00:00:01 - 00:00:04 Speaker 1

And.

00:00:04 - 00:00:21 Speaker 1

Then.

00:00:21 - 00:00:22 Speaker 2

We call the.

00:00:22 - 00:00:27 Speaker 3

Chicken pig and.

00:00:27 - 00:00:57 Speaker 2

Louisiana music Hall of Famer Jonathan 'Boogie' Long on Soul Country #5. Recorded in the 2024 New Orleans Cigar box guitar. I'm Ric Stewart, a community radio DJ since 1986. An award winning filmmaker edits some real life podcasts to get deeper into soul country. He's got where we lasso tales from the intersection of countrified R&B and bluesy American listening as we revitalize our cultural roots in Western blues and variety.

00:00:57 - 00:01:23 Speaker 2

Now, a word from our sponsor. These productions documentary Blues Rock hits Soul Country is chock full of exclusive performances and interviews from rock and roll Hall of Famers and Grammy winner. It's the origin story of Soul country. Check it out at Soul country.com. Well, Jonathan played and chatted about a wide range of styles, inspirations and collaborations, and here's how it all went down.

00:01:23 - 00:01:28 Speaker 2

Are you still boogie long? Officially, because the last couple records. I think you dropped it on the, and the actual title.

00:01:28 - 00:01:51 Speaker 3

I am Boogie Long, officially. I really always have been. That was like a managerial or like a label decision to kind of pull it out, pull the boogie out of my name. And I was just Jonathan Long for a while, and it was really just because they didn't want anybody to have a preconceived notion of like stylistically of any kind of music that I might play.

00:01:52 - 00:01:54 Speaker 2

So let's throw in a little music break.

00:01:54 - 00:01:58 Speaker 3

I do a lot of writing. I mean, obviously we do a lot of blues.

00:01:59 - 00:02:12 Speaker 1

And some of.

00:02:12 - 00:02:16 Speaker 1

The.

00:02:16 - 00:02:23 Speaker 3

Blues. I guess I kind of consider myself more of an Americana writer these days, because I write a lot of different things.

00:02:23 - 00:02:29 Speaker 2

Do people apply the term like southern rock to what you do, because you played with the D.C. top at one point? I had them.

00:02:29 - 00:02:30 Speaker 3

For easy to. Yeah. Yeah.

00:02:30 - 00:02:32 Speaker 2

Then you get together to jam with them at all.

00:02:32 - 00:02:35 Speaker 3

Oh, no. It was it was weird. You know.

00:02:35 - 00:02:37 Speaker 2

He plays with a pace, so I heard I never got close enough to really.

00:02:37 - 00:02:47 Speaker 3

Oh, pesos. Yeah. And I have one. It's kind of tinny. It sounds a little metal on metal, and it's, it's super heavy. You don't really get no flex with it, you know?

00:02:48 - 00:02:52 Speaker 2

Did you move across, like, different picks? Like the round flat and the same fingerpicking?

00:02:52 - 00:03:00 Speaker 3

I did, I just like a round pick. Blue chip picture. My favorite picks, but they're way too expensive.

00:03:00 - 00:03:02 Speaker 2

Did you play on the night? More bare finger or.

00:03:02 - 00:03:10 Speaker 3

I did up tonight. I kind of played bare finger because cigar box. You have to kind of get that.

00:03:10 - 00:03:13 Speaker 3

That little back and forth kind of, you know, groove going.

00:03:13 - 00:03:16 Speaker 2

Let's talk a little bit about the musical environment that you grew up in.

00:03:16 - 00:03:43 Speaker 3

My parents were gospel singers and ministers growing up. So I grew up in like a Southern Baptist kind of gospel type home. We would sing hymnals and have singing nights at my grandparents house and stuff, and, then when I was 11 years old, I got introduced to the blues jams and stuff, about 11 or 12. I had a guitar since I was about 6 or 7, and then I took lessons for about a year and a half or so when I was when I was about nine.

00:03:43 - 00:03:51 Speaker 3

So, and then I just kind of it just kind of took off and I did my own thing. I mean, I've, I've had a road, a road gig since I was 14.

00:03:51 - 00:03:58 Speaker 2

So do you see gospel, blues, R&B and rock as all being kind of the same stuff, or would you say they're very different or how you can think of it?

00:03:58 - 00:04:26 Speaker 3

I think gospel, blues and gospel in particular, African American music as a whole, really has influenced everything to an extent. From where we are to where we are now. You know, like classical music influenced a lot of stuff from the 1890s or whatever, but from where we are now, as far as music, having soul, I mean, that's where the real soul comes from.

