Spotlight On
Jerry LaCroix
By
James 'The Blues Hound" Nagel
It is indeed a pleasure to feature a true road warrior as
this month's spotlight artist. A soulful blues veteran whose
musical collaborations have taken him around the world with some
of the most talented musicians in the world.
Jerry LaCroix was born October 10, 1943 in Alexandria, LA,
a 30-mile journey from his kinfolk's home in nearby Jena. His
first musical exposure came by way of family.
What I was exposed to first was all of my aunts,
uncles, cousins, grandma, and grandpa sitting on the
front porch and singing and picking. They used to have
what I would call a jam session or shivaree. They would
all come and bring their instruments -- guitars, banjos,
mandolins, even a big bass fiddle. It would send cold
chills up and down your spine. There was a lot of talent
up there. That was my first influence. They loved
bluegrass, and bluesy, soulful country music.
So it gave you your first real love of music.
Oh, golly, yes. But then I discovered Little Richard,
Fats Domino, and Buddy Holly. Once I heard that kind of
music, well that was just something else.
So you used to tune into the late night radio shows?
Yeah. We used to get radio stations from Mexico, XERF,
and Del Rio, and get the Wolfman and John R, and they
were hipping us to all kind of good stuff. That kind of
turned me around right there.
As you were getting into your teens, were you primarily
doing vocal work or were you concentrating on an instrument?
In school I played clarinet in about the sixth grade.
Then I found out what a saxophone was and switched over
to that in the ninth grade. I heard rock and roll about
the same time, and I picked up a guitar and started
playing. That was the time when music was really good.
People like James Brown, Bobby Blue Bland, Aretha
Franklin, and Ray Charles came along, and they really
blew my mind.
The soulful balladeer type of music.
Yeah, more of a sophisticated blues. I liked the
horns, the horn bands, and the horn voicings. Edgar
Winter and I had a little group together, and we had
horns in it. We would sit down with our ear right next to
the speaker and go, what's that saxophone player playing.
We would pick out each bass note and each horn note
individually and then start figuring out what they really
were. This is like before we even knew what chords,
voicings and all of that stuff were. We just more or less
figured it out on our own. Later I went to Berkley School
of Music. Well, first I went to Lamar in Beaumont for two
years and majored in music, but they only taught
classical style of music. Three of the guys in the band
went up to Boston and got to hanging out at Berkley.
That's when we started learning what music was really all
about. They taught the jazz style, but we applied it to
rhythm and blues. We were playing all the real hot and
heavy R&B stuff.
Tell me more about your early days in music and how your
reputation was established.
I moved away from Louisiana when I was like 5 years
old and came over here to this house that I am in right
now speaking to you from. I went to school all through
the Port Neches-Groves school district from the first
grade on. Around the age of 14, 1 was in a little five
piece band called The Counts, and we played the Jimmy
Reed kind of stuff. Then we discovered horns and got two
saxophones, and it was like wow. We started experimenting
with a little harmony in the horns, got a trumpet player
and a trombone player, and formed a band called The
Dominoes. We were playing some really cool R&B stuff,
Guitar Slim and all the esoteric cool stuff that nobody
ever really heard. There was this hot spot across the
river that a group called JT Richard played at called The
Big Oaks Club. This was the happening place. The drinking
age in Louisiana was 18 and in Texas it was 2 1. People
would drive I 00 miles to go to this club, and cars would
be parked on the highway. We went over there and sat in
with JT Richard. We just knocked them out, and actually
more or less stole the job from JT Richard. He still
likes me though. I don't know why. But that's how we got
the gig, and our reputation started. The band grew a lot.
We kept adding horns until at one point, I had four
trumpets and five saxophones. We called that band
Thirteen Pieces of Sugar Coated Soul. I guess I got
addicted to horns. There was this other band in Louisiana
called the Boogie Kings that were very popular. We were
trying to buck them more or less. They played across the
river at one club, and we played at another club. When
they came to town, everybody went to see them. One night
we went across the street on our break to go hear this
fabulous band. Sure enough man, when we walked in the
door they had like a Hammond B3 organ, about five tenor
saxophones, a baritone saxophone, two or three trumpets,
and one of those Louisiana drummers. Man, they sounded
like a freight train coming through, just rolling right
over you. I said oh my, how are we going to compete with
this? We tried bucking them for a while, but we ended up
going if we can't lick these guys, we'll join them. And
we did. I joined them first and then, as spots became
available, I recruited the guys -- Gary, the bass player,
my bass player eventually, Dale Gauthier, my alto sax
player, and Bobby Ramirez, the drummer. We were more or
less like the Texas Boogie Kings. The Boogie Kings had a
name and a reputation, and they were hot. We had three
vocalists -GG Shannon, Gary Walker, and myself We would
trade off singing all the popular stuff of the day, in
the R&B vein, and made a show and revue out of it. We
would all sing at the same time; it was extremely
powerful. The band is still legendary.
