that shows off his writing skills, singing ability and overall musical versatility.”—reviewed May 2008 by John Swenson

John Boutte: Good Neighbor (Independent) “Boutte shows how inventive an interpreter he is.”—reviewed May 2008 by John Swenson

Best Traditional Jazz Album of 2008 OffbeatMusic Awards

Paul Sanchez Exit to Mystery Street

John Boutte Good Neighbor

By John Swenson

New Orleans native Paul Sanchez wanted to write and perform his own songs, so he went to New York City, where he became part of the “anti-folk” acoustic music scene in lower Manhattan during the 1980s. It was a short period of his career, but it defined what he wanted to do as a musician. The bulk of his career, though, has been in New Orleans, where he originally worked with the Backbeats, then after his return to the city in 1990 with Cowboy Mouth. Sanchez wrote several of Cowboy Mouth’s signature songs, including “Hurricane Party” and "Light It On Fire"

Meanwhile, Sanchez was working with one of New Orleans’ most creative and eccentric singer-songwriters, John Boutte, co-writing Boutte’s “At the Foot of Canal Street” and including Boutte in the mix on the last Cowboy Mouth album. These two new albums represent a turning point in Sanchez’ career, the first of his solo albums that really lives up to his aspirations as a songwriter and a truly collaborative effort with Boutte that finally gives this outstanding vocalist a setting that allows him to display the breadth of his talent.

Dave Pirner produced both records, and the Soul Asylum front man’s pop instincts took over magnificently. The genius of selecting Pirner is immediately apparent on “Door Poppin’,” a song co-written by Sanchez, Boutte and Vance Vaucresson which opens both albums. Sanchez comes off as an easy swinging roots rocker in his version, which provides a relaxed setting for his burnt orange vocal. Boutte, who possesses one of the greatest voices in American music, an instrument on a par with Aaron Neville’s, delivers a powerful performance on his album opener, which gets an uptempo, New Orleans street shuffle backing track.

The Sanchez record moves effortlessly through its paces, from the wonderful Matt Perrine tuba track lines on the title track to the vocal collaboration with Fredy Omar on “Adios San Pedro,” the glorious 1960s-style harmony with Susan Cowsill on “Sedation,” the terrific love song “For the Rest of My Life” and the pure pop songwriting of “Up to Me,” a song Nick Lowe would have been proud to write. “Johnny and his June,” written with his wife Shelly and Mary Lasseigne, shows Sanchez at his anecdotal best in a tribute to Johnny Cash and June Carter. Sanchez has made the record of his life here, an album that shows off his writing skills, singing ability and overall musical versatility. The record balances New Orleans street music, singer/songwriter introspection and rock ’n’ roll eclecticism with the grace of a cocktail waitress balancing a trayful of martinis at happy hour.

Boutte’s excellent album feels like it could be the prelude to even greater things.

As it stands, it’s a high quality combination of songwriting, featuring seven songs co-written by Boutte and Sanchez including a show-stopping remake of “At the Foot of Canal Street.” Boutte shows how inventive an interpreter he is on a cover of the Johnny Mercer/Harold Arlen classic “Accentuate the Positive,” the cover of Neil Young’s “Southern Man,” is so powerful in his live performances, Boutte summoned up hair raisingly righteous anger when he delivered this condemnation of slavery at Jazz Fest 2006, right before the notorious performance of “Louisiana 1927” that became a turning point in his career. The power of Boutte’s performance trumped Lynyrd Skynyrd’s answer song to Young, “Sweet Home Alabama,”.

The record also includes the lively romp of “Cutting Heads,” the Mexicano lilt of “Sisters” and Boutte’s own New Orleans R&B classic “Broke Down the Door/The Treme Song,” a nifty variation on “Hey Pocky Way” that you will be hearing constantly on WWOZ in the near future

Where Y'at Magazine

Exit to Mystery Street/Paul Sanchez

Threadhead Records

Paul Sanchez, one of New Orleans’ favorite songwriters and the organizer of the Rolling Road Show, is back with new songs and awesome compilations in his new release Exit to Mystery Street. Sanchez brings a voice and lyrics to this album that will make you want to tap your feet, bob your head, and swing your hips. Sanchez is joined by others such as John Boutte, Freddy Omar, Sonia Tetlow, Shamar Allen, Alex McMurray, Craig Klein, and Eric Bolivar of Bonerama. It is hard to decide whether the lyrics, instrumentals, or the whole package is the best part of this release, but in any case, it is a fun album with great energy and intensity. The album was produced back to back with John Boutte’s Good Neighbor and is a wonderful follow-up to Sanchez’s previous album, between friends. -Rebecca Brych