00:04:26 - 00:04:52 Speaker 3

I mean, I grew up on I grew up on gospel and, and R&B. There was a lot of guitar players, too, you know, Michael Burke, Sean Lane, whatever, but but, Jill Scott, the Clark Sisters, Frankie Beverly and Mase, Daryl Cooley Ranch. Allen, you know, a lot of gospel singers. I mean, I was really into singers just as much as I was, like, guitar players.

00:04:53 - 00:05:01 Speaker 3

I definitely listened to more gospel and R&B than I did White Skin or Stevie Ray records or anything like that. You know.

00:05:01 - 00:05:10 Speaker 2

What about the I guess in my generation, I'm a little older than you are. Like, classic rock was almost like all anybody was ever talking about. Did it get to you in the end somehow? Yeah.

00:05:10 - 00:05:25 Speaker 3

I mean, it did. I had a I had a Bourbon Street gig when I was 16, so, I mean, I played classic rock. I played all the hits, and, so, I mean, I did listen to a lot of that stuff, but I don't, I don't know what, like the back of my hand. Like, a lot of people do, you know.

00:05:25 - 00:05:43 Speaker 3

But I grew up, I grew up listening to gospel and R&B, like I said, or just like spirituals and, you know, some fusion bands, like, one of my favorite bands is a band called the Aquarium Rescue Unit. Like what? You know, but I love that band, Colonel Bruce Hampton Inn, Oteil Burbridge. So I love all those all that stuff.

00:05:44 - 00:05:48 Speaker 2

Tell me a little bit about the Baton Rouge scene. Would you say you kind of came up in that scene and what, like.

00:05:48 - 00:06:08 Speaker 3

I did, I came up in Baton Rouge, I came up around the Neal family, Kenny Neal, little Ray Neal. I came up around Larry Garner. They were all tours. And Kenny Acosta, a lady named Dixie Rhodes, who's a singer songwriter from Baton Rouge, actually gave me my first paying gig and introduced me to the blues jam scene.

00:06:08 - 00:06:29 Speaker 3

So I owe a lot of where I am to her and her influence. As far as getting me out of the music store and into public, you know, so I definitely I definitely grew up on the Baton Rouge scene and around all those people, you know, I spent a lot of time at the guitar store, you know, at my local music store.

00:06:29 - 00:06:34 Speaker 3

I mean, I slammed around and played guitar all day. I mean, that's all I wanted to do.

00:06:34 - 00:06:40 Speaker 2

So it says in the, the internet, coverage of you that the Henry Turner Junior Band was the first one you got going with this. Yeah.

00:06:40 - 00:07:01 Speaker 3

Henry Turner in flavor. I, so that's the story is I was 14 years old. I dropped out of school, and, my my my parents signed partial custody of me over Henry Turner, so that I could play clubs and play music, around the country. So I was 14, and I played bass in, actually, funnily enough, a reggae band.

00:07:01 - 00:07:06 Speaker 3

It would be like 2003 or so, something like that. Oh, 3 or 4.

00:07:06 - 00:07:12 Speaker 2

That's a key position, though, in the reggae, lineup, because you got the drum and bass concept. It's forward the bass.

00:07:12 - 00:07:15 Speaker 3

Oh, dude, I had to learn everything like the like like the recording.

00:07:15 - 00:07:19 Speaker 2

So I first saw you, you were playing with Luther Kent's band. That's been a long association as well.

00:07:19 - 00:07:44 Speaker 3

Sure. I got that gig. When I was about 18 or 19, you know, or somewhere in between there. And, I play Jazz Fest with him every year since then, pretty much. And he only does a few big band shows a year, but I play with his big band. So when he has a 12 piece big band, he'll generally call me first to come play guitar.

00:07:44 - 00:07:45 Speaker 3

And then if I can make it, I'll be.

00:07:45 - 00:07:55 Speaker 2

In some of what you've established, it sounds like, in that in that band's a case in point is the sort of this role as an accompanist in that. So you're here tonight at the cigar box office, or you're the solo guy, you're sitting and you're in front.

00:07:55 - 00:08:25 Speaker 3

You know, I've always been a player and a songwriter and everything. I mean, you have to learn, you know, growing up and just play a music with other people and learn kind of how to accompany and kind of how to fit in and certain musical situations. You not step on people's toes and this and that, and, then when I do my own thing, it's, you know, it's about it's about what I'm trying to do or what I want.

00:08:25 - 00:08:33 Speaker 3

So, so here's a little verse in American.

00:08:33 - 00:08:51 Speaker 3

I was driving all alone down the freeway when a man and tattoo closed down in front of me. He said, sir, where are you going? It's been a long day. I said, I'm headed east just to get away.

