New Orleans-based alt-rock outfit Cowboy Mouth have been lighting up stages and stereos since the early ‘90s, propelled into stardom in 1996 with the release of their hit song “Jenny Says.” For anyone wondering where Cowboy Mouth went, the band are still chugging along with the recent release of their outstanding covers album Cover Yo’ Azz, which was released recently.
New Noise sat down with Cowboy Mouth drummer and lead vocalist Fred LeBlanc to talk about the covers album and how it fits in to the band’s overall vibe.
All right, so we’re talking about your new covers album, the Cover Yo’ Azz album.
It sounds funny when somebody says it, I know.
After all these years making music, what made you want to put out a covers album?
Because it just sounded like fun. You know, when you’re putting out an album of original songs, you have to be very deliberate about it because you’re asking people to listen to new songs, new emotions, new ideas, and take them in a certain way. And that’s the way that the listener will always hear a song, the way you present it and (record the) first time they hear it’ll be always the way that they hear it, even if you’re performing it live and you change it. Those differences might not always register in the moment.
There’s a great story about Buddy Holly, the singer from the 50s. He recorded his songs down in a studio in Clovis, New Mexico, because he lived close to there in Lubbock, Texas. And he would record these songs, and then they would send them up to New York to the record label, and the record label would add backing vocalists, stuff that they never did. So they never heard what the record sounded like until they actually got the records pressed. So what the bass player would do; he didn’t sing; he didn’t even have a mic; he would mouth the harmonies or whatever was on the records. And he always said that he had people in the audience coming up, like, “Wow, you nailed those harmonies exactly like they sounded like on the record.” And he never really told them he was not really singing.
So the way that you present a recording is the default version that people hear of a song and a an album of original material is a very deliberate, almost painstaking process. I love doing it, but it’s a lot of work. This sounded like approaching a recording from a strictly fun angle. Does this sound good? Yeah. Is it fun? Yeah, sure. Why not? Because people already have their fixed image of all those songs on there, and so it’s just us giving our two cents. And honestly, I never thought we’d ever do an album again because the new norm seems to be singles, especially with a band like us. But this got me to do an album and never say never, I guess.
What was the process like choosing these songs?
No real conscious process. If there was something overriding about it, it would be, will it be fun? Will it be interesting? That was really the main criteria. And we stopped when we had a group of songs, and I looked at and said, this, this looks balanced. This is good, yeah, this works. We could have kept going because there’s literally thousand and thousands of songs that we all love. And so it was the process of just saying, OK, this is balance. This is good. Let’s stop here. Otherwise we’d still be recording it.
So was there an easiest and hardest song to cover?
The easiest song for us to cover was probably “Can’t Hardly Wait,” because we’d already played it live, and the song is so, for lack of a better term, easy to play. Now that doesn’t mean we didn’t put work into it. John actually added a lot of different rhythm parts, because he’s a stellar rhythm guitar player. He added a bunch of rhythm parts that he doesn’t play live, that I was able to really expand the sonic picture within the mix. And that was cool. That was the easiest one.
There’s two songs that were probably the hardest. One was “City By a River,” the Hootie and the Blowfish song that ends the record, mostly because I didn’t know where to go with the song. Their version is so defined, like, here it is. And I wanted to take a different approach, but I wasn’t sure what approach I wanted to take. That took me a while. That and “Perfect Circle,” mostly because the piano part in there is deceptively hard. It sounds easy, sounds simple, but it’s really difficult, especially when you try to play two pianos and sync them up. It was difficult. But, you know, they both came out great, and I’m pretty proud of both of
Then with the Hootie and the Blowfish cover, you actually worked with Mark Bryan from Hootie and the Blowfish. Can you tell me about that experience?
Mark’s an old friend. All those guys were old friends. We used to get them to open up for us in New Orleans and Louisiana back in the early 90s, before they exploded, and they’d have us out to open for them in South Carolina before they exploded.
