Tri-parishes exceed state test scores
June 2, 2011"Rythms on the River" (Morgan City)
June 6, 2011
Renowned for their funky reinterpretations of pre-recorded music, Voodoo Bayou has made a strong impression on the Houma music scene less than a year after its conception.
Whether it’s a second-line performance of “Stuck in the Middle with You” or a reggae version of an ’80s hit, Voodoo Bayou tinkers with the tempos and twists the tone of cover songs in an effort to remain fresh at a time when club owners prefer to avoid risk and gently nudge bands into playing music that is familiar to its patrons.
“We do that with ‘The Boys of Summer’ by Don Henley,” said Kyle Domangue, one of Voodoo Bayou’s founders. “We completely skin it back and change it and it has a whole new vibe to it. We’re having a lot of fun with those covers, and I can only imagine the types of things we’ll come up with when we’re writing the first Voodoo Bayou album.”
Domangue said the band has talked about writing that first album, which he predicts will begin this summer. The band could release a CD as early as the fall, he said.
That’s not to say Voodoo Bayou doesn’t perform original music. Domangue said he tries to squeeze in a self-written song between every three to four songs, and the band’s fans are well aware of the bayou-land lyrics interposed with a bluesy, rock-and-roll and country fusion in songs like “Rice and Gravy,” “Gotta be Bayou” and “Louisiana Moon.”
Domangue, a guitarist, vocalist and songwriter, wrote the songs when he lived in Phoenix. The Houma native collaborated with Jacques Billeaud, another south Louisiana transplant, and the two kicked off a group that would come to be known as The Preserve, which would release two albums.
“Living in Phoenix, I think we just missed the culture in south Louisiana, and we needed a niche in Phoenix, so we found ourselves writing… The lyrical content was what Jacques and I knew growing up as a young kid in the swamp,” Domangue said. “Basically, it’s more cultural roots rock, I think, is what we call it. Roots rock Louisiana music.”
An architect by trade, Domangue returned to Houma when the Phoenix expansion bubble burst. He left the band behind, but brought with him the “roots rock” styling that propelled The Preserve into a 2010 Fiesta Bowl Block Party performance headlined by the Doobie Brothers.
“Ninety minutes of your original music in front of 60,000 people for the Fiesta Bowl clearly is one of the highlights of my limited music career,” Domangue said. “It was an amazing experience, and the guys in The Preserve and I were really, really, really tickled.”
Still, Domangue has no problem drawing talent comparisons between his current and former bands. Make no mistake, Voodoo Bayou is talented, and they’re working to kick down the door, branch out of south Louisiana and make a run at the festival circuit.
Drummer Mark Duplantis played with Waylon Thibodeaux; bassist Jody Naquin shared the stage with Tab Benoit; Mark Duet, on the keyboard, also played alongside Thibodeaux and was recorded on his “Who’s Yo Cher’ BeBe” album; and Michael Klaus, the band’s youngest member, plays guitar, bass and sings. Klaus graduated Nicholls State University with a bachelor’s degree in vocal arts.
For all of its instrumental funk, Voodoo Bayou does put an emphasis on belting the lyrics. Four of the band’s members are listed as vocalists, and Domangue said the next step the band can take is tightening up their three-man harmony.
“I’m big on harmonies, and I’m pushing real hard with Voodoo Bayou to really focus and tighten up on our harmonies. A three-part harmony, I think, just adds a completely new dimension to music.
“I think the biggest thing right now is to have everybody having fun and to be loose enough in a very impromptu situation, sometimes live, to just go out on a limb and try something unique and different. Every time we do a cover and it sounds exactly like the record, we basically say it doesn’t belong in the show until we can twist it up.”
