Couldn’t Stand The Weather:
New Orleans Bluesman Jeremy Lyons Plays Rockin’ 4 Relief

Grew up in Ithaca and left at 18 to Hampshire College for musicology and social studies - the anthopology of music. Still unsure of life's direction at that point. He landed in New Orleans and stayed for 13 years. Jeremy met his wife in New Orleans. Fate: she was also from Ithaca.

The storm approached. They heeded the warnings. The Saturday before the storm, they packed their computers and instruments and a week's worth of clothes and headed up to baton rouge. The storm passed. When they heard of the extensive damage, they knew that even if they could get back to their house, which most likely had 3' of water through the living room, the schools would be closed for weeks. They started to realize the magnitude of what they were facing. They started missing the things they wished they'd taken. Family video tapes, various stuffed animals, sentimental and unreplaceable items. And they considered themselves lucky for what they did have. Jeremy's Ithaca family had moved to the Boston area about 10 yrs ago and so Jeremy had a safety net waiting with offers and open doors far from the devestation. He remarked on how many other evacuees had joined families in houston, only to be evacuated again the following week. So many of those in the New Orleans area have been there for generations. This is where their roots are, and leaving is not something they'd do willingly. So many families' safety nets had all drowned that day.

read remainder of review

Another success for GrotonFest

GROTON -- If it seems like there's a party or parade of some sort every week in Groton, well that's because there is, and the this weekend was no different.

Despite a one-day delay because of a rainy forecast, GrotonFest attracted troves of people to Legion Common yesterday, displaying the drawing power that has made the event a mainstay in town for more than 30 years.

“It's a community event,” said Groton Selectman Jack Saball, who was enjoying festivities with his son and grandson. “It's Groton. It's something unique. That's why we keep coming back.”

Even with the move from Saturday to yesterday, approximately 159 booths were set up along Legion Common, GrotonFest coordinator Jane Bouvier said.

The change of date actually caused five artisans to forgoe their participation in GrotonFest, but spectators would have been hard-pressed to notice any shortages.

This year's festivities attracted vendors from all over New England.

“We had 60 artists this year, more than ever,” said Anne Thibeau, arts and logistics coordinator for GrotonFest.

Along with the arts-and-crafts booths featuring all types of homemade goods, there were hay rides, pony rides and concession stands operated by numerous local organizations.

Groton EMS and fire officials were also on hand, providing tours and demonstrations of their vehicles.

Each year GrotonFest also features performances by locals, performing dance routines or singing, but a special guest performer was added to the lineup late this week.

Jeremy Lyons, a native of New Orleans, took the stage yesterday afternoon just days after he and his family finally began settling into the Boston area.

read remainder of review

The Big Uneasy; New Orleans musician faces uncertain future in Cambridge

Jeremy Lyons is a self-proclaimed Soup Bowl refugee.

Two weeks ago, the guitarist and singer was headlining a club on historic Frenchmen Street, just outside the French Quarter in New Orleans. Today, Lyons finds himself busking on the streets of Cambridge, singing delta blues ditties and slide guitar rags in Harvard Square. While charming in its own right, Harvard Square is a long way from the French Quarter.

The transition from New Orleans to Cambridge has left Lyons in a daze.

"I feel like my whole center of gravity is missing," he said. "Playing in Harvard Square has been OK. I made some money the other day, but it's weird. The source of my strength is gone. New Orleans has always been my inspiration."

In New Orleans, Lyons was a locally famous fixture. He and his band The Deltabilly Boys were mainstays in the city's vibrant music scene, playing in storied venues like Tipitina's and at the city's heralded Jazz Fest every year.

But in Boston, Lyon is just another guy playing for loose change. He's not alone, however. The New Orleans music diaspora has been massive.

read remainder of review

Soup Bowl Refugee' Finds Stage In Raleigh
Displaced Musician Sings Blues At Local Club

RALEIGH, N.C. -- New Orleans has always been known for Mardi Gras and as the home of great jazz and blues musicians.

Now, when you hear the Big Easy's name, you think of crisis and devastation. The city where the music never stops had its music drowned out by floodwaters and the cries of Hurricane Katrina's victims.

But the music is starting back up again in the Triangle, where some of New Orleans' displaced musicians are finding a place to play again.

"My name is Jeremy Lyons and my group in New Orleans is the Jeremy Lyons and the DeltaBilly Boys."

read remainder of review

Well, it was tough but philanthropic. "Sunpie" Barnes and Jeremy Lyons performed as a duo during The Refrigerator Art Auction at Twiropa Sunday night. It benefited the International School of Louisiana.

