Good vibes and great music at 33rd annual Crawfish Fest (REVIEW, PHOTOS, VIDEOS)

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It may be an obvious point. But it is still worth repeating. As John “Papa” Gros and his band were performing a cover of Rare Earth’s 1971 hit “I Just Want to Celebrate” at this year’s Crawfish Fest at The Sussex County Fairgrounds in Augusta, Gros shared the thought that music festivals are a better way than cage fights on the White House lawn to bring people together. He then asked everyone to sing along, and pretty much everyone did.

“This is the sound of America,” he said, as he listened.

JAY LUSTIG

John “Papa” Gros at Crawfish Fest.

As you may have heard, The United States is celebrating its 250th anniversary this year. And for the last 33 of those years, Michael Arnone — a Louisiana native who still lives there, except for the time he spends in New Jersey every May and June — has been celebrating the music and food of his home state with his annual festivals. The lineup is always loaded with Louisiana artists, though not exclusively devoted to them, and a big part of why some people come is the food: boiled crawfish, jambalaya, boudin balls, grilled alligator sausage, beignets and so on.

There was music all day on May 30 and 31, as well as nighttime sets for overnight campers and VIPs on May 29 and 30. I went on May 31 and stuck to the main stage, starting before noon with New Jersey’s own Ocean Avenue Stompers and ending in the early evening with another Garden State group, From Good Homes. Representing Louisiana on the main stage that day were Gros and guitar-slinger Kenny Neal. (Playing on the main stage on May 30 were Samantha Fish, The Rebirth Brass Band, Rockin’ Dopsie Jr. & the Zydeco Twisters, and Johnny Sansone.)

From Good Homes was one of New Jersey’s most successful bands of the ’90s, and though they broke up late in that decade, they have reunited occasionally since then, and even put out a new album, Time and the River, in 2019. All five band members have stayed busy with others projects as well, over the last quarter-century, most notably frontman Todd Sheaffer, with the bluegrass-jam band Railroad Earth; bassist Brady Rymer, as a Grammy-nominated children’s recording artist; and drummer Patrick Fitzsimmons, who performs his own songs on the singer-songwriter circuit.

JAY LUSTIG

From left, Jamie Coan and Brady Rymer of From Good Homes, at Crawfish Fest.

Every From Good Homes show, at this point, is a reunion filled with good vibes and great musicianship. The band nodded to Crawfish Fest’s Louisiana theme with its zydeco-flavored “Fruitful Acre,” featuring guest washboard playing by Stevo Nelson; and to its own home state with a cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Atlantic City.” “Lady Liberty,” from Time and the River, was a powerful immigrant’s anthem. After a haunting saxophone solo by Dan Myers, Sheaffer sang:

I’ve come from a country torn with terror and strife
And I led my children by the hand for a brand new life
What’s true for me is probably true for you
For a better life for your children you’ll do anything you can do
Now I’m held at the border of the land of the free
I spend my days in an iron cage under lock and key

The band ended its set on a high note, sandwiching two of its most upbeat songs, “2nd Red Barn on the Right” and “Maybe We Will” (see videos below), around the majestic “Rain Dance.”

JAY LUSTIG

Kenny Neal at Crawfish Fest.

Baton Rouge’s Kenny Neal, a recent inductee into The Blues Foundation’s Blues Hall of Fame, performed before From Good Homes on the main stage. He didn’t really show a lot of traditional Louisiana flavor in most of the music he played with his five-piece band, through he did describe Junior Parker’s yearning “Someone Somewhere” as a “swamp song” he learned from his father, the late bluesman Raful Neal, and he closed with a zydeco medley of “My Toot-Toot,” “Jambalaya” and “When the Saints Go Marching In.”

A member of the blues community since he was a teenager in the ’70s, he played plenty of classics (“Got My Mojo Working,” “Hoochie Coochie Man,” “Baby What You Want Me to Do,” “Funny How Time Slips Away”) and told stories about performing with Buddy Guy and Muddy Waters. The best of his originals were the inspirational “Let Life Flow,” and “Keep on Moving,” which had a similarly upbeat theme.

Singer-songwriter and pianist John “Papa” Gros, who was billed third on the main stage, released a new album — Giants, paying tribute to some of his musical heroes — in February, and, not surprisingly, played some of that material: Dr. John’s “Quitters Never Win,” Billy Preston’s “All That I’ve Got (I’m Gonna Give It to You),” Allen Toussaint’s “Yes We Can Can.” Though he and his five-piece band are steeped in New Orleans R&B, they veered off in all kinds of musical directions. “Cocaine and Chicken Fricassee” was moody and jazzy, and the set-closing Meters cover “Ain’t No Use” (also from Giants) built a grand wall of sound before becoming bright and danceable.

JAY LUSTIG

Ocean Avenue Stompers members (from left) Ryan Gregg, Charlie Patierno, Robin Clabby, Ian Gray and Joe Gullace at Crawfish Fest.

Opening band Ocean Avenue Stompers, like From Good Homes, are well known to New Jersey music fans: They formed in Asbury Park and took their name from the street on which The Stone Pony is located. The band underscored its Jersey Shore roots by playing a funked-up version of Bruce Springsteen’s “Tenth Avenue Freeze-out” (see video below) but mostly stuck to New Orleans or New Orleans-inspired music, including a medley of Huey “Piano” Smith’s “Don’t You Just Know It” and “High Blood Pressure,” Little Feat’s “Spanish Moon,” the traditional “Tootie Ma” and The Neville Brothers’ “Congo Square.”

Most of the eight band members sang and/or took instrumental solos and generally added to the good-time feel, and singer Al Holmes joined them for some swinging blues-rock.

With their affection for New Orleans music and their energetic stage show — plus the fact that they are based right here, in New Jersey — The Ocean Avenue Stompers are just tailor-made for Crawfish Fest. They made their fest debut last year, on the second stage, and moved to the main stage this year. I wouldn’t be surprised if, one day, they headline.

For more on Crawfish Fest, visit crawfishfest.com.

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