00:08:51 - 00:09:19 Speaker 3

He told stories how he went from rags to riches. But I didn't believe him. Curse. His clothes had many stitches, and his walking shoes were taped up and wore them. But I don't remember seeing that old hitchhiking friend. And he said, I got everything I need to live in this old world. I got a pair of clothes, my walking shoes in the house made out of cardboard.

00:09:19 - 00:09:49 Speaker 3

Happier than I've been in this life for any other. Never judge a book by the clothes right? You know, so that's a verse. And of course, also thought it's very Americana. Yeah. You know, about an old hitchhiker. You know, it's all about when you're when you're a sideman. It's all about making that front man's job as easy as possible or as, the kind of side man that I was.

00:09:49 - 00:10:08 Speaker 3

As a band like Phish, everybody works together, but you know what I mean? But in the Big Loser kit and trick bag, my job is to make Luther King's job as easy as possible. When I'm a sideman, I try to to, fall into the groove of what's happening, to just give him a pallet to be able to do his thing on top of.

00:10:08 - 00:10:12 Speaker 2

Would you say there's other sidemen that you noticed? Hey, that guy's really good at that job.

00:10:12 - 00:10:33 Speaker 3

Guitar players, I mean, Cranston Clemens is amazing. Austin C car. There's a ton of guys down here that are just, Well, Austin played on bourbon. I mean, they both played on bourbon. Really? Cranston's played with everybody. There's a fiddle player named Mike Harvey that's really good at the company. And people, you know, Mike Landler, obviously on keyboard.

00:10:33 - 00:11:04 Speaker 3

I mean, just like anytime I do like a gig, like cigar box, first of all, it's kind of improved. Nothing that I did up there today was rehearsed. Yeah. In in any way. Because it's to me, like, the whole thing that makes cigar box fun is how authentic it sounds and how it really sounds like you're sitting on the front porch playing the old school stuff and, and, I think the less polished, the better it goes over for what it is.

00:11:04 - 00:11:07 Speaker 3

You know, for the blues, it's so universal.

00:11:07 - 00:11:07 Speaker 2

Yes.

00:11:07 - 00:11:29 Speaker 3

These are the beautiful, the standards. That's the beautiful thing about the blues. It's it's, it's universal, you know, once the groove, once the, the drummer kicks the groove off and the bass players in the rest of the band is in, you know, everybody is in and on point, and it's. I mean, they've been playing the same songs for, you know, since Luther was probably 16.

00:11:29 - 00:11:37 Speaker 2

But we're talking about also that joy of playing standards or something that's pretty good about these songs. It's kind of a little bit of a release, even if it's not, your composition is great to join in these days.

00:11:37 - 00:11:50 Speaker 3

Oh, it's great, it's great. And, their standards for a reason. They're standards because they they lasted the test of time. That's what that's what makes it the standard. All we're doing is borrowing it to have a good time with, you know.

00:11:50 - 00:11:56 Speaker 2

Yeah, a lot of bands are based on that model. We're going to play these these standards until we get so good enough to like, write our own writer. Someone's based on.

00:11:56 - 00:11:56 Speaker 3

That.

00:11:56 - 00:12:05 Speaker 2

That's right. Yeah, yeah. Talk about another kind of series of, locations you played in known as the Chitlin Circuit. What's that like now? What's the status of that chitlin circuit?

00:12:05 - 00:12:40 Speaker 3

Man? I haven't been on it in so long. I mean, back when I was on it, male waiters in Solomon Burke were still around, and, you had the Otis Ely as Sir Charles Jones, Denise LaSalle, Bettye LaVette. It's it's very, cookout southern. So more of, like a family gathering, you know? Oh, it's a level above the juke joint because you, they actually put a show together where there's three, 4 or 5 bands on the bill and, you know, sell tickets and.

00:12:40 - 00:12:42 Unknown

I'm gonna. I'm the.

00:12:42 - 00:12:50 Speaker 1

And I'm gonna give me a mojo. Oh, hey.

00:12:50 - 00:13:01 Speaker 1

I am on am pretty women go back black me.

00:13:01 - 00:13:09 Speaker 2

We talked about how you got in the business like super young. What would be your advice to, like, a 15 year old looking to get into the music world?

00:13:09 - 00:13:17 Speaker 3

Write songs, write as many songs as you can, and it doesn't.

00:13:17 - 00:13:40 Speaker 3

People, a lot of people will give it all to be able to do what we do. So don't ever be nervous to get up there and do it. If you have. If you have an ounce of talent in your body, get up there and entertain and just and just really let loose and try to do it. And, definitely, definitely write as much songs and be as original as possible.

