Review: The Deslondes ‘Roll It Out’

Review: The Deslondes ‘Roll It Out’

By Hal Horowitz

Despite their familial name, The Deslondes are not related. But the quintet’s music is so organic, comfortable and synergistic, it seems like they are.

Named after the street in New Orleans where early rehearsals were held, The Deslondes have crafted a catalog of low-key, occasionally ragged yet casually spellbinding albums since 2015s debut. Their fourth, Roll It Out, maintains that approach, even though one of the original members has been replaced.

Unlike most groups, The Deslondes all compose the material (individually, not in collaboration with each other), take turns singing lead and harmonies, and are multi-talented players, constantly swapping instruments on stage depending on the tune. That demonstrates their family-fashioned relationship, reflected in music that never feels overly structured, while still sounding concise and organized.

Describing them is difficult because the songs display such varied influences. You’ll hear country, hobo folk (their description), blues, rockabilly, swamp and soul. Probably some more too. Like New Orleans, where they formed, there is no shortage of stimuli, but it’s how they mesh those genres that makes The Deslondes’ art so unique, written, played and sung in their own relaxed, easygoing way.

It’s easy to picture these guys hanging out on their back porch on a humid New Orleans summer night, doing a guitar pull, each playing a new original tune while the others spontaneously join in the rootsy fun.

From the gruff yet comforting vocals of the opening ballad “Hold on Liza” (written by Riley Downing, who recorded a few solo albums between his work with the Deslondes) to the Everly Brothers’ frisky folk of “Take Me Back” and the bluesy, soulful pace of “Who Really Loses,” the members find their groove and float with it.

If that also references JJ Cale, it’s no surprise to hear the late Okie icon covered in the closing, sparse “Drifter’s Wife.” The group takes that brief deep track from 1982s Grasshopper and extends it by over a minute. They add cool as a country stream harmony vocals with some pedal steel and turn it into a Deslondes’ tune, complete with a cowboy lope that’s hypnotic and enchanting.

That describes all of these 13 succinct selections, only one of which breaks the four minute mark. Push play on “Grand Junction” for a downbeat high-lonesome ditty with a deceptively subdued guitar solo and some traveling-on lyrics and vocals similar to Waylon Jennings’ singing “So come on let’s let it roll.” On “Lies I’ve Told,” a lowdown harmonica and unhurried rhythm reflect the words “Sing a little prayer for me” sung with hangdog reflection. We look backwards for the humorous, self-deprecating high school slow country dance of “Go Out Tonight.” Here the shy singer complains “I didn’t want to keep saying hi/I didn’t wanna be that guy/Talking ‘bout the same thing all the time”…finally admitting at the close “Now the band is playing and I feel all right/Same thing happens every night.” It displays the dry wit occasionally evident in The Deslondes’ style.

Any barriers between blues and soul are erased on the retro sing-along “Pour Another Round,” where homeboys Tuba Skinny provide horns on this swaggering drinking song.

Credit for the band’s success also goes to co-producer Andrija Tokic who has been devoted to The Deslondes for the duration of their recorded career. He keeps the sound grounded to fill out the audio on their rootsy repertoire. Kudos also to the scrappy New West label for sticking with a band that is never going to sell tonnage.

The family that plays together stays together, as the saying goes. While The Deslondes may not be bound by blood, they congeal musically with an intimacy and fraternal connection seldom displayed by other acts.

“Take Me Back”