Catching Up with New Orleans Based Gal Holiday and The Honky Tonk Revue

For fans of Louisiana music, whether it be jazz, country, americana, swing, zydeco, cajun, or blues, and living in Southern California, we are blessed with great festivals and music clubs, that are constantly booking touring Louisiana based bands.  Thus, when "Where's Andrew" from National Geographic Traveler posted on his twitter account in November 2011 that he had just witnessed the best music in the New Orleans French Quarter, I was very curious and intrigued.  This was Gal Holiday and the Honky Tonk Revue fronted by Vanessa Niemann playing old-time countrified swing.  I found the band's website and YouTube videos, and saw that they had taken up a music residency in Los Angeles, splitting their time in New Orleans, and noted that in December 2011, they were doing some very late night performances at Taix in Echo Park.  I was planning on seeing one of those performances, but I was just too tired to make the late night trek to Echo Park, but then I got lucky, and Gal Holiday and the Honky Tonk Revue got booked for Harvelle's in Long Beach.  Playing Harville's under the Congregation Ale House was like being booked into a roaring 20's speak-easy.

I was mesmerized hearing and seeing Gal Holiday perform country swing at Harvelle's, and at times, it was like hearing Patsy Cline channeling Wanda Jackson's rockabilly, and below are the pictures from that night.  Her small space dance moves on stage became hyptnotic, and later learned, they were a trademark of her performances.

The Revivalists Return to L.A. to Play the Roxy on February 20th

For those who missed the New Orleans based The Revivalists during their 2012 Los Angeles area visits to Club Nokia and The Mint, there is another chance to see them live as they headline at The Roxy Theatre on Sunset Blvd on Wednesday night, February 20,2013.  You can read my prior ExperienceLA blog post on The Revivalists here.  Tickets are still available and can be purchased from the Roxy website link for $12.50.  They will be appearing with four other bands, and so I am not sure exactly when The Revivalists will come on stage.  Doors open at 7:15 pm.  Not previously shared on my last ExperienceLA blog post was my own YouTube video of The Revivalists playing in the New Orleans area which is embedded below, and if trouble viewing is linked here.

 

Amanda Shaw to Play Ventura Oysterfest on October 13

In late August 2012 right before Hurricane Isaac hit Louisiana, I discovered Amanda Shaw and The Cute Guys at the New Orleans Slobsterfest.  Amanda Shaw who can be described as a Cajun rocker was in the middle of a national tour, and made a detour to play before a home crowd at the Slobsterfest in Metairie, just north of New Orleans near Louis Armstrong airport.  Amanda who recently turned 21 has been performing for over ten years, and is well known locally in New Orleans.  In fact, if one is in New Orleans and Louisiana in October, you can catch her at several Lousiana festivals, and then in San Francisco on October 7 at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival.  But for Southern California, her only appearance this Fall is up in Ventura on Saturday October 13, 2012 at the first annual Ventura Oysterfest, although she has played in the Los Angeles area earlier this year.