Offbeat Magazine

Paul Sanchez

Between Friends
PSM
by Alex Rawls

The concept of Paul Sanchez' new album is that others - his friends - sing his songs. His friends include include members of Hootie and the Blowfish, Mark Mullins, Theresa Andersson, John Boutte and more, and they all turn in strong performances that are right for the songs. When Susan Cowsill sings one of Sanchez’ kid songs, she hits the right tone—playful, but not cutesy. When Better Than Ezra’s Kevin Griffin sings “Someone Again,” the natural ache in his voice serves Sanchez’ song about dealing with the tension between the personal and public life of a musician.The CD is a tribute to Sanchez the songwriter. He has written songs others will gladly be a part of, find connections to, and over and over he turns phrases artfully. He should be proud to see his work treated so lovingly.

Hootie & The Blowfish
Looking for Lucky
Release Date: 2005 08 09
Label: Sneaky Long
Rating:

Hootie & the Blowfish's fifth studio effort is the first to feature extensive co-songwriting credits, as well as a few well-placed guest musicians. Hootie & the Blowfish sound as natural as ever on Looking for Lucky, their ear for melody intact through a slick 12-song set of rootsy pop with insightful nods to country, blues, and gospel. Rucker still sings in that rousing baritone, and the harmonies and acoustic strum tag it as Hootie. But the band's sound benefits from the slight makeover -- nothing fancy, just a slight tweak toward modernization. Elsewhere on Lucky, additional songwriting from folks like Matraca Berg and the Silos' Walter Salas-Humara brings more depth to the lyrics and arrangements. "Leaving", co-written by New Orleans songwriter Paul Sanchez, is a gently mischievous hybrid of progressive bluegrass and pop with New Grass Revival members Sam Bush and John Cowan guesting on mandolin, fiddle, and vocals. Other Looking for Lucky highlights include John Hobbs' organ on "Get Out of My Mind" adding punch to its already bustling chorus -- "Mind" also finds Rucker drinking alone again -- and the evocative "Killing Stone," the collaboration with Berg, which would fit nicely on a contemporary country album. Johnny Loftus, All Music Guide

Music Dish

Best Of The Batch: Paul Sanchez
Between Friends

By Matthew S. Robinson

Artist: Paul Sanchez
Title: Between Friends
Label: Independent
Website: www.paulsanchez.com

Having spent 17 seasons as the part of the suave, six-string support squad for N’awlins’ 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.

Offbeat magazine

John Boutté
Jambalaya

JOHN BOUTTE: Jambalaya

Jambalaya is John Boutté doing what he does best. In front of two distinct bands made up of friends and long-time musical associates, Boutté belts out or softly caresses themes that remain close to his heart. It is this sincerity and the jazz musician's sense of timing and improvisation that makes Boutté stand out in a crowd. There's a mix of new and previously released material such as the now familiar "Sisters" and "At the Foot of Canal Street." You can't go wrong with Bill Huntington on bass and Shannon Powell behind the drums. It's the one-two punch of the snare drum that gets things rollicking on "Two Bands Rollin'," which was written by Boutté and Paul Sanchez. The song speaks of New Orleans all the way. Lyrically Boutté sings of well-known folks like Doreen Ketchens and Tuba Fats blowing in Jackson Square and in the style of this city's old rhythm and blues masters, Boutté throws in a couple of "hey walla wallas." Reggie Houston is right in the game with some honkin' sax. Likewise, the "Treme Song" is equally full of local references. Another newly penned number,(with Paul Sanchez), is the solid soul groove of "Shake My Gate"-and, adds Boutté, the alternative way to get his attention is to, "scream up my alley." Boutté eases into this fine tune and cleverly inserts some Otis Redding-style phrasings. In an album of gospel, R&B and jazz, Ann Lenox's "Why" not only adds a new color to the disc but also shouts of Boutté's stylistic range. Lillian Boutté pops in for a duo with her brother on "Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight." Boutté is in capable and comfortable hands with the tasty pianists Loren Pickford and Al Bemiss, articulate guitarists Todd Duke and John Bagnato, drummer Joe Vinnitelli and percussionist Ruben Watts.

