On the road with Gill Landry this month

Brad Landry, Me, Gill Landry

It has become a tradition at Christmas time, for Gill Landry, his brother Brad, our friend Mark Robertson, and I to get together in Lake Charles and track Gill’s music ideas. Gill is currently working on material for an eventual follow up CD to his debut CD “The Ballad of Lawless Soirez.” We all hail from Lake Charles, LA, and nowadays the only time we are all there is at Christmas, so we get together at Lake Charles Music and record Gill’s songs. Gill then has something more tangible upon which he can tweak, revise, and add to his ideas in preparation of recording his final product with NY or Nashville session musicians. It gives us a chance to jam and hang out, and we have a lot of fun. Gill has spent the majority of his music career as a solo artist, and I can’t even begin to explain his history of traveling by any means possible, busking in the streets of U.S. town after U.S. town. Gill took one of the hardest routes as a working musician. It’s fascinating, and he shares dark glimpses of his journeys through his songs. I am proud to be able to be a part of his creative process no matter how small a role I play.

Gill Landry

Gill’s path has led him to becoming slide guitarist and backing vocals for Blue Grass/Americana giants, Old Crow Medicine Show. Gill spends the majority of his year touring the world with them, so he has little time to work on his solo career. When Christmas came around again last year, I got a call from Brad. I thought he called to get the gang together again, but much to my surprise, he was calling to ask me about touring with Gill to support the Ballad CD. I had to turn the idea down initially, but somehow the stars aligned just right for the tour, and I happen to be on break from Tab duties. Sweet!

Miles Weeks and Me playing for Wendy Colonna

We enlisted the help of fellow Baton Rouge musician Miles Weeks. Brad (again, Gill’s brother, who has vast experience in behind the scenes music business stuff) saw Miles play with me as we backed Austin artist (and Lake Charles native) Wendy Colonna. Brad was impressed and asked if Miles could join us. Miles was all in. In lieu of recording this Christmas with the boys, Miles, Gill, and I got together to jam and see if we had the kinda of vibe Gill wanted to take on the road with him. We did in fact have the vibe, so we are on the tour from March 3rd in Baton Rouge, LA to March 13th in Petaluma, CA.

Left, Tab Flyer Right, Brandi Flyer at The Melting Point in Athens, GA

We’re opening up for Brandi Carlile Band for all of the dates (on my tour schedule page), and I thought it was cool that when I played with Tab at The Melting Point in Athens, GA, I noticed Tab’s flyer right next to Brandi’s flyer. It was like the present and future were on display for me right up there on the wall of this club. Brandi Carlile has become one of my all time favorite artists over the years, and it is an honor to be able to tour with her. If you have not heard her music, you MUST. This is going to be a great tour. No tour bus this time, just a few dudes in a van driving across country for little pay and great music. It will be a comforting adventure, then back to the Tab team on March 18th as we leave for our mid-west tour, which I also can’t wait for since we are getting tighter and tighter every gig with Tab and Corey. MW is going to kick butt!

If you live in Baton Rouge, please come out to our pre-Brandi tour show at Chelsea’s Cafe where Gill will perform from 7pm-9pm with special guest Denton Hatcher. $7 at the door. If you don’t live in BR, but live between New Orleans and Los Angeles, check out the dates and see if you can make it out to a BCB/Gill Landry show!

back in da south

Thank God. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Northeast. I really do. I love the people. I love the food (clam chowder rules!) I love the mountain views from the bus as we move into the South (which being from the deep south, it has taken time to soak in how far north “The South” goes). I love NYC! What I HATE is the cold, and what I very much dislike is the snow. Being in Atlanta brings me one step closer to warm weather. That’s all I’m sayin’. Speaking of people, I wish I could have captured our Salisbury, MA gig on video. What a banging crowd. Many of these people have seen Tab dozens of times and know what his shows are all about, so they hoop and holler and heckle the crap out of him. It is in those moments where Tab’s personality and sense of humor take complete control over the situation and I almost crack a rib laughing throughout the night. It’s more like a party with 600 of Tab’s closest friends than a gig. Our shows are so incredibly different from night to night and town to town. It keeps it interesting. Geez, I didn’t say ANYTHING about the Saints in my last blog. WHO DAT!! A long time Lafayette resident who now lives in Durham, NC (Mel Melton) heard we had no place to watch the Superbowl and opened his restaurant/bar for us. We had reserved seats at the bar, free oysters and gumbo, and free beer. AND WE WON!!!! WE WON!!! WEEE WOOONNN!!! It was the next best thing to being home, and the gumbo was real Louisiana gumbo. Well, let me clarify, it was real South Louisiana gumbo. Any Louisiana resident who travels I-10 and I-49 regularly can tell you that LA gumbo is not all the same. Gumbo from Winnfield or Natchitoches tastes nothing like gumbo from Lake Charles or Lafayette. Below I-10 the roux and vegetables “holy trinity” do not vary much (as they should not), only the meat and seafood ingredients vary (as they should) because who wants chicken and sausage every night (besides me). NorthLA gumbo is a little thicker and the roux isn’t as dark, and to my dismay there is regularly too much Okra which makes for a slimy texture. Uck. (But I still eat it.) And, if you’ve only had gumbo in the French Quarter, then you haven’t eaten the best gumbo LA has to offer. Not sayin’ that New Orleans doesn’t have good gumbo, just sayin’ that you gotta seek it out there, whereas in most other parts of SouthLA, any mom and pop restaurant gumbo is just as satisfying as the gumbo my wife makes at home. In my opinion the best LA gumbo comes from Lafayette and Lake Charles (Seafood Palace oh my God!!!), but I’m biased having grown up in SWLA. My favorite is a dark, bitter, slightly thick roux with chicken and sausage (andouille or deer) that has a heat that makes your coke or beer literally taste different when your washing it down. Second favorite is seafood with lump crab meat dumped in last to maintain it’s lumpiness. I’m starving. I eat gumbo at every place around the country that offers it. The guys ask me why I’m wasting my time, but I see it as research. I have yet to eat a real gumbo in any other state but Louisiana, with one exception last week at Mojo’s. Sorry, I shouldn’t have brought up gumbo. I take it very seriously. I have gumbo waiting for me in the freezer at home right now. I could eat it every day of my life. Don’t believe me? Ask my wife. I love gumbo so much, I’ve already deleted about 200 words from my word count that continued on about gumbo and I still feel like I’ve talked to long about it even with the revisions. Point is, Mel’s restaurant Papa Mojo’s in Durham NC has great gumbo, so go there and eat it if you’re in Durham. Ok, now this post is too long because of gumbo. Here are a few pics from Salisbury, MA, NYC, and Durham, NC. Enjoy!

