Oregon Music News
by Tom D’Antoni on December 1, 2009
Lagniappe (lahn-yup) is a New Orleans word for “a little something extra.”
The New Iberians are Evan Shlaes on accordion, keys, vocals; Stevie Davis on guitar, vocals; Claes Almroth on harmonica, vocals; Fred Ingram on drums; Paul Bassett on percussion; J. Michael Kearsey (of the Brothers of the Baladi) on bass; and Francisco Marmolejo on tenor sax, flute.
And none of them is from New Iberia, Louisiana, although a couple of the original members were. Formed in 1997 and as (their own) legend has it:
We picked the name after spending some time in the area, we fell in love with the people, the music and THE FOOD, and when a major change in personnel required a new band name we came up with “The New Iberians”. The rest of the guys were like, New What-ians? The first time we appeared under that name, (in Oregon) a couple of cuties from Metairie showed up asking “are y’all from Louisiana?” and the guitar player got REALLY lucky that night, so that settled the name question.
There’s a major lack of New Orleans music in Portland these days. The Goodfoot Lounge brings in a few touring bands. Bands like DK Stewart’s band plays some but these guys play more than anyone else local. READ MORE HERE