Music's always been a way of life for these southern boys, writes Graham Reid.
C.C. Adcock has packed it into his 34 years, from playing in bands around his hometown of Lafayette in southern Louisiana in his teens to making a glam-metal noise in LA. Then backing the late Bo Diddley and Zydeco legend Clifton Chenier. And hanging out with the undead ...
Yes, these days Adcock's music is behind vampire drama True Blood conjuring up dark doings in bayou country. He laughs about how he thought he'd check out the series to make sure it wasn't "shameful".
"But it was so camp and perverse I thought, 'It's kinda like home.' It was completely blown out the way people down here like it. We take a pork chop, stuff it with more pork, put a crab on top stuffed with crawfish, and have a cream reduction sauce with shrimp in it. We like to overdo things down here - you can look at our waistlines and tell.
"But I was just in north Louisiana, where [True Blood] is supposed to take place, in this old bar and thought, 'That show ain't that far off.'
"So I've been happy to create music for it, I like to go over the top, too. Lil' Band o' Gold is a ridiculous idea in some ways."
But while the group Lil' Band o' Gold - a Louisiana swamp-pop supergroup delivering a gumbo of rock 'n' roll, Cajun, swamp rock, blues and southern soul - may be a ridiculous idea, it has also been the subject of a documentary (The Promised Land), and has seen them hailed by Marianne Faithfull (on whose new album Adcock is working), Nick Lowe, and audiences at SXSW and Byron Bay in Australia. Now they are on their way here.
Adcock and accordion player Steve Riley informally pulled together what became Lil' Band o' Gold in the late 90s to jam and play local dances: "When we started it was to play songs we loved, and you can't get any better than real - the real guys who sang on the records that you dig."
In their collective backgrounds the members have played with everyone from Etta James, Joe Cocker and Lightnin' Slim to Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Laurie Anderson and Paul Simon. And they really are superstars in the South.
"We had regional radio and back in the day Warren Storm got played next to Rod Stewart. From the beginning of rock 'n' roll here DJs played regional stuff and broke records that became worldwide hits. A kid makes a record in a local shop and brings it in to the station - just like Elvis with Sam Phillips - and they play it. Next thing the genie is out of the bottle. We grew up with that."
What kids in Louisiana also grow up with is a respect for local zydeco, Cajun, soulful ballads and rock 'n' roll.
"Music's a way of life down here, you don't have to be a 'professional' to play. Family members, butchers, bus drivers, uncles - everyone plays.
"So you have these family gatherings or festivals and guys who do a job during the week play on weekends in these great bands, and they've made records.
"So as a kid you want to impress the grown-ups and you'd have uncles or friends of your parents who you thought were cool and they'd break out a guitar - and if you could get in on that you could stay up a little later, just hang out and be one of the grown-ups. It starts there.
"It also has a lot to do with so many of the old cats are just bad-ass. At a young age you're struck by that. You don't wake up and think they are old fogies, they can still kick ass and drink and party. That's what makes our culture, it all comes from these people."
LOWDOWN
Who: Lil' Band o' Gold, southern supergroup
Where: San Francisco Bath House, Wgtn, Sep 25; Kings Arms, Auckland, Sep 26
- TimeOut
