Le Grand Bleu
Louisiana Red Hot Records
Though it may seem that way initially, rest assured that Lafayette's
Cajun/alt-country Bluerunners are no different than the kindred
spirits they follow. In the 30's, when the sounds of country
and western swing were broadcast across the airwaves, Cajuns
adopted them as their own. Decades later, rock-n-roll was embraced
as a native son, which also yielded several waves of influence.
A similar thing happened to the Bluerunners when they bumped
into alt-country bands Uncle Tupelo and Blue Mountain during
their frequent Oxford, MS gigs. Since then, they have astutely
fused cow punk stylings such as twangy textures, fuzzed-back
guitars and a scruffy attitude with a heartfelt Cajun cultural
taproot.
While a handful of songs ("On and On," "Burn
Up The Night") are English sung, they're not devoid of
any Cajun identity, especially the latter featuring Adrian Huval's
adaptive accordion playing. A couple more ("Cankton,"
"Home") would find themselves comfortable in any Americana
setting. The other seven French morsels lyrically resemble the
short, to-the-meat stanzas sung by the ancients and are authentic
enough to fit in any era. Some, like the rock blitzkrieg of
"Grand Chenier" and the tranquil "Le Grand Bleu,"
are the French counterpart of their alt-country cousins, traditional
in lyrics but utilizing the 'No Depression' style of arrangement.
The band's gritty tenor Mark Meaux crafts solid songs in both
genres and as a result, the unparalleled combination finds them
forging new trails altogether.
Yet, the Cajun taproot burrows deep and there is plenty of swirling
fais-do-do fare here with "Vien Donc," Huval's "Tout
Ca Qui Reste" and Moise Robin's "Happy Rabbit."
Fiddler Michael Doucet and slide guitarist Sonny Landreth guest
on two tracks while Runner alumni Steve LeBlanc plays either
fiddle and/or drums on all tracks. Instead of being back porch
music, this is music hammered out in the garage, with the Blue
Runners being the quintessential Cajun garage band. Just don't
step on that rake.
Le Grand Bleu
Gambit Weekly
 | In 1999, Bluerunners Mark Meaux was living between two fields
nestled in the solitude of Arnaudville, taking stock of the
band he’d been playing with for 14 years. “We seemed
to be at a standstill,” says Meaux by phone, between preparations
for a California tour. “We didn’t have a booking
agent, and didn’t play at all. After [1997’s] To
the Country, I was out of music. I assumed we’d make another
record, and I started writing but we didn’t have any plans.”
It was oddly true to form for the Bluerunners, who are accustomed
to facing musical and professional crossroads. They first shook
up the conservative south Louisiana music scene in the ‘80s
by pumping up accordion and froittoir-driven rhythms with a
punk and rock-n-roll |
aesthetic (landing a major-label deal with
Island Records for their 1991 debut), and they’ve been
defying expectations ever since. They lost their Island deal
and then sent many fans running with their 1994 sophomore album,
Chateau Chuck, by washing the songs in crushing distortion.
(“A fiasco,” say Meaux. “People either loved
it or hated it.”) To the Country was another left turn,
as the band skirted traditional waters with a fiddle-centric
acoustic sound that also experimented with R&B saxophone
colorings.
In the introspective period in Arnaudville that followed, Meaux
composed the blueprints for the Bluerunners’ superb new
CD, Le Grand Bleu - a mature, often bittersweet song cycle that
takes its cue from two seminal recent albums.
“After our last record, then [Lucinda Williams’]
Car Wheels on a Gravel Road came out, and I listened to that
a lot, and also [Bob Dylan’s] Time Out of Mind,”
says Meaux. “Those were reflective records, and that’s
just the way I was feeling, too.”
It’s a mood reflected not only in the lyrics of “Cankton”
and “Burn Up the Night,” but the seasoned playing
of the band, which now sounds like a rootsy barroom-baptized
ensemble equally capable of rave-ups and poignant balladry.
Meaux’s edgy and proud guitar leads have dynamic musical
foils in the bluesy accompaniment of accordionist Adrian Huval
and the silvery lines of lap steel guitarist Will Golden, and
their interwoven dialogue turns “On and On” and
“Home” into melodic rock with twinges of country
pathos. Steve LeBlanc’s fiddle work evokes further thoughts
of Dylan, calling to mind the gypsy-flavored instrumentalism
on Dylan’s 1975 album, Desire.
