Their 1978 Capitol press release read: "LeRoux
takes its name form the Cajun French term for the thick and
hearty gravy base that's used to make gumbo, a vitamin-laden
soup that's actually of Bantu origin." Louisiana's LeRoux was
a musical gumbo that blended various instruments and arrangements
for some spicy, mouth-watering pop-rock. Using blues, R&B, funk,
jazz, rock, and Cajun as their base, LeRoux's chefs created
their own distinctive sound with ingredients borrowed from the
Meters, Poco, Little Feat, and the Eagles. Their Southern anthem
"New Orleans Ladies" simmered with the laid-back feel of the
"Big Easy," evoking images of Bourbon Street and the Bayou.
That song, together with their smash hit "Nobody Said It Was
Easy (Lookin' For The Lights)," brings LeRoux daily airplay
from D.C. to Baton Rouge, and they remain cult heroes to this
day.
The act began to gel in 1975 at Bogalusa's Studio
In The Country, a studio where five of LeRoux's six founding
members where employed as the house band, backing artists like
Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown and Clifton Chenier. Eventually adding
a sixth member, they came in their own as the Jeff Pollard Band
in '77, mainly touring the South as well as South Africa through
an arrangement with the US State Department. The group's big
break came as the result of band member Leon Medica's trip to
Colorado to contribute bass parts to a Dirt Band project at
William McEuen's Aspen Recording Society Studios. Leon presented
demos of the Pollard Band to McEuen and Bill Roberts of Aspen's
management division (their main clients were Steve Martin and
the Dirt Band). Impressed by what they heard, the company assumed
management, and with the help of Pollard's publisher Paul Tannen
at Screen Gems-EMI in Nashville, the band signed a contract
with Capitol. Renamed "LeRoux," they recorded two albums of
Cajun-flavored pop-rock (their eponymous debut and Keep The
Fire Burning) and a third, Up, which saw them shift
styles to accommodate Jai Winding's more Journey-esque, mainstream
production.
In '81, LeRoux moved to RCA which decided to
break the band as a singles act. They succeeded with the top-20
hit "Nobody Said It Was Easy (Looking For The Lights)" and received
heavy MTV airplay with "Addicted" both featured on their fourth
album Last Safe Place. Soon afterward, however, lead
singer Jeff Pollard left the group to start his own Christian
Ministry. He was replaced by Dennis "Fergie" Frederiksen, and
when Bobby Campo also exited, Berklee School of Music graduate
Jim Odom came aboard for the group's fifth and final album together,
So Fired Up, that included their last chart single and
MTV hit, "Carrie's Gone" (written about Carol Burnett's daughter,
who was dating Fergie at the time). Though the band never achieved
the success of many of their contemporaries, the band did experience
some "Heavenly Days," and hopefully, this collection offers
a little bit of that "Heaven"
for the rest of us.
