Photo credit: Rochelle Carr
New Orleans was always unique among American cities. The place where the Mississippi River meets the Gulf of Mexico was also where Frenchmen, Spaniards and Africans encountered Anglos. It’s a place where cultures and civilizations converged. Jazz was born there, and by the 1950s, New Orleans was also the source of a distinctive stream of R&B, a tributary that fed the gathering current of rock and roll but with a uniquely steady rhythm that rolled with the muggy insistence of the big river on a hot Louisiana night.
Milwaukee’s exponents of Crescent City R&B, The Hungry Williams, take their name from one of that city’s first-call drummers from the late-1950s. Charles “Hungry” Williams laid the beat behind a raft of esteemed recordings that emerged from Cosimo Matassa’s studio in the French Quarter. He was distinctive for adding a cowbell to his kit, making beats percussion redolent of Caribbean hoodoo.
“Playing this music has been on the back of my mind for 20 years,” says The Hungry Williams’ drummer, John Carr. He’s played in a variety of bands, including the ’80s alternative rock of Blue in the Face and the ’90s swing of The Swingin’ Cools. Along the way, he met vocalist Keli Gonzalez in Big Nick and the Cydecos—purveyors of that more familiar but by now touristy Louisiana music called zydeco. Their shared love of New Orleans R&B led them two years ago to form The Hungry Williams with veteran local musicians Mike Sieger (bass), Joe Vent (guitar) and Jack Stewart (keyboards). A floating crew of horn players usually accompanies the band live.
“I knew Paul Cebar would get it right away,” Carr says of his band’s name. But in today’s post-everything world, the average music fan knows little about the band’s roots or the classic tunes they perform. “We joke that we could play all these songs and tell people they’re ours,” Gonzalez says. “But this music is important to know! I feel like I want to be an educator!” Each member of The Hungry Williams is a songwriter. The band also performs a few numbers by Semi-Twang’s John Sieger.
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Whether or not their 70-year-old genre is familiar to the general public of 2018, the easygoing exuberance is infectious. “It’s pure fun,” Carr says. “I want people to dance—to motivate you to move but not too aggressively.”
The Hungry Williams are planning to go into the recording studio soon, albeit the studio will probably be Carr’s house. “It’s amazing what you can do with a laptop,” he says, but adds, “I prefer the old school: everybody in a room playing together—the energy, the magic when everyone is playing together in the moment.” With digital technology plus vintage microphones, The Hungry Williams might just recreate some of the magic from the old Cosimo Matassa studio.
“Part of the charm is having a few mistakes; they add to the sound,” Gonzalez says. Given the high caliber of the band members, she explains that a few off-notes will spoil nothing and add to the music’s sense of being alive. “We want it to be a party, fun—and never a forced fun.”
The Hungry Williams and The Best Westerns perform on Jan. 26 at the Anodyne Coffee Walker’s Point Roastery, 224 W. Bruce St.
