Deslondes, Rainy Eyes Preview Upcoming Louisiana Americana Albums

Rainy Eyes in 2023, by Greg Miles

Lafayette’s Rainy Eyes has a new album due out in July, and New Orleans’ Deslondes will release their new album in September.

[Updated] Two Louisiana Americana bands have new albums due out shortly. The Deslondes reunited in 2022 and they’ll release a new album, Roll It Out, on September 6. On July 12, singer Rainy Eyes will release Lonesome Highway, and both acts released new songs on Wednesday.

Rainy Eyes grew up in Norway and lives in Lafayette. When My Spilt Milk interviewed her before Jazz Fest 2023, she talked about Townes Van Zandt’s “Waiting Around to Die” and how “his one and songs like ‘Pancho and Lefty’ are what got me wanting to write songs that are like a movie plot in a song,” she said.

On Wednesday, she released “A Little Dream,” the third song from the album, and she describes it as “a deceptive love story.”

“When you feel so strongly about someone, but you question whether or not it is real or if you’re just high on the feeling,” she says in a press release. “You can love someone, but that doesn’t mean they are right for you. This song takes on those big questions.”

The song draws influence from the Gram Parsons side of the Americana tree and features the late Chris Stafford of Feufollet on pedal steel. Stafford died in a car accident in early May as we wrote during Jazz Fest, and according to Rainy, “He was a cornerstone of our scene here in Lafayette, but more importantly a friend to so many. It still feels totally surreal."

Rainy Eyes will open for Electric Blue Yonder at Chickie Wah Wah on Thursday night.

Sam Doores of The Deslondes says the band “feels like the old family farm.” In a press release, he says, “It’s a place where we can meet for the Fourth of July, bring our families, grill some burgers, and make some music together. It’s always going to be there, and we know it’s going to work and feel good.”

The band split in 2020 and surprised the members who thought it was done when they decided to not only play again but record another album, Ways & Means. “I’m not sure if this is the last Deslondes record,” Doores said at the time. “We’re just taking it one day at a time. We certainly feel less pressure now in many ways and that allows us to be more creative.”

The upcoming Roll It Out is proof that it wasn’t, though the new album features a new drummer, Howe Pearson. The honky-tonk “Take Me Back”—also released on Wednesday—demonstrates the kind of unfussy ease that Doores described. It sounds like a song that was always there, just waiting for someone to find it.

The Deslondes will start a summer tour on June 28 at the Des Moines Art Festival in Des Moines, Iowa, and they’re not scheduled to return to New Orleans until October 30 when they’ll play the Toulouse Theatre. Tour dates are up on the band’s website.

Updated at 11:39 p.m.

The title of The Deslondes album is Roll It Out, and the text has been corrected to reflect that.