Gambit Weekly
Feb.8, 2000

Paul Sanchez -Sonoma Valley (PSM)

PAUL SANCHEZ: Sonoma Valley

by Kevin Moreau

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. 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.

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. "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 shows that Sanchez is only growing as a songwriter.

Off Beat Magazine
July 2000
Paul Sanchez -Sold Out at Carollton Station (PSM)
by Missy Heckscher

PAUL SANCHEZ: live at carrollton station

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 the 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 CM, but when you take away the Mouth'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.

Music: Jazzfest on disc, by Keith Spera

The Times-Picayune, April 30, 1997.

PAUL SANCHEZ: Loose Parts

Paul Sanchez, Loose Parts (Paul Sanchez Music). Such is the intimacy of Paul Sanchez's solo recordings that it's easy to imagine him right there, in your living room, serenading with his acoustic.

Before Sanchez joined the bombastic Cowboy Mouth as one of its two guitarists, he was an aspiring folkie with a wealth of slice-of-life ballads - mostly down-and-out, mostly autobiographical. He has continued to walk those same side alleys via three solo albums released during his tenure with the Mouth (if you ever come across a copy of his hard-to-find first gem of an album, "Wasted Lives and Bluegrass," snag it).

His new, self-released, mostly solo third outing, "Loose Parts," contains more of what made his first two discs so charming.

The sound throughout is clean and bright. His strings chime on the opener, "Little Boy," a charming portrait of arrested development: Here I am not young or old but somewhere in the middle/How could I live so much and know so little?/Somewhere deep inside of me there's secrets hid/confused and dislocated, I'm a grown-up kid.

The melancholic "St. Louis Cathedral," told from the perspective of a French Quarter homeless person, manages to be sympathetic to his plight without pandering or becoming sappy.

The bittersweet reminiscences and catalog of unfulfilled dreams of "Remember When" is typical of much of Sanchez's work. "I'm Kissing Her (But I'm Thinking of You)" is typical of his clever wordplay. "Hurricane Party" is Sanchez's flipside, the goofy sing-along - it documents a night of shenanigans with some good friends, a big storm and a lot of booze.

Throughout, a supporting cast of players accents Sanchez. He and Susan Cowsill team up for a lovely duet on "Let's Not Talk About Love," and her husband Peter Holsapple contributes accordion, mandolin and other instruments.

But it is Sanchez, as songwriter, guitarist, singer and voice, that makes this disc a winner.

Offbeat Magazine 1997

David Jones

Paul Sanchez breaks away for a simple, un-plugged session that makes up the package called Loose Parts, a folksy work produced by Peter Holsapple. The songs here are quiet ballads, each telling what seems to be a very personal story and Sanchez tells them well.

The duet with Susan Cowsill is positively enchanting, the two exchanging lead vocals easily and creating quiet harmonies without ever hurrying.

"Shotgun In my Soul" is the most electric of the cd's 14 cuts.

Loose Parts is like Sanchez came over to your house, pulled up a chair and played all his favorite tunes just for you.

gris-gris
vol. #6 September 1997
hear & now
Jeff English

Paul Sanchez - Loose Parts

On LOOSE PARTS, Paul Sanchez continues the same territory he's explored on his solo discs, JET BLACK and JEALOUS and WASTED LIVES and BLUEGRASS. Though the first two sound similar, the subject matter is drastically different. JEALOUS covered the dark side of relationships and lost love, while on BLUEGRASS,( after falling in love and getting married), the songs tended to showcase the happier side of life.

It's obvious that Sanchez is still happily married since much of LOOSE PARTS celebrates the relationship he shares with his wife, Rachelle. "Unwind Our Heart" is a beautiful ode to the challenges of marriage, " what I have to say, is to be prepared for life to want to tear us apart/ 'cause the world is gonna try to unwind our heart."A testament to what a stable relationship did for Sanchez, the title track celebrates his settling down. " she took all the loose parts shaking 'round inside of me/and fit 'em in her warm heart and her arms I'm finally free of loose parts."