But with the inclusion of songs like the two-step “Happy
Rabbit” (sung in French) and the waltz of “Tout
ca qui Reste,” the Bluerunners are also tapping something
deeper, and moving beyond comparisons and labels. After more
than a decade, the band appears to have embraced its Louisiana
heritage, on its own terms.
“It was more organic approach with this album, and instead
of fighting all the parameters, we embraced the parameters,”
says Meaux. “That was real settling to my writing, because
I didn’t have to come up with weird time signatures, or
songs that sounded kind of like a two-step or a waltz or zydeco.
“To [then drummer] Steve [LeBlanc]’s credit, he
picked up the fiddle and went into traditional music, and I
followed him. Previously, I was the idea guy, and Adrian did
the nuts and bolts of buying an accordion and playing it, and
going back and learning some of the traditional numbers and
getting a deeper appreciation of them. But it became real important
to express ourselves in that context. “It’s pretty
awesome when you get tapped into that history,” he says,
his voice reverent with enthusiasm. “There’s so
much great music, and we feel connected to it in a real strong
way. We’re not a virtuoso band by any means, but the spirit
is what we try and adhere to.”
Making that connection also opened the door for two special
guests on Le Grand Bleu-Beausoleil’s Michael Doucet and
Breaux Bridge slide guitar wizard Sonny Landreth. The pair rev
up the title track and “Grand Chenier,” and Meaux
is still shaking his head at their performances - which didn’t
work out quite as planned, but inspired sparks nonetheless.
“We just wanted a chance to get everyone in a room and
throw it down, but schedules didn’t permit it. So we laid
our tracks down and got a good groove and everything, and Michael
came in and was doing his part on “Grand Chenier,”
and Sonny just happened to call right then. When he heard what
was happening he said, ‘I want to get in on some of that.’
So when Sonny came in, he totally laid back until there was
a space for him. Both of them were just so incredible, it ended
up sounding like this great jam. You don’t want to take
it for granted, but I can’t see making another album without
these guys on it.”
If Meaux and the Bluerunners keep making albums like Le Grand
Bleu, then one day they just might be mentioned in the same
breath as Beausoleil and Sonny Landreth. Like their elder peers,
the Bluerunners are now moving without forgetting the past,
and showing that the spirits of Dennis McGee and Nirvana, Canray
Fontenot and Neil Young are on equal footing. Whether this has
any effect on their career remains to be seen.
“It’s amazing how anonymous we’ve managed
to stay, and it’s not intentional,” he says. “The
traditional side has its stalwarts, and we don’t really
fit roots-rock, so we’ve always fallen somewhere to the
side.”
Judging from some recent bookings, the Bluerunners might have
found a new avenue past those crossroads. “Now, we’re
starting to play a lot more dances,” says Meaux. “We’re
over the moon when we get asked to play a Cajun or zydeco dance.”
To The Country
FAME: Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange
Music fans who are enamored of, yet slightly bored with, alternative-country should investigate The Bluerunners' To The Country. A band that wants to rock-n-roll while retaining elements of traditional music is the very definition of alternative-country; but Southern Louisiana's The Bluerunners fling a substantial dash of cayenne into the musical gumbo. Witness Steve LeBlanc's Au Bout Du Chemin, a tune from so far back in the bayou, you can almost hear the crawfish heads being sucked. This gem is sandwiched between two standout tracks by Mark Meaux. The Longest Day is constructed from acoustic guitar and mandolin, with Willie Golden's lap steel and LeBlanc's fiddle winding in and out of lyrics like "In the city built under the sea/you come to know how low you'll go." Landslide is a bluesy rocker that was born to be an encore. Most of the tracks here are acoustic-based, leaving plenty of room for Meaux's mandolin, Leblanc's accordion and fiddle, and the saxes of Adrian Huval and Willie Golden. This combination delivers a potent, unique sound.
Although Mark Meaux wrote most of their 1991 debut, Steve LeBlanc has developed into a solid songwriter, and this luxury gives the band the musical bandwidth that Uncle Tupelo enjoyed prior to their dissolution into Son Volt and Wilco. LeBlanc's "Curb Service" reminds us of the past ("it's faded from the rear view/we'll never see those sights again") while telling us to look ahead ("let it go and wish it well"). Then Meaux's swamp-pop Sound of Love drops us solidly into the present: "One more time to get it right/a thousand times to die tonight."
The tunes on To the Country range from the traditional Cajun tune (Ossun 2 Step), to jittery party tunes (Stringbean), to darker, subtly textured tracks (Sound of Love and The Longest Day). With this release, The Bluerunners have matured from a generic "loud-n-fast rock band with accordion" to a group with a distinct, vivid style, rooted in the past, and pointed toward the future.
