Beatin Path is an instant fix. Engaging lyrics together with great hooks unmistakably place this band head and shoulders above many recent pop acts. Their live show is an engaging, musical and raucous celebration of all that’s New
Orleans rock and roll.
Beatin Path’s sound is rife with influences you will recognize but you won’t quite be able to pinpoint, by melding their idiosyncratic lyrics with wonderful melodies that call to mind an accessable Elvis Costello). The music is eminently listenable and the lyrics are richly complex at the same time—a talent not gone unnoticed as they have been tapped to open for bands the likes of Gov’t Mule, The Meters, Better than Ezra and The Gourds.
Although Beatin Path has been around for 10 years and has released 3 records, it was Hurricane Katrina that got them on the road. After the New Orleans flood, the band appeared in the HBO documentary Music In Exile alongside artists including Dr. John, Cowboy Mouth, and Irma Thomas, and was filmed for a Showtime documentary and a French television feature on New Orleans artists as well. During this time, the band toured like never
before, and found an audiences that proved to be unanimously enthusiastic and supportive. Rolling across the country in an RV they christened “Daisy,” the band spent an unprecedented amount of time together and proceeded to write more songs than they had in their entire history. Eventually, they narrowed down the results of this marathon to a group of 20 songs they sent to their favorite New Orleans musician and arranger, Peter Holsapple. Holsapple loved the collection and chose ten songs he felt would make a great record, offering to meet with the band for an arrangement session. In the meantime, Beatin Path continued touring and enlisted fellow musician Paul Sanchez, (recently departed from Cowboy Mouth to embark on a solo career), to contribute to several of the tracks for the record.
The result is “Ghosts.” Introspective and personal, their fourth album deals with topics ranging from rebuilding a home destroyed by Katrina to a love affair with the RV that took the band across the country. It retains a funky New Orleans flavor while continuing to do what Beatin Path does best-infusing energy and playfulness into great alt-country songs.
Check out a couple of Beatin Path tunes!
Nobody
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Love is Stupid
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Visit the band’s MySpace page.