00:13:40 - 00:13:51 Speaker 3

And you don't have to have millions of dollars worth of equipment to make it happen. You don't you don't have to have the best of the best to be real. And authentic. You know.

00:13:51 - 00:13:52 Speaker 2

You can do a lot with an iPhone.

00:13:52 - 00:13:57 Speaker 3

Billie Eilish got five Grammys on an Apollo Logic Pro race, $2,500 worth of equipment.

00:13:57 - 00:13:59 Speaker 2

You don't you don't even need to have a garage to have a band.

00:14:00 - 00:14:22 Speaker 3

You can produce anything on anything. Nowadays, the sky is the limit. Just be creative and be real, you know? And then unfortunately, one other, one other piece of advice is, is do your social media, you know, that's one place I struggle on is social media. And stay on top of that and really build it up because that's what matters.

00:14:22 - 00:14:26 Speaker 2

Now moving on to shows. What would you say makes a good show great.

00:14:26 - 00:14:59 Speaker 3

Playing a show where the audience is there to hear the music, like tonight they there was no talking, there was no conversation. It was you could hear a pin drop in the room. They were attentive. That's that's that's that's the best kind of shows when people were there, really there to hear the music. I know, I know in the first 3 or 4 or five minutes, whether it's going to be a great show or not, just by coming out and, and just just the way you connect with the audience right off the bat or just straight from the beginning, you know, and you just got to come out and own it

00:14:59 - 00:15:02 Speaker 3

and just and just take control of stage, you know?

00:15:02 - 00:15:06 Speaker 2

And is that change when you're the front man versus being in the big band is in it more about, you.

00:15:06 - 00:15:22 Speaker 3

Know, I've always been I've always been flashy and kind of full of fire. I mean, I've always made faces and moved around too much. I did a gig when I was 18 with Doctor John, and I was playing behind my head doing all this crazy stuff, and I don't think I ever got called again for another thing. I'm like centric.

00:15:22 - 00:15:39 Speaker 3

I have the I have, I've always I've always overplayed a little bit and I've always just kind of like, done my own thing and just been my own person. So, I mean, like, like, they know. They know what they're going to, you know, they when you get boogie along on the boogie along with you, that's they people know.

00:15:39 - 00:15:48 Speaker 3

You know what I mean? I feel like I can play most most any style and kind of fit into whatever situation, you know.

00:15:48 - 00:15:55 Speaker 2

But yeah. How much information do you really need to get if you're not too familiar with the song to be able to just kind of go ahead and play.

00:15:55 - 00:16:02 Speaker 3

Generally, I mean, I can play stuff over it the first time around, but I'll know the changes after the first time. So I just.

00:16:02 - 00:16:04 Speaker 2

I just kind of tell you this is the key here.

00:16:04 - 00:16:05 Speaker 3

They they'll.

00:16:05 - 00:16:06 Speaker 2

Say in tempo and.

00:16:06 - 00:16:28 Speaker 3

Bam, they'll say, you know, and then I'll know if it's A16, two five change or one, three, 4 or 5, whatever the you know, I got my little number. Everybody knows the national number system, but I got my little number system. And it's the same patterns every time, you know. So like once you understand the major scale, you can hear the scale, degree without even having a guitar on your hand.

00:16:28 - 00:16:51 Speaker 3

You can tell whether it's starting on the minor six or whatever. I mean, you can hear it without even having an instrument. So I can listen to a song and chart out the whole song with no guitar, and then pick the guitar up and go, oh jeez, the one I learned to play by ear at a young age, like I learned to I learned, my first guitar teacher, Mark Wahlstrom, taught me how to figure it out.

00:16:51 - 00:17:10 Speaker 3

That was like his way of teaching. You know, I would bring him something and he would say, oh, let me hear. Got me listen to that. And then he would listen to it for a couple minutes of hear me play it, you know, and that's how I learned. That's how I learned to play like like, you know, figuring it out on the on the fly, you know.

00:17:10 - 00:17:28 Speaker 2

Yeah, let's do something like that. That's kind of like you talk about the boogie thing, you know, the boogie beat with some variations on like where you might take that.

00:17:28 - 00:17:29 Speaker 1

Sound.

00:17:29 - 00:17:37 Speaker 3

You know. So I mean, there's just but it's all the same thing at the end of the day. You know what I mean? Whether you play the pattern.

00:17:37 - 00:17:44 Speaker 3

Or whether you play it or whether you play.

00:17:44 - 00:17:56 Speaker 3

You know, it's all the same thing. It's just all about how or what groove or what pattern you want to play. You know, there's shuffles, there's Chicago blues, Memphis blues, there's Texas blues. Oh, you know, there's.

