New Orleans’ Sweet Crude are just coming off a win for “Best Rock Band” at the Big Easy Awards and they recently thrilled audiences at Jazz Fest. Now, they have a new EP Critters releasing June 8th, highlighted by this premiere track, “Mon Esprit”. “Rock” doesn’t totally fit this eclectic band that roots their music in the musical moods of Louisiana, but brings a melodic pop sense to the proceedings. Maybe we should just call it Louisiana rock. Sweet Crude is an extremely exciting new group with haunting and mesmerizing vocals sung in Louisiana French and English. This group is going places and will be hitting a bunch of festivals this summer, including Festival du Voyageur in Winnipeg, Gasparilla Festival in Tampa, Savannah Stopover, and FrancoFolies Festival in Montréal. Meanwhile, they plan to release their debut full-length album Créatures later this year with an extensive North American tour.
The band tells us that “‘Mon Esprit’ is essentially a torch song where the singer is lamenting what could have been, or what should have been, in a marriage gone stale. Sidenote: I really enjoy the challenge of writing about the female condition, especially where I have absolutely no expertise (I’ve never been married, and, unless my parents are keeping something from me, I’ve always been a guy). In the lyrics, a couple makes a big change in life and moves off to the country somewhere, probably at the insistence of the husband: ‘Ça va faire du bon, les arbres et l’air frais…’ (‘It’ll do you some good, the trees and the fresh air…’). She goes through the motions, for the sake of the family: ‘On l’a fait pour les enfants; on l’a fait pour être content.’ (‘We did for the kids; we did it to be happy’). All the while, she’s dying inside at the sacrifice of her own independence.
The song is really, as our producer Sonny DiPerri enlightened us, a funeral march in mourning of one’s own soul being choked to death. This is why our own Alexis Marceaux allows the character to have her one source of freedom: her voice. She belts in the chorus: ‘Je vas chanter pour réveiller mon âme… Je vas chanter pour libérer mon esprit.’ (‘I’m gonna sing to awaken my soul… I’m gonna sing to free my mind.’). Naturally, Alexis sells the hell out of those lines.”
TOUR DATES
6/8 – New York, NY at Rockwood Music Hall
6/9 – Brooklyn, NY at Brooklyn Bowl (Northside Fest)
6/10 – Kingston, ON at Tett Center
6/11 – Montreal, QB at FrancoFolies de Montréal