Q Gal Holiday and the Honky Tonk Revue – Vanessa Niemann discusses the band’s new album

For almost a decade, Gal Holiday and the Honky Tonk Revue have carved out quite a niche for itself as one of Louisiana’s more exciting classic country and rockabilly bands.

The band performs Friday, Oct. 4 at Manship Theatre’s Hartley/Vey Studios at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased here.

The band is prepping a third album that could be out as soon as this fall. With the album completely tracked, lead singer Vanessa Niemann discussed the new album and the long road the band has already traveled.

Matthew Sigur: You mentioned the band was in the studio through our e-mails. How does the new album sound?
Vanessa Niemann: We finished tracking the entire thing. We’ve got to mix and master it now. It’s very exciting to be done. It was quite a marathon. It’s our first all-original album. It’s got a big sound. We made a quick decision to bring our friend Tony Martinez down from Nashville to help us produce it and add some elements. He’s a monster musician. He put pedal steel guitars on there and did some harmonies. It was a fun experience bringing someone else in.

MS: Where did you record it?
VN: We did it at Esplanade Studios, a new studio in New Orleans. It’s a converted, 1920s gothic revival church that was flooded during Hurricane Katrina. It’s an unbelievably beautifully-sounding-and-looking space. We did 14 tracks in seven days. It was pretty intense. The only reason we were able to do that was because an immense amount of pre-production. We wrote all the songs beforehand, wrote and rewrote and rehearsed.

MS: You funded this with Kickstarter, what are your thoughts using that fundraising service?
VN: It was the first time I had used it. It was quite an interesting process. I think it’s a wonderful way to fund projects. I don’t think that it’s something that someone should use it often. Some people use it too much, and it gets a bad taste in people’s mouths. We built up a lot of equity with our fanbase over the years. We have a strong following, and we never asked anybody for anything before. As a tool, it gets the fans involved. The people who care, they get involved in the process.

MS: The band’s music hits on many older genres. What’s the appeal of that music to you?
VN: I’m a singer first and foremost. It’s always about the song and how I feel about the song. The stories were so much a part of the music. The more I did performed with the band though, the older I got, the more I got into the classic country and started understanding the stories. There’s so much history with the music. I start to get interested in how it ties into Louisiana and Western Maryland, where I’m from. It becomes this big snowball, this big love affair.

MS:How did you develop that knowledge, that taste?
VN: I worked in a tattoo shop, before that I worked in a clothing store. I would listen to music all day long. You pop something in, and you start to listen to it constantly. For me, it was always the thought, “Well, who is that person that’s singing that song in 1957?” When we started the band, we started developing the repertoire for live performance. I thought it was weird to sing songs that were written by people who I didn’t know much about. I started doing research and found it interesting. Now, it’s learning about the style of music, where it all started. I didn’t grow up listening to classic country. I knew a little bit in between the polka music my grandparents were listening to. There was a lot of bluegrass, but I didn’t grow up in that country atmosphere. You have to learn about it. The best way is to play it and research it. Now, it’s turned into more original material.

MS:With this music, is there a challenge to be authentic?
VN:Yeah, for sure. When we started out, especially being based out New Orleans, there were a lot of dissenters doubting the credibility. Someone made a comment early saying we were pretty good for a bunch of city slickers. It was funny to me because I grew up in the country. It was a novelty act at the beginning for a lot of people. It wasn’t for me. When people started to realize that we have an amazing group of musicians, the music took over. We’ve been around for nine years. The novelty act wore off, and people start getting tired of knocking you down. We’re for real. We’re on the third album. Most bands don’t get to say that. We’re proud of that. The music is even more authentic than it used to be.

MS: With the band being around almost a decade, how do you feel about the uphill climb to get here?
VN:: I don’t mind it because I think anything worth doing is going to be difficult or a struggle. There’s going to be pain involved. I knew it would be tough. It has always been a struggle, keeping a band together. Good guitars players are in demand. The joke about New Orleans is that there are 300 players in 30 bands. To get to this third album, I was living in L.A. for the past three years and just traveled back and forth. This album is borne out of that travel, that struggle. These songs were written in California in the middle of the night, or while we were driving through nowhere, Texas. It’s about the struggle to travel around and do what we do. It has been hard, but it’s been good hard. If you can have the tenacity to hold on and do it, then it’s worth it. That’s what we’ve been working towards.