00:17:56 - 00:18:04 Speaker 2

I was going to ask that about Baton Rouge, but do you see it as being kind of more country or more urban with like the sort of blues that happens? It's known for its blues.

00:18:04 - 00:18:22 Speaker 3

Well, it's a Baton Rouge is it's got a big blues scene, but it's got a bigger southern soul thing. So, so, so that group would be like a.

00:18:22 - 00:18:29 Speaker 3

You know, and then.

00:18:29 - 00:18:37 Speaker 3

You know, so it's that kind of it's more of like, more of like, bouncy, kind of like R&B, more soul by. Because I had Jackie Neal.

00:18:38 - 00:18:48 Speaker 2

Those guys have a good, good grasp on the country, some element of that. Oh, I'll bring it into it. Like was New Orleans or, you know, Chicago even. You know, it'll be sophisticated in some other kind of way, you know? Yeah.

00:18:48 - 00:18:52 Speaker 3

No, 100% and Baton Rouge Blues definitely has its own sound. You know.

00:18:52 - 00:18:54 Speaker 2

Slim Harpo was one of my favorites.

00:18:54 - 00:18:55 Speaker 3

Oh for sure. Yeah, yeah.

00:18:55 - 00:18:57 Speaker 2

Tracks.

00:18:57 - 00:19:01 Speaker 2

And buddy Guy gets associated with those originally from there, but he put a lot of time.

00:19:01 - 00:19:04 Speaker 3

Well, he, he had a house there for a while. He could still do residency.

00:19:04 - 00:19:06 Speaker 2

Yeah.

00:19:06 - 00:19:16 Speaker 3

Yeah. I grew up with, what his brother Sam. You know, I grew up around Sam guy. He was, he was a, staple around there, you know?

00:19:16 - 00:19:21 Speaker 2

Okay, let's talk about your recent releases. You had two produced by Samantha Fish for the Wild Heart label.

00:19:21 - 00:19:51 Speaker 3

Yeah, for Wild Heart Records. They're still out there. Self-titled Jonathan Long. And then I have one called parables of a Southern Man. We don't work together anymore, but, she produced two records on me, and, I have a new project I'm working on now. I actually went and track ten songs, but I kind of shelved them for the time being because I got a recording project, that I'm working on with to to pretty influential guys, you know, so that, that,

00:19:51 - 00:19:53 Speaker 2

That we're in the pre announcement phase of that.

00:19:53 - 00:20:09 Speaker 3

Well kind of sort of yeah. Jim Odom the owner of personas, he sold personas defender. But Jim Odom is going to try to help me produce a record of. So that's kind of like my next move right now. We're just kind of in the writing phase and, like, really trying to figure that stuff out.

00:20:09 - 00:20:16 Speaker 3

But, and I still got Jazzfest in Baton Rouge blues fast. And I'm going back to Romania in July and I got stuff coming up.

00:20:16 - 00:20:22 Speaker 2

So writing songs, does that come naturally, or is that like a process that you follow to try and get the result?

00:20:22 - 00:20:44 Speaker 3

It kind of comes naturally. Everybody has like some, some sort of writer's block, you know, but it's weird because I'll write songs while driving. I'll write songs just sitting there randomly and think of a line and like, really kind of start grooving on it. I'll write, I'll have a verse. And of course that have that just happens.

00:20:45 - 00:21:05 Speaker 3

Like it'll just I will write itself in two minutes and then I'll be stuck on the rest of the song for two years, you know, it's just, there's, different problems. Everybody has their own process, their own way of going about it. I'm here. Everything in my head, all at one time. But it kind of it does kind of come naturally.

00:21:05 - 00:21:13 Speaker 3

It's not. It's not even that every song that I write is a great song, but but the writing of it comes, comes kind of naturally.

00:21:13 - 00:21:20 Speaker 2

How do you feel about, like adding like whatever, more elaborate arrangement with horns and keyboards and that kind of stuff? Is that how do you love?

00:21:20 - 00:21:41 Speaker 3

I would love to do that. I would love to have more arrangement, but I've always been taught, don't put anything on the record that you're not going to have out on the road with you playing. You know, I haven't toured enough in my career. I play a lot of festivals, and I'm going to like, you know, touring more and doing more club dates in between festival dates and stuff like that is a big goal of mine.

00:21:42 - 00:21:43 Speaker 3

Like, I want to I want to feel.

00:21:43 - 00:21:46 Speaker 2

Much inroads into Europe. I know a lot of Louisiana.

00:21:46 - 00:21:53 Speaker 3

I'm going to Europe. I'll go back in July. I've been to, I've been to Sweden, I've been to Romania, Kosovo, Belgium, Germany.

