Jeremy Lyons & The Deltabilly Boys

Offbeat, July 2000

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

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."

These days it is plain to see that Jeremy Lyons and his band have developed into something far more colorful than straight Delta blues. Lyons expresses the dissatisfaction he had with originally being billed as a blues act, "I found myself trying to push voicing that weren't always there... You get to this point where it's like always painting in the same color... You have to be true to yourself. I have a lot of other roots influences. At the same time that I was listening to Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson, I was also listening to Elvis Presley and bluegrass stuff, too. Those rhythms were somehow subtly infiltrated into the Delta blues I was playing." Thus was born, "Deltabilly Swing," the title of his first record and catch phrase for his signature style, a true fusion sound encompassing all of the bits and pieces of influences Lyons has picked up from the full plate of musical experience he has under his belt.

Upon his arrival to New Orleans in 1992, Jeremy started out as a French Quarter street musician playing with, most notably, the Big Mess Blues Band, an ever-changing conglomerate of musicians playing everything from fiddles to washboards. Though he remembers his days in Jackson Square as a magical time of musical discovery, he eventually found himself worn out by that lifestyle, "I figured if I kept doing that I'd just be coasting along, remaining anonymous to the world even though thousands of people had seen me play. So I quit the street thing cold turkey and dedicated myself to building up a reputation in the clubs and getting a record out." That record, released in 1998, is a collection of examples of just how interesting roots music can be in different combinations. The blues influence is certainly out there, and some of the songs are Delta blues covers like Robert Johnson's "Stop Breaking Down Blues," and Leadbelly's "Keep Your Hands Off Her," but to only mention these would be to miss the point entirely. It's what Lyons does with the blues that is refreshing and altogether original. For one thing, he lightens it up. His original songs are often more numerous than lamentative. With lyrics like, "I tried to quit coffee but it made my head hurt/So I guess I'll have to die with these stains on my shirt," combined with his quick, country finger-picking style, Lyons shows his audience that roots music, unbeknownst to many hardcore blues fans, can be farcical and fun. According to Lyons, much of the lightness has come from the influence of his bass player, Greg Schatz, "Greg is this hilarious guy, and he helped me lighten up the stage."

By the time Lyons recorded his second record, Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch, he had settled in with his sidemen and his sound had solidified: "Greg started to do more rockabilly bass and slide bass... I quit playing the National guitar on stage and started playing electric. That really shaped things. People heard the rockabilly influence more in my picking style." Paul Santopadre also provided a major influence, and Lyons maintains that his drumming is the best thing about Count Your Chickens. Whether or not you itemize them, there are enough good things about the record to land it a spot on Offbeat's list of Best CDs of 1999. It includes songs from here and there, some amusing originals such as, "Cafe Au Lait" and "Hurricane Way" (chronicles of New Orleans culture), and some traditional covers arranged brilliantly by Lyons himself. His version of Leadbelly's "In the Pines" is my favorite of any I've heard. Count Your Chickens, besides being a great album, gives you a good sampling of what you might here if you go out and see the Deltabilly Boys at, say, El Matador on a Tuesday night, their regular spot. Then again, you never know what you might get from these blues deviants. It seems a personal quest of Lyons' not to turn his back on variety, even if it is only for selfish reasons, "I really wanted to get away from the cliched blues style. You can play a blues tune with six different rhythms... Maybe if I were playing once a week or had a day job, I wouldn't care if I were playing the same stuff over and over again, but playing six or seven gigs a week, I don't want to bore my band or myself, let alone my audience. Some days I want to play country, other days rockabilly, Harlem jazz, swing, whatever... You just gotta keep it interesting.

Lyons and his band have instilled in their music an intrigue brought on by the sheer volume of performance they have pulled off. Where the average working band would succumb to jadedness in the face of grueling monotony, the Deltabilly Boys use it to their advantage, or eliminate it all together. By incorporating a spectrum of styles with more selectivity than prejudice, they have created a musical hybrid, which, despite the old fashioned feel of its components, is completely fresh, altogether original, and just plain fun. This is no longer a well-kept secret. After years of playing on the streets, in the clubs, on the road, and overseas, Lyons is finally getting some of the attention and critical acclaim he deserves. It is both surprising and pleasing that a band like this (that is, one with an original sound that pumps out quality music in the studio and on stage), is faced with the possibility of national success by merit of their artistry. Or is it their good looks? Lyons comments frankly, "Well, we're cute, and we photograph well." Can't argue that.

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