Country Music Hall of Fame member Gordon Stoker of The Jordanaires
I really enjoyed it. All
of the singing is good and the music is good on every song throughout the
whole album. I especially enjoyed Mardi Gras Song and Justine.
Amy Kurland, owner of the world famous Bluebird Cafe
I love Les Kerr. He¹s
multi-talented, a great songwriter and artist. Les is a favorite with
Bluebird audiences, from his annual Mardi Gras crowd, to a recent group of
seniors who loved his songs and stories. The Crawfish Caravan album is fun
and real, and sounds like a great party. He¹s included some of my favorite
songs, Camellia Grill and Magnolia Springs, and the band is terrific.
Tricia Walker, recording artist & songwriter
Crawfish Caravan is yet
another wonderful reminder of Les Kerr's love of all things Southern – soul
food, New Orleans, eccentric characters, small towns, party music. I love
the joy that Les shares with an audience when he sings, so listen up 'cause
we all need a big dose of smiles. This CD is a
little bit o' dis and a little bit o' dat, stir it all up and enjoy...just
like a good gumbo...really tasty stuff!
Want to savor musically "The Big Easy?" You can almost taste the Jambalaya, Red Beans and Rice and Hurricanes on Les Kerr’s new CD Crawfish Caravan. This is a party CD with the sound, tempo and feel that is all Cajun. It is a treat for the senses; all that is missing is the beignet.
Dr. Randy
Cross, Humorist
I have listened to little besides
Crawfish Caravan during the past few days. What a great and diverse
collection of songs. Of course I like the standards such as "Cotton
Fields" and "House of the Rising Sun," but I also love "Slippin' into
Slidell," "Justine," and my favorite of all, "Ink By the Barrel," a tune I
cannot get out of my head. The arrangements, musicians, and vocals are
just exactly right. What a great CD.
[Crawfish Caravan is] a good time CD with a lot of memories for the sweet spots in life.
Howard Bahr, author (The Judas
Field, The Year of Jubilo, The Black Flower)
Nobody writes the old Coast like Les
Kerr. He is the James Lee Burke of music.
Nashville has its own bayou ambassador in Les Kerr, known for his Hillbilly Blues Caribbean Rock & Roll ... the CD certainly is an energetic romp, it’s also soulful ... It’s also a reminder of just how much there is to love about life.
Don & Sheryl Crow, Music City Bluesletter
With his latest release, Crawfish
Caravan, we think it is not only his best work, but his most
diverse, as well. And his stellar backing crew, The Bayou Band, seem to get
better each time we hear them.
Les Kerr's live performances are exciting and Crawfish Caravan captures the spirit of fun you find at one of his concerts.
Chuck Dauphin, Music News Nashville
It
seems that sometimes Cajun Music has become a lost art form. Outside of the Gulf
area, it doesn’t get as much attention as other styles of music. That’s a shame,
because if it’s done right, it can be quite entertaining. Les Kerr is a prime
example of that. The singer-songwriter has released a new disc that can be
summed up in one word – fun. If you want to hear something that will get your toe tapping, I
think you will find it here. I like this album a lot, and tip my hat
to Kerr for continuing to uphold a musical art form!
Chuck’s Rating:
Three and a Half out of four
guitars
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CHRISTMAS ON THE COAST
Commercial Appeal, Memphis, TN
12/14/02, Bill Ellis
Nashville-based guitarist/
singer Les Kerr wisely employs Elvis Presley greats the Jordanaires on
"Christmas on the Coast" (O.N.U. Records), a holiday album highlighted by Kerr's
hillbilly title track, the John Hartford number On Christmas Eve and a cool
surf-cum-cabaret retelling of Wayfaring Stranger.
The Clarion-Ledger, Jackson, MS 12/10/02, Sherry Lucas
Much hits home on Les Kerr's Christmas
on the Coast. Formerly of Jackson, the Nashville-based singer-songwriter has
ripe, new lyrics for Jingle Bells ("Dashing through the snow is one way to go/
But I'd rather row the pirogue down the old bayou"), and a stanza on the title
tune ("It might turn cold, but it might not/ Some years it was downright hot/
One thing's for sure, it never snows ...") is the perfect antidote to a White
Christmas overdose.
Mobile Register, Mobile, AL 12/3/02,
Lawrence Specker
"Christmas on the Coast" carries on the
style Kerr calls "Hillbilly Blues Caribbean Rock & Roll" with mellow roots-rock
arrangements leaving plenty of room for sing-along vocals.
The Point, Jackson, MS 12/4/02
A collection of unusual holiday
songs, Kerr brings his characteristic Southern blues, zydeco and Gulf Coast
sounds to the project, joined by the legendary gospel quartet The Jordanaires on
four of the tracks, including "Jingle Bells (Christmas in New Orleans)," "Your
Kiss is my Wish List," and "On Christmas Eve."
Jackson Free Press, Jackson, MS 12/5/02, Todd
Stauffer
…Kerr’s album mixes up well with the familiar songs that
jingle through your head on crisp, cool days around this time every year.
OffBeat Magazine, December, 2002, Robert Fontenot
[The Jordanaires] go a long way towards giving a real
old-fashioned Christmas feel to these simple country tunes laced with a hint of
zydeco, especially Kerr’s charming original title track and John Hartford’s "On
Christmas Eve."
Music City Bluesletter,
Sheryl and Don Crow
If you have ever
been to one of Les Kerr's Christmas shows, then you know what good cheer this CD
will bring to your holidays. If you haven't, by all means catch him live, and
then buy a copy of this great Christmas CD!! A grand collection of ten originals
and covers, this set will take you down to a cozy Christmas on the Gulf Coast,
where Les spent many a holiday in years past.