00:21:53 - 00:21:55 Speaker 2

There's going to be the bigger audience, crowds of the year.

00:21:56 - 00:22:19 Speaker 3

Well, that'll be that. I love Jazz Fest. I love playing the Jazz Fest. The Brazil when I played Romania last time, it was about 6 or 7000 people. I only brought 120 records. With me, I said, well, if I serve 120, I'll be happy, right? And then, I sold those. I sold those records in like the first 4 or 5 minutes of the first show, and then and then I didn't have any more records left for the rest of the tour.

00:22:19 - 00:22:21 Speaker 3

I'll make sure to bring enough records. Just,

00:22:21 - 00:22:26 Speaker 2

All right, here's a tour that I read about that you did, working with B.B. King on tour for a while.

00:22:26 - 00:22:57 Speaker 3

Sure. So after I won Guitar King of the Blues, a couple years later, I was tapped on the shoulder by William Morris Agency to, support B.B. King on a, It was a 15 show run from Sue Sainte Marie, Michigan. Back to, back to Tunica, Mississippi. So I drove, I drove 30 however many hours from Louisiana to Michigan, started the tour after the, I pulled a U-Haul trailer behind my, expedition.

00:22:57 - 00:23:09 Speaker 3

And after the first night, they decided, oh, you guys are great. We're going to let y'all share back wine. And all you need now is a guitar. So I pulled that trailer all over the country, and we didn't even need it anymore because they were sharing gear with us, right?

00:23:09 - 00:23:10 Speaker 2

Yeah.

00:23:11 - 00:23:19 Speaker 3

But, man, what a time he was getting older by then, but he he, he still put on a great show.

00:23:19 - 00:23:22 Speaker 2

Okay, what about government? You know, and so you worked a little bit with them.

00:23:22 - 00:23:37 Speaker 3

I played I sided with them, one time at the Mahalia Jackson Theater here in New Orleans. It was a good time. Warren definitely knows. But he was that king of the blues when I won. He actually told me before I got off stage, go out there and get them, you know, or something to that effect.

00:23:37 - 00:23:53 Speaker 3

And, said, I will of war. And I always called local war and and, he's one of my favorite musicians ever. I love mu government, y'all is definitely my top three favorite bands ever. I just love, I love they have a sound that is just unmatched.

00:23:53 - 00:23:57 Speaker 2

What about their time they did the Pink Floyd so good. Did you have that one? Dark side of the mill?

00:23:57 - 00:24:02 Speaker 3

I've heard. I've heard clips off of it. My favorite was the deepest band.

00:24:02 - 00:24:06 Speaker 2

Collaborations that are on your wish wish list. Anything you.

00:24:06 - 00:24:24 Speaker 3

Warren, Joe B, we're supposed to do a, a track with me. And I reached out to him and I said, you know, I said, you know, hey, man, I'm, you know, I'm a huge fan, but we know each other, you know, whatever. He's been known me a long time. And, he said, yeah, man. You know, I'd be glad to help you out.

00:24:24 - 00:24:42 Speaker 3

And then it just didn't end up coming together. He's kind of stopped responding to messages, and, I guess wife just got too busy, but, I would have loved to do something with Jobe. You know, I love. I love Judy Warren's. I mean, Warren's my hero, man. If I could do something with Warren. Oh. Jason Isbell, my absolute favorite songwriter.

00:24:42 - 00:24:42 Speaker 3

Man, I just.

00:24:42 - 00:24:45 Speaker 2

Love he makes really cool records. Yeah.

00:24:45 - 00:24:52 Speaker 3

Yeah, well, the range is incredible. And and obviously, elephant is one of the greatest songs ever written. I mean, I think.

00:24:52 - 00:24:57 Speaker 2

You know, and you're going to be a jazz fest again. April 2727. Okay.

00:24:57 - 00:24:59 Speaker 3

Yeah. And the blues town.

00:24:59 - 00:25:04 Speaker 2

All right. Fun stories about the tours or parties that will never happen again, I think.

00:25:04 - 00:25:23 Speaker 3

Oh, man. Well, I mean, there's so there's so many nights I don't remember because I grew I grew up playing on the fret circuit. You know, I played frat parties to, to be to be 100% honest. I'm business man. I do my job, I do, I do what they paid me to come to do.

00:25:23 - 00:25:34 Speaker 2

So I was gonna say I didn't learn about it until Murph announced that maybe, like, I don't know, probably about five cigar box festivals ago, but they put you in the Louisiana music Hall of Fame. How old were you when they did that?

00:25:34 - 00:25:44 Speaker 3

That was 2019. So, I'm, I'm 35 currently. So what, five years ago, I was about 30, 29 or 30.

