Le Roux (band)
| LeRoux | |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Louisiana's LeRoux |
| Origin | Louisiana, U.S. |
| Years active | 1978-present |
| Labels | Screen Gems, EMI |
| Associated acts | Network |
| Website | Official website |
| Members | Joey Decker Rod Roddy Jim Odom Nelson Blanchard Tony Haselden Mark Duthu Randy Carpenter Keith Landry |
| Past members | Bobby Campo Leon Medica David Peters Jeff Pollard Fergie Frederiksen Randy Knapps Courtney Westbrook Terry Brock |
LeRoux (also known as Louisiana's LeRoux) is a band founded in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA that saw its heyday from 1978 to 1984. Their best-known songs were "Take a Ride On a Riverboat" with its 4-part a capella intro, the regional smash "New Orleans Ladies", "Nobody Said It Was Easy (Lookin' For the Lights)" (their highest charting single), "Addicted", and "Carrie's Gone". The band continues to perform live throughout the U.S., mostly at fairs and festivals in the Louisiana area.
In 1977 several former members of a group called the Levee Band, who had been playing as backup players for Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown and Clifton Chenier, signed a deal with Capitol Records as The Jeff Pollard Band. Leon Medica, the band's producer and bassist, had presented a demo tape to Paul Tannen at Screen Gems-EMI while doing a session in Nashville and making trips to Colorado to contribute bass parts to a Nitty Gritty Dirt Band album at William McEuen's Aspen recording Society Studios. McEuen, Tanney, and Attorney John Frankenheimer helped Medica secure the contract with Capitol.
By early 1978, they had changed their name to Louisiana's LeRoux, which refers to roux, a Cajun gravy base used to make gumbo. The band was originally composed of Jeff Pollard (vocals, guitars), David Peters (drums, percussion, backing vocals), Leon Medica (bass, backing vocals), Tony Haselden (vocals, guitars), Rod Roddy (vocals, keyboards, synthesizers), and Bobby Campo (horns, percussion, violin, backing vocals). All of the songs on the self-titled 1978 debut album were sung and written by Pollard, except "New Orleans Ladies", which was written by Hoyt Garrick with a contribution by Medica. It reached #59 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 1978. Two more albums followed (Keep the Fire Burnin in 1979, and Up in 1980), but after neither was able to expand the band's fan base, they were dropped by Capitol.
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