Dylan LeBlanc knows second chances don’t come around often. But, neither do voices like his.
Overwhelmed by the speed his gift would take him, from Applebee’s server to “the new Neil Young” in a matter of months, he walked away from an unlikely major label deal after releasing two critically acclaimed albums. He slipped into a blur of booze and self-doubt. Exhausted and damaged at just 23-years-old, Dylan came home to Muscle Shoals, Alabama to write a new life for himself.
In between the moments of clarity and a few familiar falls, he also wrote a new album, Cautionary Tale: a collection of shimmering, arresting songs with the same haunting vocals that caught the attention of Lucinda Williams and Bruce Springsteen, now with a sharpened edge honed by hastened maturity.
“This record is about me getting honest with myself,” says Dylan. “I had to let the guilt about the past go and find a new truth within myself. This time, I felt like I really had something to say.”
To help him say it, he sought out long-time friend Ben Tanner, the same guy who had secretly helped Dylan record his first songs after hours while working at fabled FAME Studios. (He also introduced a 16-year-old Dylan to Wilco, George Harrison, and Ryan Adams by way of an external hard drive). In between touring with Alabama Shakes, Ben was beginning to engineer records again at the label he started with another friend of Dylan’s, Grammy Award-winning musician John Paul White, formerly of the Civil Wars. The two both produced and played on Cautionary Tale.
Steve Byrne has risen through the ranks of the comedy world to become one of the industry's most innovative and sought-after performers. He has evolved throughout the years into an extremely versatile entertainer that delivers on a day-to-day basis. Hailing from Pittsburgh, PA, Steve Byrne was born to a Korean mother and an Irish father.
Byrne was the star and creator of Sullivan & Son, a half hour comedy on TBS along with Vince Vaughn's Wild West Productions for three solid seasons.
It all began after winning the 2006 TBS' cutthroat competition. As his popularity began to expand, Byrne was featured in his very own half-hour Comedy Central Presents which was voted as one of the best specials of all time in the Comedy Central Standup Showdown. His third hour special Champion debuted on Netflix in May 2014 to rave reviews and his two previous specials, Steve Byrne's Happy Hour & The Byrne Identity were two of the top rating specials on Comedy Central.
Byrne's acting resume includes feature films like The Dilemma, Couples Retreat, Four Christmases and The Goods: The Don Ready Story. His television resume aside from starring in three season of TBS' Sullivan and Son include ABC's The Middle, Chappelle's Show, The Howard Stern Show, NBC's The Real Wedding Crashers and standup appearances on TBS's Conan, ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live, CBS's The Late Late Show, BET's Comic View and a total of 10 appearances on NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
Rancho de La Luna Mezcal presents:
LEGENDS OF THE COCKTAIL
sponsored by: Rancho de La Luna Mezcal, One Eyed Jacks, New Orleans Ice Cream.
DAVID CATCHING and BINGO RICHEY will be hosting a night of entertainment and cocktails at ONE EYED JACKS, one of the very coolest bars/music venues in the world, located in the heart of the French Quarter.
Our featured guests and friends who will be performing for you, the best New Orleans has to offer:
- KING JAMES is the leader of King James & the Special Men.
His understanding of the groove, pocket, and swagger of the roots of Boogie, Rock and Soul will have you feeling like the slickest uptown cat around in zero seconds flat.
- MOJAVE LORDS is David Catching and Bingo with some of their best pals, blasting out selected hits from their collective catalogs. SUE FORD, EDDIE PAYNE and MISTER JIMMY FORD from DiNOLA will be teaming up with the 'LORDS for this excursion.
- GOOLS is an original power trio from New Orleans that makes real deal homemade freaky post-punk awesomeness from scratch, and leaves it ALL on the stage. No stage-diving, please.
- GOGO McGREGOR has won countless hearts and awards, and turned countless heads with her Burlesque. We are very pleased that she has agreed to grace our playbill and perform for you as our headliner with her special Midnight Burlesque. WOW!
Tales Of The Cocktail is one of the largest Spirits conferences in North America, and will be in full swing on Friday night, July 19.
Over a decade old with a discography reaching double figures across several different labels (Loglady, Mexican Summer, Buger, Lollipop, Plastic Response, Mother of Pearl, Sweaters; Pearls, Voice Academy, Sixteen Tambourines, Fuzz City, Volar, Volcom) David Loca’s work under the Part Time moniker really shouldn’t require any introduction. Nonetheless, David Loca crafted a lo-fi bedroom-recorded sound that is equal parts psychedelic pop, soft rock and primitive synth pop. He has cranked out many records. Mexican Summers’ What Would You Say, Burger Records’ Double-LP Virgo’s Maze, Mother of Pearls ‘Return to Cherry’ and the Lollipop/Plastic Response co-release Double-LP H.F.M. are definite must listen highlights.
Joined on stage by a full band, and using them on his first studio album of newly written songs, old songs, and some written on the spot, -- and Ariel Pink on one track – polished up the wobbly ‘80s psych pop and soft rock sound without losing any of its inherent oddness. Spell #6 was released in late 2018 by Burger.
- Roy Munson- Rolling Stone
ight Moves new album, Can You Really Find Me, pulsates and glows with the same sublime energy that radiated from breakout single “Carl Sagan” in 2016, however in the intervening years, John Pelant and Micky Alfano have grown up. The songwriting, while still steeped in super-catchy, velvety riffs and pure pop glaze, feels more sophisticated and modern. Since the pair met in high school, awestruck by such ear-candy wizards as Brian Wilson, Todd Rundgren, Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham, they set off to craft their version of what sophisticated, emotional modern pop music can and should sound like. 2016’s Pennied Days was a breakthrough, and set a new bar for the members of Night Moves. After spending the subsequent two years on Can You Really Find Me, they’ve scaled new heights, where the sounds are still just as sweet, but now smarter, more evocative, and perfectly designed for a summer release.
So how did something that feels so warm and breezy – like the perfect summer soundtrack – emerge from the dead of a bleak and frigid Minneapolis winter? Pelant and Alfano sequestered themselves, dreaming their way out of the cold by writing songs like “Coconut Grove,” a whirly psychedelic love song, and “Ribboned Skies,” a blazing ode to guitars and syncopation. Minneapolis has always played a part in the creative process for these dyed-in-the-wool locals. Long heralded as local hot shots in the cold, desolate, land of Prince, Westerberg and Dylan, John and Micky have still never stopped working the grind; in donut shops, bakeries and restaurants, toiling to make ends meet yet trying find beauty in the mundanity, and in the tranquil midnights.
