BOBBY LOUNGE: I Remember the Night Your Trailer Burned Down

Bobby Lounge

I Remember the Night Your Trailer Burned Down

© 2005 Bobby Lounge (783707086903)

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lethally sardonic songs ... with a percussive blues-and-barrelhouse piano style - says the NY Times

notes

Bobby enjoys writing songs about the south and about people with robust lifestyles. He chooses to avoid the limelight when not performing on stage. However, on stage, Bobby is a energetic entertainer in the tradition of Little Richard, Bobby Marchan, and Jerry Lee Lewis. His song writing style has been described as "Randy Newman with bite." Some songs are not appropriate for children.

Bobby Lounge was born in the deep south in 1950. He learned to play piano before his early teens and was influenced by southern gospel, blues, and barrelhouse piano players.

Notes from John Preble, manager of Bobby Lounge
I first saw Bobby Lounge perform in concert in New Orleans in the early eighties. He came with a large entourage and gave what I thought was an incredible performance. Months after this show, we became friends and we discussed the idea of Bobby developing an entertaining night club show. I also encouraged him to continue to write and we began recording his music on simple home audio cassette recorders. Unfortunately, Bobby became ill (chronic fatigue syndrome)and could not perform publicly. Now, after over 20 years, he has learned to "manage" his health problems and he will performing a few shows during 2005.

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PERFORMANCE/CD REVIEW 06/02/2005 Rolling Stone -
from a column titled: Out There by David Fricke

I can't tell you much about mysterious Mississippi spitfire Bobby Lounge other than this: That's not his real name, and he made an unforgettable entrance at this year's New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, wheeled onstage by a nurse in an iron lung (actual a huge steam-room cabinet). Than, chugging beer in obvious perfect health, he turned into Bessie Smith, Jerry Lee Lewis, Flannery O'Conner and Bob Dylan (the lyrical-surrealist edition) all at once, playing blazing barrelhouse piano and belting outrageously vivid blues from the far fringes of Southern life. This debut album has everything I saw a Jazz Fest but the lung, including the twisted recipe of love "I Will" (mix bondage and Popeyes chicken; stir vigorously), and the parade of unnatural wonders in the rolling-boogie epic "Take Me Back to Abita Springs," a kind of "Desolation Row" exploding with Little Richard-style piano and starring, among other things, an infant flamenco dancer, a singing burro and the queen of England's underwear. Lounge has a very high opinion of himself" He closes here with the gospel-piano sunrise of "I'll Always Be Better Than You." But in your heart, you know he's right.

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PERFORMANCE REVIEW published 04/26/2005 by The New York Times; excerpted from a column titled:
A Beloved Funk Group Rocks Again, and a Venerable Festival Rolls On
By Ben Ratliff

New to nearly everyone was Bobby Lounge, a balding, middle-aged eccentric from Mississippi who on Saturday delivered lethally sardonic songs (like "I'll Always Be Better Than You") with a percussive blues-and-barrelhouse piano style. He was wheeled on and off stage in a silver steam cabinet, the kind of thing once used for weight reduction. "I call it the Iron Lung," he said backstage, sipping a beer. "It perpetuates the myth that Bobby's a little infirm." (He keeps his real identity secret, his manager said, so as not to imperil his day job.)

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CD REVIEW pubublished on 04/19/05 by Gambit Weekly (New Orleans) by Alison Fensterstock