How long did you stay with the Boogie Kings?
Off and on for probably seven or eight years. My big
break came when Edgar Winter got his big break in about
1970, and we did a White Trash album. I had formed a
smaller band out of a band that GG and I had put together
that was a spin-off of the Boogie Kings called the
Rollercoasters. Then I formed another band, a little
four-piece band. We went to Bourbon Street in New Orleans
and worked at the Ivanhoe. Everything else was strippers
and Dixieland on the street at that time. We were the
first ones to kind of break through, and we were the
first rock and roll, rhythm and blues. We were more of a
rock and roll band at that time, just four pieces with
two horns, a trumpet, sax, an organ player, and a
drummer. That was one of the most fun times of my life,
playing right on Bourbon Street. My stage name all back
through that era was Jerry Count Jackson, and we called
ourselves the Jackson Brewing Company. Anyway, that is
where I was playing when Edgar came down with his
manager, Steve Paul, and saw our band. They came in and
Edgar brought me an acetate of his Entrance album. After
the gig we went over to a friend's apartment and Edgar
put on this acetate and it just blew me away. He told me
his idea of putting together the best band in the world,
a super group. He planned to spend all of his front
money, going to Europe and all through the United States,
auditioning people to find the best players in the world.
I said well, what time are we leaving? So, I left and
went back with Edgar after a couple of weeks. He was
living in New York and I would sleep on the couch. We
commenced to write all of our original material for the
first White Trash album. Then we went on a tour like we
planned to do auditions in the major cities and try out
musicians and find the best musicians in the world. Well,
we never did make it to Europe because we spent all of
Edgars front money. But come to find out, we had already
played with the best musicians in the world. We already
knew who they were. The same guys we grew up playing
with, so we ended up using them. It was a hard lesson.
It was a wild ride with Edgar Winter and White Trash,
Yeah, it was probably the pentacle of my career so
far. It was wonderful. When White Trash broke up
everybody in the band, except Rick and Edgar, went with
me out to the West Coast. I got a solo deal out there. We
did an album called LaCroix with Columbia Records, Epic
actually, the same label White Trash was on. We went on
tour with Uriah Heap, and played Madison Square Garden
with Rod Stewart. We played all the hottest spots -- Cobo
Hall, The Spectrum in Philadelphia. We played in Chicago
and that's when there was a terrible accident, and Bobby
Ramirez, the drummer, got killed. Bobby started playing
with me when he was I were 14. He could like read my mind
and everybody else's too. He was the greatest drummer in
the world. When he died, the spirit of the band died too.
We tried to carry on a little while, but it was just too
hard.
Did you come back home?
No, I was living in California at the time. I went to
Connecticut and did a solo album with all the greatest
studio musicians in New York City that were available. I
had the Brecker Brothers, David Sanborn, Rick Merado (on
drums), and all the best rhythm players.
What was the name of that record?
It was The Second Coming. Right after that came out, I
got a call from Clive Davis, who I had dealt with all
through the White Trash years and the LaCroix album. You
have to understand that there was one time when the
LaCroix Band was in the studio and Clive Davis flew out,
and we played all of our original songs for him to see
what he thought. He stood up and gave us a standing
ovation. After that he came around and talked to me on
the side and said I love what you are doing. I love your
band, but for your live performances I want you to get a
star guitar player. He had a couple of guys in mind, but
I said I've got a star guitar player. I had a guy named
Barry Rowlero, who had played with Ray Charles, and he
now plays with the Righteous Brothers. I loved the way
Barry played. He played more R&B. Clive wanted me to
go with a more rock and roll guitar player, but I stuck
to my guns and kept Barry. Well, it seems like we kind of
got put on the shelf after I didn't do what Clive wanted
me to do. So this time when Clive called me and said
Jerry, I've got something that I want you to do. I want
you to come and sing in Blood, Sweat & Tears. I said
ok, whatever you say. My album had just come out and the
guys wanted to go on tour with me, but Blood, Sweat &
Tears were going on a world tour and I hadn't seen the
world. They enticed me to go, and I more or less put my
project on hold, but my album was released on Polygram
and Mercury. The album was barely off the presses when I
joined Blood, Sweat & Tears. I wrote a few songs on
the album, Mirror Image, and did the world tour with
them. That was quite interesting. Then I quit them.
