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New Orleans rockers Cowboy Mouth – from left, John Thomas Griffith, Fred LeBlanc, Jonathan Pretus and Regina Zernay – has had hits with songs like “Easy,” “Jenny Says,” “How Do You Tell Someone?” and “Disconnected.” (Drew Crozier)
Whatever his reasoning, LeBlanc can’t wait for the Tupelo Elvis Festival this weekend.
Lead singer and drummer LeBlanc and his band mates, Regina Zernay, John Thomas Griffith and Jonathan Pretus, are known for playing hundreds of rowdy shows a year, and the festival is just one stop for the New Orleans-based band.
“The Tupelo show is the beginning of a long summer tour. I’m very fortunate to have a job I love doing in this day and age, and it brings a lot of people a lot of joy,” LeBlanc said in a phone interview. “We’ve played the Elvis Festival before, and obviously, I have a pretty strong fondness for the area.”
Hail the King
LeBlanc said Elvis’ influence is undeniable.
“Elvis is the alpha and omega when it comes to rock ‘n’ roll,” he said. Without Elvis, “you couldn’t have the Beatles. ...You couldn’t have a Cowboy Mouth, and obviously not a Miley Cyrus or a Taylor Swift. I’ts all part of the musical, cultural lineage. People forget what a thunderbolt Presley was.”
What roads Presley tread before are what led Cowboy Mouth to do what it does best. The band has been performing its loud and rowdy rock since forming in 1990, and has seen success with hits like “Jenny Says” and “How Do You Tell Someone?”
Fun, joy, passion
After all these years, LeBlanc still relishes finding new fans.
“I always enjoy festival shows, simply because, not only are there more people there to see us do our thing, but it’s an opportunity to win over new fans,” he said. “It’s in my nature to say, ‘Put me in front of a bunch of new people, and, ha ha ha, let me see if I can get them.’ I enjoy the challenge.”
Cowboy Mouth is something to see live, LeBlanc said.
“It’s kind of like a revival without the religion. It’s all centered on having fun. Joy. Passion,” he said. “A Cowboy Mouth show is all about the joy of being alive.”
LeBlanc wants to spread the joy, and invites music fans to check out Cowboy Mouth at the Tupelo Elvis Presley Festival.
“If you give us a shot, you just might see one of the most fun bands you’ve seen in a long, long time,” LeBlanc said. “Also, the lead singer is very fond of the great state of Mississippi – with good reasons.”
All shook up
- What: Tupelo Elvis Presley Festival at
Fairpark
- When: 5 p.m. Friday, Noon Saturday
- Where: Fairpark stage, Tupelo
- Cost: $15/day in advance, $17/gate
- Info: (662) 841-6598 or tupeloelvisfes-
tival.com
Friday
- 5 p.m. – Jon McLeod
- 6 p.m. – Braden Land
- 7 p.m. – Rocket 88
- 8 p.m. – Nash Street
- 9 p.m. – Shannon McNally & Hot Sauce
- 10:15 p.m. – Robert Earl Keen
Saturday
- 12 p.m. – Kevin Waide Project
- 12:40 p.m. – Just Playin’
- 1:20 p.m. – Cadillac Funk
- 2 p.m. – Stone Lizard
- 2:40 p.m. – Full Tilt
- 3:20 p.m. – Crashing Broadway
- 4 p.m. – Frankie & the Boys
- 5 p.m. – Cooter Brown
- 5:40 p.m. – Velvet Jones
- 6:20 p.m. – John Milstead
- 7:10 p.m. – Busted Screen Door
- 8:15 p.m. – Cowboy Mouth
- 9:30 p.m. – Paul Thorn
Do the North MS all stars even exist anymore?
As much as you posters hate it, a country act must be on the show, they are money makers. Maybe a rock headliner on Friday night with country on Saturday night would be best to satisfy everyone.
Keen's been around a long time and is a niche act. Those who like him, REALLY like him, but he's just never really been "mainstream" and thus he's still unknown by most people.
Cowboy Mouth is "okay". But not what one would consider a "headliner".
Paul Thorn is also "okay" right now. People around here are all excited about him because he has ties to Tupelo. But he's still a "B-list" or lower performer right now. He's on the rise, so who knows. But right now he's just not the level of an act that should be headlining a festival named for the King of Rock and Roll.
All these acts are more talented that I am, or will ever be. So, I'm not saying that these guys suck, I'm just saying that a festival named for the King of Rock and Roll should be able to draw much bigger names.
They all agreed that it was primarily inadequate marketing/positioning of the festival that is the issue and that it was definitely a "missed opportunity."
The promoters here seem focus their marketing/promotion efforts locally and that's a huge mistake. They really need to market more to people outside the area to bring people in for the "event". Should they market locally? Sure. But they should really focus on marketing the event to non-locals if they ever want to make this festival successful.
Of course, if they were able to bring more people in from outside the area, they'd sell more tickets and thus have more money to pay headliners, etc.
So, while local attendance is important, it's actually much more important to get people in from out of town, for many reasons. And they've just never seemed to be able to that.
I agree with you about the locals' taste in music. It's terrible. And yes Nickelback does suck! :) All the more reason to focus on what will bring in non-locals to the festival.
It really shouldn't be about the locals if they ever want this festival to be any more than it has been. The locals who are interested in the festival will attend as a "side effect" of more marketing to those outside the area. In other words, make this a significant event by proper promotion and marketing to the rest of the world and the locals will also participate as a result.
In a nutshell, it boils down to a lack of competent leadership.
I'm not a promoter, but I know a few who do that full-time for a living in a city that actually has a thriving "entertainment district" and over a 100 venues and I've had a conversation about the Elvis Festival's lack of talent with a couple of them.
All said it was due to incompetent event management. They all also said that they'd love the chance to promote an event with Elvis' name attached to it!
All these same people, who can't even attract a decent entertainment act to this festival are those talking about building venues and "entertainment districts", etc.
It's funny to watch if it weren't so expensive to the taxpayers to fund all this incompetence.
I know that it's your MO to disagree with everything that I say and to insult me at every possible turn, but hopefully even we can agree on one thing: that BancorpSouth Arena doesn't seem to be able to do much better than the Elvis Festival folks. And the couple of times that they did have someone I thought was worth seeing, the acoustics were so bad in the place that the shows were almost unbearable.
And just because Elvis had the misfortune to be born in Tupelo doesn't make Tupelo "entertainment friendly". No wonder he considered Memphis his "home". While Memphis has a lot of its own problems, it's a much more entertainment friendly city.
If it were positioned/marketed/promoted competently, a festival named for the King of Rock and Roll that had such an impact on music should be able to attract at least a couple such acts, probably for little or no money more than what they're paying these guys.
I remember once upon a time when North Mississippi All Stars played....wish they would come back. :)
It's really a shame that a festival in honor of the King of Rock and Roll can't seem to attract bigger acts!
Someone isn't doing something very well here.