I Remember the Night Your Trailer Burned Down
Bobby Lounge
(Abitian)
"We are offering this disk to the public at the request of the many people who have heard of the genius of Bobby Lounge, but who may not have had a chance to see him perform," explain the liner notes, which go on to point out that the late-baby-boomer-age Lounge performed his witty, slightly twisted piano tunes in the '70s, mostly at house parties.
Over long interludes -- the shortest song clocks in just under five minutes; the longest approaches nine -- of gospel, blues and barrelhouse-influenced piano, Lounge rants, testifies and orates, flipping deftly between twisted humor, sly sarcasm and a genuine storyteller's gift. There are almost too many priceless couplets on the album to relate; one gem is "If I seem haunted / and if I seem distant / it's only because I'm much better than you," from "I'll Always Be Better Than You."
This album, recorded live in 2004, marks Lounge's return to performing, and after a listening, the liner notes makes sense. Play it with guests in your house, and they'd be likely to ask, "What the hell is that guy talking about?" and then you could say, "Oh, that's just Bobby Lounge." It's fair to guess that that would be a pretty accurate recreation of an exchange at any of those '70s house parties where Lounge initially demonstrated his genius. -- Alison Fensterstock

reviews

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  • wow--the piano is drunk
    author: bbw

    I read somewhere that Bobby plays a drunk piano---not to be confused with playing the piano drunk......any way, as the late great Bobby Darrin would say.........Memories are like moonbeams: you do with them what you want. I wanna keep Bobby--along with that Pop Eye's snack box! If you are from the South, you will love every word on this disk! Gee!

  • Good company
    author: A. W. Bostick

    Faulkner, Joyce, Twain, Lounge. Maybe not in that order.

  • What a surprise
    author: A. Piccinati

    Except for the recommendation on NPR, I would never have heard of Bobby Lounge. I took a chance on this CD and can't quite believe he is such a secret. What kind of person runs away from the success he has so obviously worked hard for? The first lyrics I've ever wanted to listen to. Every line a hoot. Every track something new.

  • undeniably hip thing to like Bobby Lounge
    author: Where Y'at magazine

    Bobby Lounge is a low-fi Southern Gothic Elton John shrouded in mystery and secrecy. His first gig in 20 years was at Jazz Fest several months ago, and he wowed the crowd in the Blues Tent with his starkly rhythmic piano playing and humorously biting lyrics. Lounge lives somewhere in rural Mississippi and generally shuns publicity. At his Jazz Fest gig and his recent Louisiana Music Factory appearance, he was wheeled on stage in an “iron lung” (some sort of metallic cabinet with wheels that only reveals his head) by a nurse, who then sat on the stage next to him reading a cheap paperback. Lounge is a great storyteller, as evidenced by the songs “I’ll Always Be Better Than You” and “If I Had Been Elvis,” and his melodic barrelhouse clanging on the piano provides a nice accompaniment. It is indeed the undeniably hip thing to like Bobby Lounge and murmur about his songwriting genius, but don’t let this annoy you. Lounge for once is a musician worthy of the hype machine

  • Not So Much Playing The Piano = As Landing On It
    author: C Joyce

    There's not a single track here that might suggest Lounge is a middle-aged white man contentedly living a quiet life in his boyhood home of small-town Mississippi. He's Hedwig without the Angry Inch -- and in fact "Trailer," with its unfailingly clever wordcraft, could easily stand in as that soundtrack's sequel. Lounge then launches full-throttle into a sort of camp gospel number, “I Will,” not so much playing the piano as landing on it, as if he were trying to break his own fall from grace. The sound is so full, so soulful, it's easy to picture an entire gospel choir backing him up. It's difficult, however, to imagine one gutsy enough to accompany lyrics like "Some men give you El Dorado Cadillacs, baby/ a trunk full of cocaine/But after I give you my pneumatic drill, a jackhammer, baby/ you'll never walk again." But despite the sarcasm that's sprinkled liberally throughout the song, Lounge's delivery does seem utterly sincere. Or maybe it just doesn't seem possible that someone could perform at such a high velocity and only be kidding.

  • as fresh as the enamel you paint on plywood
    author: Bill T

    Bobby Lounge is as fresh as the enamel you paint on plywood. You are doing exactly what an artists responsibility is, creating beauty for others to enjoy life. The fact that it is in song and music matters none, it is all the same urge instinct and reflex. Appears to all have come together.