It was a fairly short-lived project.
Yeah, I gave my notice while we were in Australia. We
were coming back to do one more big gig at Central Park.
I basically didn't care for Blood, Sweat & Tears
style. I loved to listen to them on record and
everything, but they are another one of those bands that
sounds good recording. Don't get me wrong, they had a
great horn section. I just wasn't very happy with the
rhythm section. They didn't seem to gel very well at the
time I was with them. Bobby Columbi, the drummer, was the
leader of the band. We would talk and he would say you
have a lot of great ideas, Jerry, why don't you take over
the band. I said, Bobby I couldn't do that because the
first thing I would have to do would be to fire you. I
would get another drummer. Bobby and I get along great.
He has taken on other roles, he's a manager and a big A
and R man out on the West Coast. He's got no problems.
Anyway, I gave my notice and came back. Then I got a call
from the manager of Rare Earth offering me a job. I
always loved Rare Earth, so I said let me go out there
and see what happens. I got there and my head was still
swimming. We were going to be on Don Kirschner's Rock
Concert. We hadn't even had a rehearsal. For national
television. I stayed with them until we just kind of
petered out. I had a great time with them. We did two
albums, one with Norman Whitefield.
Weren't you out in Vegas for a while after Rare Earth? I
thought you did some engineering and studio work out there.
Yeah, I had basically quit and retired after the Rare
Earth thing. Angel South, my guitar player from my early
days, was living in Reno and came and found me in Oregon
in a little town with a population of 250. I was cutting
firewood for a living, making about 18 cents an hour, but
I had a 28" waist. I was in shape. I'd sit on the
side of the mountain ... look around ... and wonder what
Edgar was doing. Angel knew a guy that had built a
studio, and they coaxed me to work in the studio. I
managed the studio and learned quite a bit about
engineering there from the local engineer. Our claim to
fame was that we cut Lionel Ritchie and Diana Ross'
Endless Love there. That was an experience that really
got me back into the music business.
I am glad you were enticed into returning. Having seen one
of your recent shows it's good to know that you have returned to
the formula that has made you so successful over the years.
I am as proud of the band I have now as I am of
anything I have ever done before. Since you saw me in
Conroe, I've added two more horns - another trumpet and
another baritone. I have five horns and when I play, it
is six. I'm playing keyboards in this band.. The Blues
Krewe is the latest band. We are more or less going back
to the roots, going back and playing the old blues -
things by Little Milton, Wilson Pickett, Little Junior
Parker, just getting back to the good old basics. We are
playing more or less obscure blues, but real hot hom
stuff and real soulful good dance music. I mean everybody
is just thrilled. We played in Beaumont at Red's Ice
House and had the biggest crowd they ever had. It's a new
club and we packed them out and turned them away at the
door.
You also did some recording with Jerry Lightfoot.
I hear from him from time to time but nothing has
really happened yet with all of the tragedy in his life.
Jerry's a great guy.
What else do you have in the works?
I'm working on a little tape and doing some homemade
projects. I'm doing a compilation tape of things I've
recorded in the past. A little package to give more or
less as souvenirs to people who come to see us. Demos, if
somebody wants to hear something. I'm also working on an
anthology. I'm getting my own CD burner so I can make my
own CDs out of the back end of the Winnebago. We're
currently working on the cover, the design, and the
songs.
How can people contact you regarding upcoming shows or
booking information?
They can call me at (409) 962-4315 or my e-mail
address is jerbear297@aol.com.
Tell everybody I love them and come see us.
Over the years the Golden Triangle has become a fertile
proving ground for Texas artists. Numerous blends of blues, soul,
rock, R&B, and Louisiana swamp pop have emerged, creating a
style of music unique to the Louisiana and upper Texas Gulf
Coast. The name Jerry LaCroix has become synonymous with this
style of music. A soulful blues troubadour whose music talks
directly to your heart and soul. Hard chargin', horn drivin'
music powerful enough to slam you up against a wall or tender
enough to lift you ever so gently into the arms of a new found
love. If you've ever seen or heard Jerry perform, you've
experienced firsthand his powerful voice. His song writing
abilities and his instrumental command over the saxophone,
keyboards, guitar, harmonica and other instruments further
enhance his talent giving him a wide variety of musical resources
to draw upon. Keep your eyes and ears open for the upcoming
release of Jerry's anthology.
Once again remember to support live music and those venues
that bring it to you. Until next month, keep the faith.