"St. Louis Cathedral" explores a different direction and contains some of the disc's deeper, more poetic lyrics. "pigeons pecking pieces of a million broken dreams/fragile shattered china doll face eaten/and all the homeless have a home in Jesus on Dauphine/just behind a Laundromat he keeps them.""Making A Living" is one of the highlights of the disc. Using Peter Holsapple's understated accordion to accompany his voice, Sanchez delivers the admirable tale of a man who continues to work after two heart attacks. "I asked him, 'what the hell are you doing here/' He said, 'man I'm making a living and you can't call it living if you're living in fear."One of the loveliest songs Sanchez has ever recorded is the exquisite duet with the silky voiced Susan Cowsill, "Let's Not Talk About Love."

Shifting gears and tickling the funny bone, "Hurricane Party" is the humorous, (and true), story of a pre-tempest get together that began with poker, cigars and hooch. That turned ugly with cookies dipped in scotch, mud wrestling, Tootsie rolls and red ant bites all over his ass. "Shotgun In My Soul' touches on love on the road. "Top Of The World" recounts a trek across Europe, "let's go to bed early, wake up and be in love all day."

The Day (CT)

May 2, 1999

Jet Black and Jealous -Paul Sanchez
by Rick Koster

PAUL SANCHEZ: jet Black And Jealous

If one cuts Cowboy Mouth singer/guitarist/songwriter Paul Sanchez, he bleeds folkie. Long before the New Orleans band earned national fame as a rock band, Sanchez wandered the northeast as an acoustic-toting troubadour, hoping to follow in such footsteps as Bob Dylan's or Peter Case's.

Instead, Sanchez started the Mouth and began ascension of a different colored musical ladder. But that doesn't mean he's abandoned the singer/songwriter side of his personality. Over the years, Sanchez has re-released three fine indie label solo albums; "Jet Black and Jealous," "Wasted Lives and Bluegrass," and "Loose Parts" --mostly featuring his voice and guitar --and often opens CM concerts with solo acoustic sets.

"Jet Black and Jealous" was the first of Sanchez' records and, in the opinion of many, remains his finest. Unfortunately, it's been out of print for years --until now anyway. Freshly mixed by longtime cohort Mike Mayeux, "Jet Black and Jealous" is a CD as brilliant in it's narrative and melody as it is in its spare simplicity. Though it features original versions of three songs that have since become Mouth staples ("Louisiana Lowdown and Blue," My Little Blue One" and Light It OnFire"), "Jet Black" is otherwise stuffed with a cornucopian supply of wonderfully descriptive vignettes like the achingly erotic "Confidential Dance," the instrumental country ballad "Carl Calls Kristie," the wittily ironic eulogy for a relationship, "Real Good Time," and the literate title track.

Sanchez is a wizard with words and description, and his depictions of magical or lonely nights, or the quality of morning smells like newspapers and coffee take on an amazing poignant image in the context of his wise narratives.

Prescription to cure those follow-up blues

The News-Star on Sunday, Aug. 7, 1994.

Wasted Lives and Bluegrass, Paul Sanchez.

PAUL SANCHEZ: Wasted Lives & Bluegrass

Like Jet Black and Jealous, this record is an airy affair, done mostly solo on guitar. He ruminates on life and love, pain and passion. There's a lot of cigarette smoking and coffee drinking.

Yet, as with the previous LP, Sanchez just doesn't have a torrid album to offer.

This simple placidity of "Still in Love" and "I Dreamt" is his greatest strength. He's no folk protest singer in the mode of Seeger, Guthrie or Dylan; he's a lover not a fighter.

Strictly speaking, Sanchez has a voice that's a little too sweet for rock music too. It's almost Tim Pan Alley in its unforced naivity; almost showy in its easy world-weariness.

What Sanchez does to cure that on "Wasted Lives and Bluegrass" is bring in a harp player named John Herbert, which gives the proceedings a stern, honky tonk feel.

Those great tunes are not as bluesy as they are forcefully, happily hillbilly. They aren't however, the heart of the matter. (Neither, frankly, is the kind of funny "I Don't Wanna Rock 'n' Roll").

It's those narrative, springy tunes he does alone. Sanchez -- call him a neo-Sammy Cahn, a scruffy Johnny Mercer -- writes lyrics in the most air-tight, unadorned way.