00:25:44 - 00:25:46 Speaker 2

And did you see it coming? Was that kind of thing?

00:25:46 - 00:26:02 Speaker 3

Well, you know, it's, there's a couple there's a couple board members that run that whole deal. And if they believe in you and like you, you kind of get it. He might not have put me in, but I told him, I said, man, I said, if you're going to put me in, don't wait till I'm old. You in a wheelchair and can't play no more.

00:26:02 - 00:26:22 Speaker 3

Put me in where I can at least utilize the, the, the accolade or to be able to say it, you know, and enjoy, be doing it, being in it. But he, he was, you know, he met a lot of younger guys in and in more recent years, you know, Chase Tyler got put in and Lane Hardy won American Idol and he got put in.

00:26:22 - 00:26:27 Speaker 3

So I mean, I've been doing it my whole life. I literally I devoted my entire life to it, you know.

00:26:27 - 00:26:31 Speaker 2

And but a lot of it was that professionalism you talk about because you were able to play so many different roles.

00:26:31 - 00:26:50 Speaker 3

And you don't hear nothing about Boogie Long showing up. You're 40 minutes late, all drugged, drugged up and but you know, you don't hear those stories because, because I do my job, you know, 12 hours across the country and I have to drive there. I'm going to get there if I if my truck breaks down and I got to rent a car and it cost me money to get there, I'm going to get there and do the gig because it's the gig.

00:26:50 - 00:26:59 Speaker 3

Once you contracted for something, you got to go. Do you got a big job in order to ever get called again? Because otherwise you don't ever get called.

00:26:59 - 00:27:01 Speaker 2

Again, you know, could come in there.

00:27:01 - 00:27:09 Speaker 3

Yeah. There's a there's a ton of people that do it. You just got to be real and and you know, do you do.

00:27:09 - 00:27:15 Speaker 2

And this is like a craftsmanship kind of beliefs like rather than a competitive like I don't have to beat somebody else. I have to be the best guy I can be.

00:27:15 - 00:27:21 Speaker 3

Yeah, I can be the best of the best I can. And that's that's all you can do is do the best you can on any given night.

00:27:21 - 00:27:23 Speaker 2

Let's play a little bit that song. You had that song earlier.

00:27:24 - 00:27:54 Speaker 3

Oh, yeah. That, Oh. So it says, I may never see Wuhan, China, yet I might die. Oh, wow. How am I to live out every single word? Every one of my songs? I may never be the man that you think I should. At best, I'm a best. You know, it's just. It's just real. It's about the realness and about being, you know.

00:27:54 - 00:27:56 Speaker 2

That. Want to remind you?

00:27:57 - 00:28:16 Speaker 3

Yeah. It's kind of is. Well. And it, you know, because, that John Anderson has the seminal win, you know, da da da da da da da, real pretty with the fiddle in front. So I was kind of thinking that vibe just like just that, you know, just had that vibe with it. But, then, anyway, I write a lot of stuff, you know, a lot of.

00:28:16 - 00:28:26 Speaker 2

Different, you know? And when you doing those live, do you get to you try to together some of these kind of I know that's a ballad or whatever, but a slower song you do, you play the long solos on those to, to become part of the.

00:28:26 - 00:28:37 Speaker 3

Sometimes, you know, I don't do a lot of that singer songwriter stuff. Like when I play, I play the more, the more natural rural kind of, you know.

00:28:37 - 00:28:42 Speaker 2

You know, like, can you say that this is like music you're supposed to dance to or is like, is that part of it? Like when you you haven't really entertained at all? Yeah.

00:28:42 - 00:29:03 Speaker 3

You know, my shows are more I have a lot of musicians that come to see me, so it's not as much as entertaining like the drunk bar crowd. I have music fans and music like festival goers and that kind of stuff. So, I do like to play stuff you can dance to, but I'm not really worried about packing the whole night with that.

00:29:03 - 00:29:19 Speaker 3

I just think that, strong musical moments is important. And just having just, trying to trying to invoke the energy, you know, are not really trying to, but just like, letting it invoke itself, you know, is with me energy. And so anyway.

00:29:19 - 00:29:23 Speaker 2

To do setlists like, kind of get set up for you and stay that way, you move.

00:29:23 - 00:29:48 Speaker 3

This time around. Setlists don't even happen. Sometimes, you know, I'll say, all right, this is going to be the first four. And then just listen for what I go into on the fifth one. You know what I mean? When you write out a setlist and you stick to it, if, if, if it's not moving the audience in a in a certain direction, you have to go with it and then you don't get the opportunity to change it up to something that's going to work better.