That "coastal Christmas" feeling comes thru on a new
take on "Jingle Bells (Christmas In New Orleans)" and the title tune, where "it
might get cold, but it might not." Add to that some great musicianship courtesy
of the Bayou Band and stellar backing vocals from the renowned Jordanaires (of
Presley fame!) and you have all you need for a down-home Christmas! "What The
King Didn't Know," written by Tammy Vice, is a fine tale of the true meaning of
Christmas and the birth of Christ. One of our favorites, again with fine work
from the Jordanaires, is a John Hartford tune, "On Christmas Eve," done up
acoustically with fine "eight-stringin" from Bryan Cumming on mandolin.
"Your Kiss Is My Wish List" is a bluesy mid-tempo
description of all Les wants from Santa. Keeping in the blues vein is "Christmas
By The Bar-Be-Que," with accordion from Jeff Lisenby and rubboard action from
Bayou Williford. One of the highlights of Les' holiday sets is his rendition of
Robert Earl Keen's "Happy Holidays, Y'all," presented here with backing vocals
from several females, most notably Allison Kerr, Tammy Vice, and Gail (Mrs. Les)
Kerr.
A spoken-word "Yes, Virginia" is an account of
Francis Church's editorial response to a letter from 8-year old Virginia
O'Hanlon's question in 1897, "Is there really a Santa Claus?," with Caroline and
Brent Stoker as Virginia and her dad. The instrumental "Wayfaring Stranger,"
where all the band members get a chance to shine, and a rockin' "Santa Claus Is
Comin' To Town" closes the set. This is a fine and most welcomed addition to our
holiday collection, and we encourage all our readers and members to make it a
part of theirs. Happy Holidays, Y'all!!!
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RED BLUES
The Tennessean, Nashville, TN
Nashville club
favorite Les Kerr has been playing his brand of Gulf Coast-informed rhythm and
country blues for years and his new album, Red Blues is his best recording to
date.
InReview, Nashville, TN
...as I am writing this piece, his new CD is playing,
and InReview's director of sales and marketing is dirty dancing in the
lobby. Expect similar results...
Mobile Register, Mobile AL
Songwriter and former Mobile resident Les Kerr once
again celebrates the area he used to call home on "Red Blues," his third
album...
Offbeat.com, Kathleen A. Rippy
Red Blues,
Nashville singer
songwriter Les Kerr's third CD, more than qualifies for
"blues" status by anyone's standards. It is a cryin', blues
guitar slidin', jumpin' and jivin' paean to lost love, roots and
homestead. In nearly every song, he is yearning to be somewhere else,
most often New Orleans, doin' something else.
Kerr's musical stylings aptly cover
the gamut from rockabilly to boogie to Caribbean beats with ease. He
calls his music "Hillbilly Blues Caribbean Rock and Roll."
Kerr's strong suit is his songwriting and his lyrics paint vivid and
often amusing pictures: about riding the streetcar line in New Orleans
on "Streetcar in the Rain," the kids on Bourbon Street who
tell you "where you got them shoes" (for a small fee) in
"The Sun Also Rises" and on his ode to his true loves, Memphis
and New Orleans, on "My Mistresses" where he laments
"Both live on the river and they both will take me in anytime that
I may be inclined. Neither one is jealous and I really do regret, I
can't be with them both at the same time." He gets off the yearning
track for a bit on a cleverly written tribute to gonzo journalist and
certified madman, Hunter S. Thompson. In a funny biographical sketch
Kerr sings, "I got tired of being told of what to do and where to
go, I took a leap and just said no from workin' nine to five. With a
case of beer and my left brain, I began my own campaign to rule all of
my domain, I'll be king here 'til I die." And then reveals
Thompson's credo to the blues world: "Hunter Thompson told me so,
when the going gets weird, the weird the weird turn pro. Here's to you
the great Gonzo, it's getting strange so here I go."
Kerr hails from Mississippi and
developed a deep love of the blues while growing up. His deep voice is
reminiscent of a bluesy Johnny Cash and his well-crafted guitar playing
lays down the perfect accompaniment for each song, be it electric, slide
or acoustic. Les Kerr is no stranger to the Crescent City–he's
performed at Margaritaville, the Maple Leaf and Carrollton Station.
Music City Bluesletter, Nashville, TN, Shannon Williford
"...stories that tell of life in the Tennessee-Gulf
Coast strip of America, where Les Kerr is at home anywhere."
"southerners and Irishmen...Buffett would have been
proud to have written this one."
"Sharecropping Cotton chopping Delta blues oughta be the
Mississippi Delta blues theme song."
"Streetcar in the Rain and Pray for New Orleans are
other tunes set in NOLA (New Orleans), lovely little sorrow songs that leave the
listener upbeat, which is, after all, the mark of a working blues song."
"Wanna hear some long lasting strong Southern music? Buy
this disc."
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BELOW THE LEVEL OF THE SEA
The Tennessean,
Nashville, TN
Go back to the
bayou tonight with the Cajun music of Les Kerr. A native of
Mississippi's Gulf Coast, Kerr...performs throughout the South. He
debuts his new CD, Below the Level of the Sea, at...the Bluebird Cafe.
Below the Level of the Sea, a fun, upbeat combination of blues, bluegrass, rock, New Orleans and island rhythms.
Belle Meade News,
Nashville, TN
Below the Level of
the Sea...contains ten songs, including eight written by the singer. The
songs reflect Kerr's Gulf Coast background and interest in numerous musical
styles. Cajun influences are also present in several of the album's
recordings.
Music City Bluesletter, Nashville, TN
Kerr is not just a
singer, not just a guitar player, not just a songwriter. He is indeed an
entertainer, bringing his own brand of savory Cajun, rock and blues music.