And at his most effective, those tunes are like pennies from heaven.

Offbeat
May 1992
by Rick Coleman

Paul Sanchez, Jet Black and Jealous

PAUL SANCHEZ: jet Black And Jealous

Paul Sanchez is a talented songwriter, musician and singer. A veteran of new york's "anti-folk bohemia", Sanchez displays a remarkable lyrical gift in this all-acoustic collection of personal vignettes of loves and loves lost.

The Cowboy Mouth connection is apparent in two hard-edged songs that are performed in concert by the group-'Louisiana Lowdown and Blue' and 'Light it on Fire'.

'Picture of You Wearing Bones' and 'Jet Black and Jealous' resemble classic folk polemics. Accompanied by only a guitar, Sanchez croons like a Spanish balladeer in 'Maria' and breathes softly through the pop-jazz ballad 'In My Dreams'. but Sanchez's lyrics are equally powerful.

His fine, high tenor reaches for edgy emotions as he sings about waking up in panic in a strange bed, choking on conversations, fans blowing cat hair, and spilling chili in the French quarter-everyday things that trigger purple emotions, but at the same time, stress the impermanence of experience that makes memories worth remembering."I will tell you a story", sings Sanchez in a remarkable tribute to his father, "and if it's not told it will disappear."

"...My mom and daddy met when they were still 18/moved into the city and had a family/he worked the river every day and every night/came home to my mother and this was their life.

Weekends they'd dance on thee river boats/walk to save a nickel to buy themselves a coke/they were young it was 1923/thirty years before they would get to me

He was a gambler and he was a drinker/but every single sunday no matter what you think/he'd be in church he never missed a Sunday/me i haven't been since he passed away.

My father passed away when he waas very young/eleven children he and my mother they had/he'd been an orphan and all he ever wanted was a family... when he died it was all he had."

"The Record Exchange Music Monitor" October 1992

Jet Black and Jealous Rick Cornell

Just when you think no one could have worse luck with women, along comes Paul Sanchez.

Judging by these 13 short songs, women are either walking Ginsu knives ("And your tongue, to my surprise, was a razor in disguise" and, from the title track, "But you beat my arms with your slashing tongue") or they just ain't around ("Another night alone in bed/I wait in vain to hear the door" and "When I woke up I was divorced"). Lucky for him, Paul has something that most of us can't fall back on -- an ingratiating singing voice and a storyteller's ease.

The Louisiana-born Sanchez reminds me of a folkier Peter Himmelman or maybe Luka Bloom, with New Orleans often taking the place of Bloom's Ireland or New York City (both men's home away from home). He uses a cranked up, chunky, Bloom like acoustic guitar to great success on "Confidential Dance" and the insistent "Maria."

Other standouts are the bitter "Picture Of You Wearing Bones" and "Used To Be Crazy," the closest the album has to a rocker and a song that would fit in nicely on a Marshall Crenshaw album. Anybody who puts together an opening line like "I saw Jesus working somewhere in Cincinnati/Looking like a frind of mine a little around the eyes" is worth keeping track of.

"Dirty Linen" 1992

Album Review of Jet Black and Jealous by Stephen A. Ide

Paul Sanchez is a rocker whose percussive acoustic guitar is effective as a backdrop to personal, vivid songs about experiencing life one relationship at a time. At times it's an attractive picture, other times not. When not singing of old lovers, infatuation and jealousy, Sanchez relays a facet of his family life. It's Sanchez unplugged, but the power still flows.

In the lead-off song about onetime love affairs, "Confidential Dance," his images sizzle from the first lines: "I reached my hand under her black sweater / Buried my face deep in her blond hair." He doesn't get much more graphic than that, but that's only because the relationships end before they can get started. Sanchez was raised in New Orleans, so it follows that influences of that city would emerge in the rocking "Louisiana Lowdown and Blue," which conjures images of surviving a drunken binge and trying to put it all behind him. Then in more tender moments, Sanchez sings about passing on family history before family members die in "Tell You a Story."

This album has Sanchez's elastic tenor vocals winding around his acoustic guitar, though there's a smattering of lead guitar, harmonica and a lovely instrumental ("Carl Calls Kristie") that features Sanchez's lead acoustic guitar over a backdrop of rhythm guitar, piano and snare drums.

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