Gator, Binky, Gooner, and the Godfather
By Chris Manson September 7, 2006 Issue

Led by singer and keyboard sensation Gator, the Blue Orleans Blues Band dishes out heaping helpings of dirty blues with generous sides of funk and New Orleans jazz touches, and a little Professor Longhair. There’s an occasional hint at pop—if you have a genuine B-3 organ at your disposal, you might as well throw in Whiter Shade of Pale for the Big Chill crowd.

“We’re called Gator and the Blue Orleans Blues Band because it’s all about me, as you’ve noticed.” He laughs. “We do New Orleans funk kind, original music—Welcome to My Gumboland, my partner wrote that with me. I’m the marquee of the place--I’m the chef, the piano and keyboard player.” Later, I ask Gator when he sleeps, and he offers a quote from Warren Zevon: “I’ll sleep when I’m dead!”

Bassist Gooner McGee—I last saw him with a classic rock band called Two Week Notice — told Gator, “Once they hear you have the B-3 organ, all the musicians around here will want to come and listen to you.” Indeed they have. On the Saturday night I go to check out the band, I run into Jacob Mohr, one of the guys from the Waco Ramblers, and Dread Clampitt’s Kyle Ogle and Kenny Oliverio. Oliverio is sitting in with the band tonight, and he’s one of the few guest musicians Gator allows on his stage.

Gator grew up in Chackbay, a little town about 45 miles southwest of the Big Easy. His father serviced jukeboxes, including what Gator calls “all the places white people were scared to go into.” Young Gator was exposed to a lot of great music—the first record he owned was Secret Agent Man by Johnny Rivers—and he began piano lessons in sixth grade. “I was the only boy from back in the swamp who took piano lessons. No one ever knew, because I didn’t want them to think I was a sissy. I started playing music in bars when I was 14 years old.”

The Blue Orleans restaurant opened in January 2005, and co-owner Gator used to play a few songs on the piano between breakfast and lunch. When he and partner Tommy Smith decided to start serving dinner, Gator wanted to put a four-piece band together. McGee was the first to join, followed by drummer Greg McCray, who played 300 shows a year for 12 years with B.B. King. The band’s current drummer is Flash Flood’s Binky Buckwalter.

Gator met singer and guitarist Duke Bardwell at a crawfish boil in Dune Allen. Bardwell, overwhelmed by the authenticity of Gator’s cuisine, reached across the table to shake hands. “Like Indian blood brothers with crawfish juice on our hands,” Gator recalls. “I’m learning more about singing from Duke. He’s like the Godfather of all the musicians around here. He’s the king of blue-eyed soul.” The ubiquitous Fritz Froeschner was involved in the early stages of the Blue Orleans Blues Band, but had to bow out due to schedule conflicts.

The band rehearses Tuesday or Wednesday nights, learning three or four new songs a week before knocking the Blue Orleans patrons dead on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. “We never play the same set twice,” Gator says. “We’re like the Grateful Dead. We’ve gotten a lot more customers lately hearing about how good our band is. People are shocked by how good these old guys are. I love to see the looks on their faces—‘Wow! These guys are tight!’”

Gator promotes his restaurant as “a country club without dues.” Blue Orleans is perhaps the only place on 30A where you can find Purple Haze beer and definitely the only place with a drive-thru window, aside from banks. Gator and Smith spent 20 years in the restaurant business in Atlanta before coming to Blue Mountain Beach. When Gator walked into what was then called the Beach Bistro, he knew he had found the perfect spot for his “Cajun/bluesy/swamp” theme restaurant. “I moved here like I was going to the store for a loaf of bread and never came back.”

The restaurant is bigger than its 10 tables suggest. “Customer participation is phenomenal,” Gator says. “We serve dinner ‘til midnight on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. No one else on 30A does that, except maybe Tom Thumb.”

A few skeptics who had tried and failed in the restaurant business didn’t think Blue Orleans would thrive. “They’re eating their words now,” Gator says. Those unbelievers better save room for some beignets and one of Gator’s Cajun omelets.

Chris’ Disc Recommendations
Bob Dylan: Modern Times (Columbia)
Sublime: Sublime (Deluxe Edition) (Geffen)
Al Green: The Belle Album (Reissue of 1977 album with bonus tracks) (EMI)
Ali Farka Toure: Savane (Nonesuch)
UB40: Who You Fighting For? (Rhino)
Randall Bramblett: Rich Someday (New West)
The Dirty Royals: Obsessed America (UK2LA)
DVD: Neil Young Heart of Gold (Paramount)

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