RCA Press ReleaseWith a new label, a new
album, Last Safe Place, and a new sense of confidence
and vitality, LeRoux is certain to surpass the considerable
achievements of their first three albums. Last Safe
Place is the sum total of six talents. Like the rich
Creole gravy base—roux — from which the band took its name,
many musical flavors such as Southern Boogie, Rock, R&B,
and Pop are readily identifiable on Last Safe Place.
Leon Medica, the group's bass player and producer,
attributes part of the group's current enthusiasm to
their connection with RCA: "These people understand
our music." That enthusiasm is reflected in Last
Safe Place's high spirits.
The album focuses on driving, yet melodic, Rock tunes
propelled by blistering guitar lines and direct, no-nonsense
keyboard playing, Songs such as "You Know How Those
Boys Are", "Nobody Said It Was Easy", and
the title song ("Last Safe Place") have the power
and the accessibility that put hits over the top. Lead
singer (and lead guitarist) Jeff Pollard's vocals and
the band's soaring five-part harmonies add sweetening
throughout the record as evidenced on their fresh rendition
of Buffalo Springfield's "Rock And Roll Woman."
While the cut bears the LeRoux Stamp, it adheres closely
to the classic original because, according to Pollard, "There's
something about the song that doesn't le you stray
far."
Pollard, Medica, Rod Roddy (keyboards), David Peters
(drums, percussion), and Bobby Campo (horns, flute, percussion)
got to know each other as the primary in-house rhythm section
at Studio In The Country, a major recording studio in Bogalusa,
Louisiana. Staff producer Medica led them in backing up
artists such as Clifton Chenier and Clarence "Gatemouth"
Brown. For a while, they would work with Gatemouth half
the week and devote the other half to their own music.
They also spent a lot of time on the road (as the Jeff
Pollard Band). In 1977, they backed Gatemouth on a State
Department-sponsored goodwill tour of Africa.
Tony Haselden (guitarist) joined the group soon after
their signing by Capitol Records in 1977. Changing their
name to Louisiana's LeRoux ( the state name was appended
for legal reasons but was later dropped), the band released
their first album, Louisiana's LeRoux, in the
spring of 1978, it yielded a top 40 single, "New Orleans
Ladies," which hit #1 in several markets around the
country. The release of LeRoux's following albums
Keep The Fire Burnin' and Up fueled their
popularity with the AOR crowd and audiences alike.
Much of LeRoux's popularity around the country is
due to their years of extensive touring: currently, the
band is on the road 250-280 days a year. While they do
many 2000-seat dates, they have also done numerous major
shows with acts such as Bob Seger, Kansas, The Marshall
Tucker Band, The Dirt Band, Heart, Journey, The Doobie
Brothers, and other top-rank bands. Pollard credits their "live
strength" to the fact that they "record and then
learn the songs again—really relearn them."
Appearances of special note have included "Mardi
Gras in the Superdome" in New Orleans in 1979, Charlie
Daniels Volunteer Jam in Nashville in 1980 (the band can
be heard on the Volunteer Jam 6 album), and also
in 1980, incoming Governor Dave Treen's Inaugural Ball
in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The extent of their popularity
in the Louisiana area is such that in 1979, LeRoux swept
the reader' poll in the Louisiana Rock magazine, "Gris
Gris."
Last Safe Place will be the next chapter in the "grassroots
bands make good" saga wherein LeRoux is destined to
become "The Band In '82."
(January 1982)