A smattering of applause greeted the two after each song in the 1500 capacity Live Room. Since only three or four people stood between the stage and the first four empty rows of tables as the event got going, a miniscule amount of energy was directed towards them. But, whatcha gonna do? All the well-doers of the upper class weren't there for the music, anyway (Website contributor Marty Garner was on hand wearing an appropriate "Upper Crust" t-shirt).

The music was great. "Sunpie" and Lyons had fun feeding off one another and performing some songs they obviously hadn't played before. During one number Lyons' focus was divided between keeping the song on track and figuring out where "Sunpie" would direct it next.

read remainder of review

Jeremy Lyons and The Deltabilly Boys
Jazzfest

During the second to last song, Jeremy Lyons decided to climax the concert. Through their blues and rockabilly swagger, Lyons, bassist Greg Schatz and drummer Paul Santopadre had built up the crowd's interest and energy at the Popeyes Blues Tent Friday afternoon.

Then, Lyons decided to pull the trigger with a blazing guitar solo. The crowd went nuts, and my jaw dropped. I've seen Lyons play before, but if there's a place to up the ante and show what you're made of, I guess it's at Jazzfest. I was just happy the out-of-towners were seeing a once struggling New Orleans street musician succeed during a pivotal moment. The crowd gave Lyons a standing ovation after the song.

Lyons and his boys rocked fast with songs whose emotions ranged from haunting to playful. A highlight of the set was when the band played a song Lyons wrote for his young daughter. The upbeat, poppy song grew in swinging speed until it dissolved. Another highlight was when Lyons played a slow blues that was so beautifully dark I fell into its black spell.

Lyons and Schatz were great performers. Schatz's hip-shaking and playful sideman vocals worked well with Lyons' confident position as keeper of the songs. Add to that the gregarious and tight drumming of Santopadre and I had myself a good time.

These guys rocked. If only Elvis and Robert Johnson could see them now.

If you ever wondered what Johnny Cash's classic version of Stan Jones' "(Ghost) Riders in the Sky" would sound like as a surf/rockabilly song, wonder no more. Jeremy Lyons & The Deltabilly Boys are coming to the Blue Moon Saloon & Guest House, 215 E. Convent St., to take everything you think you know about blues, rockabilly and surf rock, spike it with some good 180-proof sorrow, throw it in a blender and purée it real nice until it is a creamy, frothy and smooth mix for you to drink right down. Lyons, a former ethnomusicology student turned street musician, hitched up with cats Greg Schatz and Paul Santopadre to bring you a new blend of the blues. Think Robert Johnson. Think Johnny Horton. Think Link Wray. Now think of locking them in a bathroom stall until they have converged upon a sound. The result would be this delta blues and/or surf rock band that also plays bare bones blues ˆ la the Delta, not to mention country traditionals and jazz classics, sometimes with a rockabilly beat. At the same time, they can be both surf and rockabilly. While the band does not play consistent music, it is consistently good. Confused? Just dance. This one will take place from 8 to 11 p.m. Saturday, July 12. Call 244-2422 for more information or visit www.deltabilly.com.

SET BREAK
Lyons' Pride

WHAT: Jeremy Lyons & the Deltabilly Boys CD-release party
WHEN: 10 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 29
WHERE: The Parish at House of Blues, 225 Decatur St., 529-2624

Jeremy Lyons has three distinct components to his musical personality. There's Lyons the bandleader, whose live shows with his band, the Deltabilly Boys, are raucous blasts of rockabilly, blues and country-infused originals and covers. Lyons the solo guitarist cuts a wide swatch as a serious practitioner of pre-war blues and rags and '60s surf instrumentals. As a songwriter, Lyons writes wry, often jazzy slice-of-life ruminations reminiscent of Leon Redbone. His first three albums spotlighted some combination of those strengths, but his new CD, simply titled Jeremy Lyons & the Deltabilly Boys, captures every facet of Lyons' vision. It's a fortuitous accident.

read remainder of review

It would be easy to insert Jeremy Lyons into a standard story line: Former street musician makes good in the clubs. Yankee travels south in search of the nation's musical soul. College professor's son shuns academe because, frankly, it's more fun to play music than to analyze it.

All true, and all pretty interesting. But to those who've followed his journey's - and by most accounts, it's a staunchly devoted and quickly growing bunch - the most important thread of Jeremy Lyons story is much simpler.

This guy, they insist, puts on one of the best shows in town.

read remainder of review

Deltabilly Boys Deviate the Blues in Lyons' Den
JEREMY LYONS - Cute Ethnomusicologist Quits the Street and Hits the Road

There seems to be an unfounded obsession in music journalism for the public in terms of type. It manifests itself in a bad habit of slapping a label on every artist that comes along, and then later cursing him for deviating from a genre that he may have been locked into unwillingly. Consider Jeremy Lyons against this background, and it just doesn't jive. His view of music as art and as entertainment do not concur with the need to describe music in terms of categories. Where Jeremy Lyons is concerned, things can be far more interesting than that.

