The debut album from the Louisiana Riverfront Band almost never saw the light, even though the recording process started in the late 1990s.
Roots Rockin’ Blues unites Baton Rouge music all-stars Luther Kent, Lynn Ourso and Harold Cowart with guests that include John Fred Gourrier and Mark “Cadillac” Cook.
Ourso, Kent and Cowart all have deep connections to the John Fred and the Playboys band. Ourso worked as the Playboys’ guitarist and manager. Cowart played bass in Gourrier’s band prior to his studio work in Muscle Shoals and Miami with the likes of Aretha Franklin, Brook Benton, Wilson Pickett and The Bee Gees. He plucks the irresistible bass riff in Fred and the Playboys’ hit, “Judy in Disguise (With Glasses).” And Kent and the late Gourrier were dear friends for decades. Gourrier, in fact, gave Kent his first chance on stage at age 15.
In the late 1990s, Kent, Ourso and Cowart regrouped at Cowart’s Bluff Road Studio in Prairieville to record four blues-rock compositions Ourso created, which would become the foundation of Roots Rockin’ Blues. They periodically reconvened to cut more tracks, such as classics by Slim Harpo, Jimmy Reed, Frankie Lee Simms and others.
Because the group’s members were busy with their individual careers, they got together whenever schedules allowed.
By 2010, Roots Rockin’ Blues co-producers Ourso and Cowart had finally decided to mix the album. But then, tragedy happened when Cowart died that year, and the project understandably stalled.
“One third of the energy went away,” Ourso says, sitting at a table with Kent recently at Gino’s Restaurant.
As months and years went by, Kent didn’t forget about the Louisiana Riverfront Band.
“I kept prodding Lynn,” Kent says. “I thought some good cuts happened in Harold’s studio. I told Lynn, ‘Look, the record’s not doing any good sitting in the closet. You need to put it out! See if something rears its head up.’”
Ourso always intended to release Roots Rockin’ Blues. “But Luther had a great role in convincing me,” he says. “There’s more to it, in the sense that we never want to waste an effort. And Harold had a saying. Whenever we finished a production—and we did many productions—he’d say, ‘Now, for the rest of the story.’”
The rest of the story translates to releasing and marketing the album, which came out in July. Physical copies of Roots Rockin’ Blues are available through the band’s website, LRBmusic.com, and CDBaby.com.
Ourso is thrilled that their debut is available at last. Radio stations in Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Houston and more regional cities have been playing it.
“The radio stations that are responding are playing every song on the album,” Ourso says. “In all my 50 years-plus in this business, I’ve never seen such positive response to an album. And the feeling of the record, the performances, the mixing, that really works for me. I’m elated.”
