The Tipitina’s Foundation mission is to support Louisiana and New Orleans' music community and preserves the state’s musical cultures. The Foundation grew out of the Tipitina’s music venue and promotes childhood music education, the professional development of adult musicians, and the increased profile and viability of Louisiana music as a cultural, educational, and economic resource. In those traditions, the Foundation with the generous support of Fidelity Bank sponsored a summer of free music Fridays that ran from May 22 to September 4th. The calendar highlighted some of New Orleans and Louisiana’s finest acts. Their second to last show features Sweet Crude and the Coyotes.
The Coyotes started off the evening with their finely tuned alt-country tunes. The band is constantly evolving with Duz Mancini at the wheel. As the case for many bands, the lineup has gone through some changes and probably will have another one or two in the future. This time around joining Duz was two new band mates as well as pedal steel-guitarist Derek Duplessie (The Kid Carsons) and drummer Chris Littlejohn (Bent Denim and Gold & the Rush). Rounding out the bad on bass was Morgan D. Carson (The Kid Carsons) and the bands founding guitarist.
The beauty of a Coyotes set is the straight forwardness and simplicity that is wrapped up in incredible vocals and lyrics. No matter what rendition of the band you see, you will be treated to an amazing show. There is no half way when it comes to Duz’s performance. The set was highlighted by new material as well as two covers, one from Ryan Adams “To Be Young (Is to Be Sad, Is to Be High)” as well as the theme song to The Thing You Do. The Coyotes will be playing Gasa Gasa in October and plan on releasing a single by years end.
Sweet Crude just seem to be everywhere. Their blend of Cajon/Louisiana French injected drum pop is infectious to say the least. With Sam TwoDat Craft at the helm, the band (Jonathan Arceneaux, Jack Craft, Stephen MacDonald, Alexis Marceaux, Skyler Stroup, Marion Tortorichtruly) encompasses the whole stage and come together as one well-oiled machine, with bouts of crazy every now and again (the last song of the encore being a great example). The set just seems to blow by as the energy on stage is doubled out in the audience. The band has started a crowd source campaign called CrudeStarter to help with the recording and distribution of their next album, tentatively due out in February of next year.
If any two band lived up to the mission statement of the Foundation, Sweet Crude and Coyotes would be on the top of the list. Keeping Louisiana and New Orleans as the root of their sounds is just the beginning. You can see an extended gallery here: http://jalbum.net/en/browse/user/album/1654760