  • Bobby Lounge...not unknown anymore!
    author: LS

    Thank goodness me and the missus attended JazzFest in New Orleans this past spring, or I never would have purchased his CD. The writeup in the JF literature was enough of a tease that I had to check him out (I'm a classically trained pianist now playing modern music). His live set, essentially the CD as it stands, totally blew me away. Bobby Lounge is definitely the best of the N'awlins-style piano players I have ever heard, and this CD perfectly showcases his talent on the ivories and his wickedly perverse sense of humor. A must have for anyone into the music of the region or American singer-songwriters.

  • One of America's Truly Gifted Songwriters
    author: C C

    I hate to gush about someone, but there have been only a few piano players that have influenced me as much as Bobby Lounge (and I know that's not his real name. It's amazing that someone who has influenced me so much is nameless to me.) Nat King Cole, Fats Waller, Professor Longhair and Bobby Lounge, believe it or not. And while his piano playing is phenomenal, the songwriting is at times hysterical and at others truly moving. I believe he is a hidden gem and that if he had the will to do it he could become known as one of America's truly gifted songwriters. I enjoy playing his songs and if someone at a party asks me to play a few tunes I often choose one of his as a finale, sometimes to the shock of many.

  • may be one of the best lines I've ever heard
    author: J Q

    I ordered the CD, it came the very next day, and the next day I played it on my way to work and laughed so hard I was crying. Now I'm sending it to my daughter in NY because I have to admit I don't have too many friends who would share my enthusiasm for Bobby's music. 'If the twins can dress alike, why can't I?' may be one of the best lines I've ever heard. I guess I'll have to wait until he puts out another CD to hear more. Thank you for insisting that he make the CD. Otherwise I'd have never known about him.

  • The neighbors didn't call the law, they listened.
    author: jerry hess

    I'm a lucky guy who was at the right place at the right time. I was sitting in the corner of the room when this c.d. was recorded. I value the memory and will never forget it. Most of us do numerous takes with painstaking inserts, for sake of perfection. But not Bobby Lounge. He ain't a recording artist. He's a performer! He embraced the piano and took off without looking back. The house rumbled with thundering boogie, melodic keyboard meanderings and great singing. And stories! His lyrics go places! He just plain MILKS these songs until the listener ends up in goosebump heaven. And that's what I hear on this c.d. ..... an old spirit on a big piano knocking the dust off of my aching soul! Thank you Sir Bobby Lounge!

  • Bobby Lounge's new CD is a smash!
    author: Ken Harrison

    Bobby Lounge's new CD is a smash! Great barrel-house piano, subversive lyrics and a great cover!

  • Bobby Lounge's new CD is a smash!
    author: Ken Harrison

    Bobby Lounge's new CD is a smash! Great barrel-house piano, subversive lyrics and a great cover!

  • Extraordinary music - not just regional.
    author: Meriwether Enthwistle

    Mr. Lounge's music dances on a tightrope between dementia and genius, to great effect and with obvious purpose. I'd like to hear more of this extraordinary music - and soon! When is his next CD coming out?

  • Bobby Lounge: Wicked wit, twisted tales and fine piano playing
    author: Renee Kientz

    Darkly funny, singer/piano player Bobby Lounge sets Southern storytelling to a wicked barrelhouse beat. Forget Flannery O'Connor; Lounge is more Carl Hiassen, conjuring low lifes, high times and bizarr-o plot twists with songs like "I Remember the Night Your Trailer Burned Down" and questionably romantic lyrics like "He won't take your night shift down at Popeye's Fried Chicken but I will." Listen to Bobby Lounge with one hand wrapped around a Dixie beer and the other between your baby's mama's knees.

  • Bobby sings some very original blues
    author: Phobe Mange

    The words are incredible and very funny and the way he sings them is so correct. I can why people compare him to Bessie Smith and Randy Newman. Where has this guy been? This CD sounds like someone who has been singing and playing piano forever. I wish James Booker could hear this CD. The CD doesn't have that many songs but they are really long so I really feel that I got my money's worth. This CD presents some very original blues songs.

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