To The Country
Rounder Records
With the release of their Rounder Records CD To The Country,
the Louisiana roots musicians known as the Bluerunners have
added an acoustic fiddle-based chapter to their guitar-and-accordion
driven repertoire. “The deeper we go into the culture,
the more we find our own sound,” explains guitarist and
vocalist Mark Meaux. He and fellow founding member Steve LeBlanc
started the group a decade ago inspired by artists ranging from
Los Lobos, The Band and The Replacements to Clifton Chenier,
Bob Dylan and the Balfa Brothers. The ensemble’s garage
powered eponymous debut illuminated a path beyond the Cajun
and Zydeco dancehall settings of their live shows.
Since then, the Bluerunners have matured into one of the brightest
lights on the South Louisiana scene and developed a hard-rocking
sound that even diehard traditional music fans will appreciate.
Mark’s soulful, high voice recalls the old Cajun style,
even on the rockers, while Steve’s salt-of-the-earth approach
brings an immediacy to his songs, mostly sung in French.
A creative mixture of Americana & Cajun roots-rock rhythms,
the group’s current sound is as original as it is powerful.
“If there is a new direction,” relates LeBlanc about
their latest Rounder offering, “it’s not really
letting go of anything we did before… I think we’re
trying to write songs that can remain in the Cajun or Zydeco
genre. And if it’s rock, it’s nice if it marries
the genres together.
Longtime Rounder producer Scott Billington co-produced the record
with the band. “It was the songs that grabbed me in the
first place,” he said. “We went for kind of a raw
and organic sound, but it’s not really any less produced
than any of the other stuff we do.” Inspired by elder
role models like Creole fiddler Canray Fontenot and Country
legend Johnny Cash, the Bluerunners continue to draw from rich
sources. Underscoring that point, Meaux mentioned “I Can’t
Be Wrong,” a favorite Clifton Chenier tune from Bogalusa
Boogie. “You think there can’t be any more original
12-bar blues songs,” he explained. “And yet you
come across something like that - the groove and the lyrics
are just incredible. It’s not about expanding the genre
or changing the music, it’s about finding songs that work.”
Acadiananow.com
“We’re all ready,” says Bluerunners bandleader
Mark Meaux, who formed the group in 1988 with multi-instrumentalist
Steve LeBlanc. “Back when we were on Island (a record
company), we were playing some of the same shows we’re
doing now, but we were so young. I don’t think we could
really appreciate it or were always up for it. Now, enough time
has passed and we’ve played enough gigs. We’re ready.”
After 13 years in the business and almost as many records labels,
The Bluerunners seem primed for another round in the ring. Their
new album, Le Grand Bleu, to be released in stores April 10,
finds them in fine form, playing a batch of original songs with
such conviction and authority you’d swear they were timeworn
Cajun standards. Meaux’s voice is part young Bob Dylan
and part “Cheese” Read, straining and scraping a
little, mixing lilt with twang. The one cover tune on the album,
Moise Robin’s “Happy Rabbit,” shows them equally
in command of straight-forward Cajun dancehall stomp, with Adrian
Huval’s coherent, melodic accordion playing driving the
song with relaxed but powerful momentum. Huval’s original
songs, another pleasant surprise on Le Grand Bleu, are fit to
be absorbed directly into the Cajun repertoire, so faithfully
do they honor the sounds and feeling of tradition.
“The traditional songs have gotten a little more traditional,”
says Meaux. “But the rock songs have gotten a little harder
than the last record. Where we are now is definitely a different
spot than the last record. I feel like we’re staying true
to all sides of the band.”
…“I called D’Jalma Garnier,” says Meaux,
“and asked him if it was possible to learn the fiddle
in a few weeks. We had to go out on the road again in a month,
and I didn’t want to scare any booking agents away because
we couldn’t go, so I just started playing.” Although
Meaux doesn’t claim any virtuosity on the instrument,
he’s learned enough to get by and now always tours with
a fiddle in tow…
Along with a new album, The Bluerunners have a new drummer,
Chris Courville, who, as Meaux puts it, “actually gets
excited about playing Cajun music.” Courville, an engineering
student at UL, became interested in playing Cajun music a few
years ago and jumped at the chance when he heard the Bluerunners
were looking for a new drummer. According to Meaux and Stevenson,
Courville clicked immediately with other members of the group
and, as Stevenson notices, “It started feeling like a
band again.”…
