The Hartford AdvocateThursday, July 19, 2007

After the Flood

Grayson Capps tells the stories of everyday New Orleanians in song

Grayson CappsJuly 25 at the Hungry Tiger120 Charter Oak St., Manchester, (860) 649-1195 Amid the flash and glitter of today's music business, Grayson Capps is the storyteller who's hitched and hoboed the roads. In another time, this eclectic singer songwriter could have been ridin' the rails as Woody Guthrie's running mate. Capps, who turned 36 last year, sings and plays a quirky amalgam of raucous country, folk and blues. While studying at Tulane University in New Orleans, Capps started a band called the House Levelers and played music they called "thrash-folk." After graduation, they signed to Tipitina's record label, bought a 1977 Plymouth Voyager van and toured America for three years non-stop.Once they broke up, Capps moved onto a stretch of houses on the railroad tracks off Tchoupitoulas Street, teamed up with John Lawrence and started a two-man band called Stavin' Chain. More recently, Capps wrote songs for the 2004 John Travolta movie, A Love Song For Bobby Long. After losing his New Orleans home of 20 years during Hurricane Katrina, Capps recorded Wail And Ride, a first-hand account of his journey. "My new album, Wail And Ride, focused more on Katrina," says Capps. "That was where I was at during that moment. What was destroyed are the neighborhoods where a guy'd catch ten catfish and give half of 'em away to his neighbors. That's a part of New Orleans that the rest of the world doesn't see. That soul of neighborhoods is still there."Contrary to media reports, Capps says the music scene in the Crescent City remains vibrant. "The music scene is so strong and alive there. New Orleans is a strong, rough-ass place. It's based on people lovin' music. People need to heal there and that's how you heal, through the music. You go down Frenchman Street today and it's on fire every night of the week. The music being generated is still coming from the dirt of the city."Growing up in a house without TV and raised by a father who was deeply tied into story-telling traditions, Capps learned early about the power of the vernacular story-teller. "My dad had all these fellas who'd come around the house and they'd all be drinking and reciting poetry, and my dad would play DJ on the record player," says Capps. "So as a kid I grew up listening to Tom T. Hall, Bob Dylan, Leon Redbone, Hank Williams, Rickie Lee Jones and Josh White's Live At Carnegie Hall. All these little songs have always been huge in my life. As a songwriter, I've watched others and learned from them that in such a short amount of time, you can create something so huge and vivid."Listening to Capps' songs on Wail and Ride is like flipping the pages of a photo album where each picture comes with a story. Capps found the inspiration for many songs by observing the daily life in the French Quarter."There was a reason Tennessee Williams lived in New Orleans," says Capps. "The city is so full of metaphor and characters. Everywhere you turn, the earth is showin' you how it repeats itself over and over again. In the city, revelation after revelation is constantly there. It's also the land of instant karma." The Hartford Advocate