Mel Melton's Place

Thanks Mel!

Holy crap kickoff!

Victory Cigars

View from the greenroom, Salisbury, MA.

Jeffro and Doug. Together again in NYC

my new hat and our snow day

My new hat:

I loves me new hat!

And on to our snow day… So, Tuesday we played in Roanoke, VA (where I got my new hat) at Kirk Avenue Music Hall. Kirk Avenue is a tiny little place, seating maybe around 120 or so. The powers that be hooked us up with two little studio style apartments in downtown Roanoke, and did not skimp on complimentary food and drink. It was a thoroughly pleasant experience all around, EVEN the snow, which if you have read any of my blogs on my old blog site (at http://www.brmusicstudios.com), you will know that I am not fond of snow. Snow brings me to this short video we created when our gig got cancelled in Annapolis, MD last night, and we had to stop 9 or so hours short of our trek to Massachusetts due to bad weather. So here is our snow day vid.

AND FOR YE READERS OF MY BLOG, A BONUS VIDEO FILMED OVER OUR CRUISES BUT EDITED YESTERDAY!

I’m still not finished constructing this site. I’ll have more pages that focus on my business (Baton Rouge Music Studios), the current band I’m touring with (Tab Benoit), the artist that I am neglecting musically at the moment (I’m normally the drummer/back up singer) but am working hard at managing him producing his new CD from the road (Denton Hatcher), the band that I LOVE recording with and who, I am confident, will be a band to reckon with in 2010 with Mark Ford appearing on their lastest album (Flame Shark), and much more. So keep visiting!

So much to post on this new site

Deep thought in a hotel room in Athens, GA

2/4/10 — Hmmmmm….where to begin? Certainly not at the very beginning. There’s just too much to post if I did that. I guess I’ll begin with the fall 2009 school year. In August, I called my friend Rueben, Tab Benoit’s manager, to talk to him about some exciting things on my plate. We talked about my most recent recording sessions in Chicago, and some touring opportunities that I have been working on. Rueben has always known me as a school teacher and business owner, and as many conversations as we’ve had about life stuff, he never realized that my ultimate goal in my young adult life has been to be a full time touring musician. As we talked, Rueben tried to play devil’s advocate by describing all the pitfalls and challenges that come with being a touring musician. I told him that I welcome those pitfalls and challenges because pitfalls and challenges come with any path chosen in one’s life and the path I would choose if I had the option would be the path of a professional musician at the highest level. I’ve been working since 1993 to put myself in the position of getting into a touring band. I’ve been successful in bits and pieces over the years, but never to the point I had hoped for by this time my life. After hearing this, Rueben told me there was a drummer opening with Tab and offered it to me. So, there it was, the opportunity I had worked so hard for all these years, and before I had hung up the phone, I was 90% committed, save 10% to talk to Courtney about it and to talk to the school about it. None of that 10% involved making a decision to do it. That decision was made when I was a teenager. So I resigned from my teaching position at The Dunham School and have spent the past 5 months as Tab’s touring drummer. Here are a few pics. Videos to follow soon.

Tab's Tour Bus

Voice of The Wetlands Show

Me and Cyril Neville

Christian Mock and me in Tacoma, WA

Adam Ross and Mike Zito in Curacao

Better early than never!

Hey, Doug Gay here. Don’t worry. I know I look annoyed with you in this picture, but I’m only messin’ with ya. How could I be annoyed with such a cool person?

Anyhoo, welcome to my new site! You’re a little early, but it’s cool. Hang around and watch me build if you want! Or come back by in a few days to see all of my pages, posts, pics, and vids. Then visit once a week to check out my blogs if you want! I’m going to try to make them entertaining and sometimes educational. If you ever have any questions about what life is like on the road or in the studio, or questions about drumming, please ask. I would love to post some video lessons when I have time, so just shoot me a topic, and I’ll put one together, no sweat.

I’m using this site to document my adventures as a touring and session drummer and as owner of my beloved school of music Baton Rouge Music Studios. I’ll probably throw some friends and family stuff in there too. And you can bet I’ll be putting up my bio, discography, and other professional credits. Hope you enjoy! If not, don’t tell me. I’m sensitive. 🙂