00:29:48 - 00:30:08 Speaker 3

I just like to kind of keep it open because, you have to read the audience and you don't never know what direction it's going to go. You may play, you may play three rock and blues songs, and everybody standing there like, yeah, yeah, whatever. And then you hit one slow blues and a B.B. King work and and next thing you know, everybody's going crazy.

00:30:08 - 00:30:15 Speaker 3

And then, you know, you can go a more laid back vibe for a couple more there and then speed it up a little bit. But just whatever way you can.

00:30:15 - 00:30:16 Speaker 2

Like a by a rhythm of it.

00:30:16 - 00:30:41 Speaker 3

Yeah. Just just, it leaves, room for improvization even on what you're going to play and like, you know, it just leaves just leaves it open. I've always kind of been like that. Maybe that's why I'm, like, less successful. Why people have their stuff together more. I don't know, but but I mean, I just feel like, it it feels more authentic to me just to kind of do it that way.

00:30:41 - 00:31:00 Speaker 3

And everybody that everybody that's played my gig over the years, I mean, I've had music tons of musicians over the years and they all know I mean, everybody knows what to expect when they get up there with me. It's like, oh, yeah, you know, where everybody has a great time and they always look forward to playing it, but they know it's it's going to be spur of the moment.

00:31:00 - 00:31:35 Speaker 3

That's just what I, I come from jam bands and and soul and stuff with soul. So I mean if it's too if it's if it's too polished or too rehearsed, it almost feels robotic. Yeah. You know, so like, so like, it's not that we don't know the changes. And it's not that we don't learn songs. And when I write something, the bass player knows the changes and the drummer knows what hits it is, and isn't that, it's about leaving space and leaving it open and just giving it, you know, just, you know, room to breathe and room to.

00:31:35 - 00:31:40 Speaker 2

Yeah. But, yeah, I don't live exactly in.

00:31:40 - 00:31:58 Speaker 1

The.

00:31:58 - 00:32:00 Speaker 2

Week. Oh.

00:32:00 - 00:32:02 Speaker 3

The right chicken picking.

00:32:03 - 00:32:04 Speaker 2

Yeah. This is like a whole stuff.

00:32:04 - 00:32:11 Speaker 3

It's just bluegrass you know. But when it goes in the blues too. So you can do the bluegrass.

00:32:11 - 00:32:17 Speaker 3

Right. Or you could do.

00:32:17 - 00:32:34 Speaker 3

You go. It goes both ways. So. So that's how I kind of add country. Like if I'm doing a, And I'll go.

00:32:34 - 00:32:42 Speaker 3

It adds an element of like weirdness in there. It's kind of anticipating it's, you know, so I, it's just my style.

00:32:42 - 00:32:44 Speaker 2

Boogie Lang, thanks so much for coming by.

00:32:44 - 00:32:47 Speaker 3

So thanks for having me.

00:32:47 - 00:33:18 Speaker 2

So country number five is in the books with special appreciation to film delicious. The New Orleans Cigar box guitar fest, Boogie Long and Red Mathis for our theme we rock vibe was brought to you by Ace Production in the Blues Center with funding from the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation. Tune in again for more roots music, culture and look at season two rolls on with multi-instrumentalist Bruce Sunshine Barnes and the guitar slinging Aaron Kober and find trailers, highlights and playlists, as well as a full archive of episodes.

00:33:18 - 00:33:19 Speaker 2

It's all country.com.

Boogie Long

Soul Country #5

Airdate Aug 27, 2024

Podcast 33:25

Recorded in New Orleans, LA

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Description

Baton Rouge native Jonathon "Boogie" Long demonstrates his sizzling guitar work with "Chickin’ Pickin'" blues and country styles from this master craftsman in Soul Country #5. With his intense, heartfelt performances, Boogie Long has established himself as a high performance sideman to Luther Kent and many others including years alongside Samantha Fish. His singer-songwriter material shows he is a well-rounded talent worthy of his 2019 admission to the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame. The trailer is culled from several years of New Orleans Cigar Box Guitar Festivals and other exclusives. Production made possible in part with grants from the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation.

More about Jonathon 'Boogie' Long

Boggie Long is a celebrated guitarist from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, well known for his powerful blend of blues, rock, and soul. He built a reputation as a top sideman before impressing as a singer-songwriter, he was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame before turning 30! Boogie gained widespread recognition with his debut album, Trying to Get There (2013), which featured standout tracks like "The River" and "Pray for Me." His follow-up self-titled album in 2018 included the popular song "Bury Me." Boogie has earned several accolades, including winning the 2011 Guitar Center King of the Blues competition. With his intense, heartfelt performances, Boogie Long has established himself as a formidable force in the modern blues landscape.

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