"I actually saw music as a way that I could perform outside of the confines of someone else's structure," says Lyons of his initial attraction to the art form. He had flirted with the theater as a performance medium, but found it to be too limiting, and so was drawn to music that much more strongly. Blues music appealed to him originally because of its flexibility to the individual personality. "It was being able to put on a one man show... blues is something that can sound full and complete with just one guitar and one voice." How does a white kid from upstate New York end up with a degree in ethnomusicology and a passion for American roots music? "I realized when I first started to try to write my own songs, that I needed to learn a lot more about other people's stuff first. So, I decided to start from scratch and go to the most basic music I could find... I was into rock 'n; roll first, and I just went back from there."

read remainder of review

JEREMY LYONS
Deltabilly Swing

He may have been born and raised in Ithaca, NY, but Jeremy Lyons' heart and soul are in the Delta. After playing French Quarter streets in a variety of bands, Lyons has finally released his debut album, and it sounds as if the guy was spoofed in the musical melting pot of the Big Easy. Like another talented transplanted upstate New Yorker, John Mooney, Lyons plays slide guitar with startling authenticity. Whether solo acoustic or with modified electric backing, Lyons zips through covers of classic Delta blues from Leadbelly, Blind Blake, Robert Johnson and Sleepy John Estes as if he'd spent his entire life living the blues in the South.

The originals, such as "Coffee Rag" (which leads into another new composition with a similar theme called "Black Coffee Blues"), sound as if Lyons grabbed them off an old Folkways recording. Simple, spare yet traditional accompaniment from a low-key washboard, standup bass, and accordion round out the instrumentation and help highlight Lyons' pickings. On most cuts, all he needs to drive his sublime guitar excursions is slight brushed percussion. Lyons' only weakness is his vocals, which, though far from an embarrassment, are thin and reedy; he can't reach the emotional depths needed to convey the intensity of the songs.

But when you hear his fingers lying over the frets like a nervous speed demon, all doubts are forgotten. Lyons has a light, fleet touch, and though his approach is subtle, he's a great player. When he breaks out the National steel (as he does on most of the album's cuts), he makes it cry, yearn and sing with a tone acquired only after years of practice in front of pedestrians on the noisy streets of the Quarter. The album's closing cut, "butterfingers Rag" (an acoustic version of which is planted midway through the album), is a no-holds-barred, fret-burning, jaw-dropping demonstration of Lyons' guitar prowess. He's fast, but he's passionate, too, and his playing has a depth that's oozed up from the grime of the New Orleans streets he's called home for seven years. - - Hal Horowitz

JEREMY LYONS
Deltabilly Swing
Self Produced JL 101497

It may seem an unlikely destination in search of blues, but after all this was New Orleans, not Key West, and Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville was just around the corner from my hotel. When I entered, Jeremy was singing a bluesy ragtime tune and playing amplified acoustic guitar, backed by an upright bass and a drummer. This was my kind of music.

The already established crowd seemed to agree. They enthusiastically responded to each new number and refused to leave even after "last call" was announced by the bartender. Whenever Jeremy attempted to end his set, dollar bills would fly into his tip jar and twenty dollar bills would materialize to purchase CD's.

Jeremy kept playing.

read remainder of review

JEREMY LYONS, DELTABILLY SWING (self released CD)

You'd have thought this guy would have found himself a major label by now, though on the other hand you wouldn't want to hear him overproduced. Jeremy Lyons is from upstate New York, but he changed his address to New Orleans and musical his trip was surely by way of a few cotton fields and hillbilly hootenannies. Lyons has the Mississippi in his blood and Delta mud under his fingernails, so after learning slide guitar and finger-picking while still back home, it was only natural he headed for turf that sprouted the likes of Robert Johnson, Blind Willie Johnson and Mississippi John Hurt. Though vocally he sounds more like Arlo Guthrie,especially on the spoken-word lead-in to "Baby, Please Loan Me Your Heart," Lyons has made a name for himself in American bluesy root traditions. The 16 tunes on Deltabilly Swing - warm but sparing recordings, some of them live - are a spirited consortium of blues, country, ragtime, jugband and pre-WWII jazz, and were learned, he says in liner notes, on the streets of New Orleans with his Big Mess Blues Band. If Metronome's swingers can't find their feet on Lyons' caffeinated or shuffle rhythms, they can just stand back and admire the fingerwork. Next Monday, following dance class. - - Pamela Polston