Loose Cattle take their name from those bullet-riddled yellow signs that warn motorists about the “Loose Livestock” on Southern backroads. Led by the double-barreled frontperson duo of Kaye and Cerveris, this five-piece roots-rock outfit is as passionate about stampeding through Southern rock barn-burners as it is ambling through gentler, harmony-drenched ballads.
Native West Virginian Michael Cerveris served as a sideman for Hüsker Dü’s Bob Mould, and shared stages with Pete Townshend, The Breeders, The Pixies’ Frank Black, Teenage Fanclub, and more. A two-time Tony and Grammy Award-winner, he’s co-starred in Broadway shows from The Who’s Tommy to Sweeney Todd as well as Hedwig and the Angry Inch off-Broadway, in L.A. and London’s West End. Michael also co-starred in films with Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, James Gandolfini, and John C. Reilly and the TV series Mindhunter, Gotham, Fringe, Treme, and HBO’s current hit The Gilded Age.
New Jersey-born Kimberly Kaye—an arts journalist, functional medicine practitioner, and LGBTQ activist—first cut her musical teeth on the road, traveling the Warped Tour circuit as a member of a ska band before shifting her attention to roots music. NOLA locals know her as the Big Easy Award-winning director/co-star of a wildly successful revival of, and co-host of The Best of New Orleans-winning podcast Human F*ckery.
Bass player and native New Orleanian René Coman, and Memphis-raised drummer Doug Garrison, are both members of beloved, genre-crossing group The Iguanas as well as the late Alex Chilton’s band. Georgia-raised fiddler and vocalist Rurik Nunan tours with Cracker and Dave Jordan and is a former member of roots rockers The Whisky Gentry.
Premiering exclusively on American Blues Scene is “Crescent City,” the new single from Loose Cattle and a Lucinda Williams classic. A double fiddler-driven reading, their rendition features special guests Louis Michot of the Grammy-winning Lost Bayou Ramblers as one of those fiddlers and Drive By Truckers’ Jay Gonzalez on organ.
The song was recorded on the banks of the Vermilion River at famed Dockside Studios in Maurice, Louisiana, produced by John Agnello (Son Volt, Dinosaur Jr., Waxahatchee, Horse Girl). It was spontaneously tracked during sessions for the band’s second studio album, which is expected late summer/fall 2023.
“It was kind of a Louisiana love-at-first-sight story,” says Kimberly Kaye. “Michael had known Lucinda for a while through Lu’s tour manager, his fellow native West Virginian, Travis Stephens. When we came to town for an unofficial Louisiana Americana showcase during last year’s Americana Music Fest in Nashville, with typical Southern hospitality, Lu invited us to stay with her.”
“We bonded right away, talking about parents, writing, and her childhood in Louisiana,” says Cerveris, “It seemed natural for us to invite her to sit in on our Vinyl Tap set. And despite being scheduled to head out on her own tour later that day, she said she’d love to come out and make music with her Louisiana people. We all decided ‘Crescent City’ would be the perfect song…”
Michael Cerveris elaborates on the story of what began as a spur-of-the-moment notion of a song to sing with Lucinda Williams at Americana Fest:
She suggested it and, since we’d brought along Louis, it turned into a magical moment with Kim, me, Louis and Lucinda on the cozy stage at Vinyl Tap. Afterwards, Lu told us she loved our take on it, especially our harmonies and Louis’ fiddle. When we were back in the Bayou at Dockside recording our next album, Louis, who lives nearby, dropped by one day with an arm load of andouille sausage and boudin balls for John Agnello and Jay Gonzalez to have a taste of those local staples.
Michael Cerveris
We made another spontaneous decision to pause our other work and record Lucinda’s tune with the whole band and our guests. Having Rurik and Louis both playing fiddle brought some real Cajun vibe to the track and Jay’s B3 brought a little bit of church to the whole thing. When we played it for Lucinda, she smiled and gave Kim a big hug and said, “Y’all just brought me back home.” That’s pretty much the only review we’ll ever need.
“Crescent City” will be released as a stand-alone single April 21 on Low Heat Records as a digital download and on streaming platforms in celebration of Loose Cattle’s first appearance at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, May 4.
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