I tell the story about the first time Cowboy Mouth played in Columbia, South Carolina. I had been in an 80’s punk rock, country band called Dash Rip Rock for about five years, and they were all fans of band. So when they heard I had a new band, the first time we played in Columbia, where they were living at the time, we had five people in the audience, and four of them were Hootie and the Blowfish.
They’ve just been old friends. I produced some tracks for Mark a few years back for a solo project he did. They’ve had us out on tour with them a lot. We did the Hootie Fest things that they did in Cancun right after lockdown. Just old friends, good friends, dear friends. Mark’s always been a huge fan and supporter of the band, as have all the guys. It’s just buddies hanging out.
You’ve had a few shows since you did this album. Have you been playing the songs off this live?
Yeah, we’ve done about half of it. We’ve done “The Real Me,” the Who song that John sings, and that’s come out, really good. We did, “Can’t Hardly Wait” a long time ago, before lockdown, we were doing that back in like ’18 and ’19. “I’m Gonna Be a Wheel Someday,” the Fats Domino song. We do “Just Another Night,” which was one of the singles, an old Ian Hunter song. And we do “Fat Bottom Girls,” the old Queen song, and people love it, they’re singing along. OK, cool. This works. Great.
Is it a different experience doing those songs live?
It is very much because you have to figure out a way to integrate them into the set. When I write set lists, I’m constantly thinking of ebb and flow. I think the audience will need a break here, or we’re going to need to rev them up here. And there’s a lot of thought that goes into the Cowboy Mouth set list, but at the same time, I’m just as likely to say, tear up the set (list), and say, we’re going for broke guys. So you just want to find a place for the songs where they fit.
I saw this one band that had two sisters as the lead, and I won’t say their name, they’re great band, but I saw them one time I’ll never forget, saw them in a club, and the crowd was ready to go. And they start off with one of their biggest hits. It was like, wow, this is going to be great. This is really good. And then they stopped after the first song and said, Well, we’re going to play about three or four songs from our new acoustic album. And you just saw the audience go, just the energy went down. That’s probably not a good idea. Oh, just totally killed the vibe.
You have to have enough confidence in the band and our ability. And obviously, these are great songs, you know, but you need to find a place to fit them so the energy won’t either get too high or dissipate, so that it follows the flow where we can bring people to the end of one of one of our shows, not thinking that they just spent two hours listening to a band. You want them thinking, wow, that went really fast; it’s over already.
You’re heading back out on the road October and November shows and the cruise next year and all that. What are you looking forward to the with the next set of shows?
We’re playing some places that we’ve played a good bit, and the cruise is a new thing for us. We found other cruises. We did the Rock Boat a bunch of times. We did the Lynyrd Skynyrd cruise. You know, that should be interesting because all the cruises, depending on who is the headliner, they all have different personalities. So I’m looking forward to the New Orleans cruise, simply to see how we can fit in. It should be fun, but, I mean my show is always fun.
It’s designed to be a great time. It’s designed to be something that anybody can be a part of. It’s not designed to appeal to a certain set of people. Everybody’s welcome to the party, everybody just come on in. If you have a soul, if you have a heart and a soul, then you’re invited. Other than that, every show is meant to be a blast. That’s what it’s all about. Life’s too short to do something that isn’t fun.
People have so many worries these days, work, the economy, all the craziness that’s going on, no matter what side of the aisle you find yourself on there’s all kinds of craziness going on, the situation of the world. And when people come to a Cowboy Mouth show, we’re here to get everybody to let go of their troubles and their worries for two hours. You don’t have to worry about looking foolish or stupid at a Cowboy Mouth show. The only one who looks really stupid is me playing drums in the front of the stage and singing. So you don’t have to worry about looking foolish at all. Just have fun. Let go. Dance. Scream if you want to; jump if you want to; do nothing if you want to. It’s just meant to be a celebratory rock ‘n’ roll joygasm.
Cover Yo’ Azz is out now, and you can order your copy here. Follow Cowboy Mouth on Facebook and Instagram for future updates.
Photo courtesy of Cowboy Mouth
