Paul Sanchez

In early June, John Boutte was at his studio workspace in the French Quarter, the “Boutte Bat Cave,” as he calls it. When asked about the storm, he quickly demurs.

New Orleans native Paul Sanchez and his band Cowboy Mouth were recording new album Voodoo Shoppe in Atlanta when Katrina hit. As Sanchez sits on the front porch of a Creole cottage in the French Quarter on a beautiful spring day, a mule-drawn carriage ambles by lazily and friends stop along the street to chat. It’s hard to believe that only two blocks away devastation stretches for miles without end, but the tears Sanchez cannot hold back as he speaks of his hometown tell the story. Like so many other newly homeless New Orleans musicians, he lost everything in the flooding following Katrina, including the Gentilly home he and his wife Shelly owned, his music equipment and all his solo back catalog and merchandise.

“We were in shock,” he recalls. “My wife and I were online at a site...

Walk down the tree-lined streets of New Orleans' Faubourg Marigny neighborhood on a hot sultry night, and chances are you'll hear John Boutte's voice floating out of one of the area's trendy nightspots. Perhaps he'll be singing soulful versions of...

Fred LeBlanc’s persuasiveness is the key to his art and the not-so-secret ingredient to Cowboy Mouth’s success. He will do anything to stimulate a crowd — climbing the scaffolding and diving into the audience are typical moves, although he’s given up the practice of throwing the drums into the audience at the end of the set.

“He’s like a cartoon character,” says Paul Sanchez, whose relationship with LeBlanc goes back more than 25 years. “If he has to, he’ll light himself on fire. It’s a trick he can only do once, like Daffy Duck does in the cartoon, but he’s willing to go there".

The band has never had an album that approached that stage intensity until now. After 16 years of struggles, close encounters with stardom, a string of managers and record labels and a...

Aired February 25, 2006 - 18:00   ET

Hootie & The Blowfish Looking for Lucky Release Date: 2005 08 09 Label: Sneaky Long Rating:

Hootie & the Blowfish's fifth studio effort is the first to feature extensive co-songwriting credits, as well as a few well-placed guest musicians. Hootie & the Blowfish sound as natural as ever on Looking for Lucky, their ear for melody intact through a slick 12-song set of rootsy pop with insightful nods to country, blues, and gospel. Rucker still sings in that rousing baritone, and the harmonies and acoustic strum tag it as Hootie. But the band's sound benefits from the slight makeover -- nothing fancy, just a slight tweak toward modernization. Elsewhere on Lucky, additional songwriting from folks like Matraca Berg and the Silos' Walter Salas-Humara brings more depth to the...

Jambalaya is John Boutté doing what he does best. In front of two distinct bands made up of friends and long-time musical associates, Boutté belts out or softly caresses themes that remain close to his heart. It is this sincerity and the jazz musician's sense of timing and improvisation that makes Boutté stand out in a crowd. There's a mix of new and previously released material such as the now familiar "Sisters" and "At the Foot of Canal Street." You can't go wrong with Bill Huntington on bass and Shannon Powell behind the drums. It's the one-two punch of the snare drum that gets things rollicking on "Two Bands Rollin'," which was written by Boutté and Paul Sanchez. The song speaks of New Orleans all the way. Lyrically Boutté sings of well-known folks like Doreen Ketchens and...

When Cowboy Mouth guitarist and vocalist Paul Sanchez Steps away from his day gig, it's to craft intimate, instantly memorable unplugged albums. ...

-letters to the editor-
Falling Down
Missy Hecksher's review of Paul Sanchez's show at the Carrollton Station and his live record that has just been released was excellent. I remember being at "The Station" on the night of Sanchez's show (January 15, 2000) and it was fantastic. When Peyton's brother Cooper Manning and his girlfriend(wife?) had trouble getting in the door. I knew it really was"Sold Out!"

Thanks, Ms. Hecksher for the great review. I could not have described the great evening and c.d. any better. My personal favorite from the night was "They Were Married"(though I do like "I Got Drunk This Christmas" too). When Igot the c.d. and listened to the guy in the audience falling down again I couldn't believe it! "LOL!"Keep on writing!

The first thing you've got to realize is that this is not Cowboy Mouth. While Sanchez is a member of the college-popular, pound'em sound and shake'em rock band, his solo work is of a whole different league. In fact it's almost hard to believe these two are connected at all.

Sanchez, on his fifth CD, "Sold Out at Carrollton Station", sings his melodies in soft and gentle voice that is nothing like the let it go, let it go energy that made the Mouth famous. Recorded amidst an enthusiastic uptown crowd, most of the songs on the live CD are a folksy, slow strummed tribute to the all-night escapades, cheap liquor and crawfish stews that make New Orleans the place that it is.

A few of the songs may sound familiar like "Laughable", which Sanchez sings with CM, but when you take away the...

In the supercharged rock enviroment of a Cowboy Mouth show, Paul Sanchez's appeal lies in his aw shucks demeanor. With his stiff necked rooster strut, he looks like a regular joe who got called up from the front row,and his songs establish a familiar, barstool intimacy. On his solo recordings, Sanchez cranks that intimacy knob to 11. He's not some faceless singer staring out over the crowd at open mike night; he's your best friend, sitting in your living room, and you're the only person in the audience.

Songs like "Same Old Disguise and "Footsteps I Hear" mark a new level of sophistication in Sanchez's songwriting, although his penchant for agreeable melodies remains intact. "Nasty Evil Clown"(with great understated tuba work from Monte Montgomery) and the Irish Boy-styled sing-a-long...

If one cuts Cowboy Mouth singer/guitarist/songwriter Paul Sanchez, he bleeds folkie. Long before the New Orleans band earned national fame as a rock band, Sanchez wandered the northeast as an acoustic-toting troubadour, hoping to follow in such footsteps as Bob Dylan's or Peter Case's.

Instead, Sanchez started the Mouth and began ascension of a different colored musical ladder. But that doesn't mean he's abandoned the singer/songwriter side of his personality. Over the years, Sanchez has re-released three fine indie label solo albums; "Jet Black and Jealous," "Wasted Lives and Bluegrass," and "Loose Parts" --mostly featuring his voice and guitar --and often opens CM concerts with solo acoustic sets.

"Jet Black and Jealous" was the first of Sanchez' records and, in the opinion of...