This is week #1 of the Bud Light Friday Summer Concert Series at NC Music Factory. Friday LIVE! at the Factory is Charlotte's largest weekend kickoff party! Tickets include admission to Osso, Wet Willies, Small Bar, Label, Automatic Slims, VBGB Beer Hall and Garden and Mattie's Diner. A portion of the proceeds from Friday Live! will benefit Project Halo. Friday LIVE! is presented by Budweiser, Charlotte Center City Partners, Barefoot Wines, New Amsterdam Vodka, Red Bull, and Hendrick Luxury Group.
This week we kick the whole series off with COWBOY MOUTH and special guest Of Good Nature!
The term 'Cowboy Mouth' has been used in the poetry of Shakespeare and Bob Dylan as well as a play by Patti Smith and Sam Shepard. Usually meaning One with a loud and raucous voice, it describes the band well. With over 2500 concerts under their belt and many years of reviews lauding their live show,there is still one quote which best captures their show..... "...on a bad night they'll tear the roof off the joint and on a good night, they'll save your soul." Cake Magazine
Cowboy Mouth is New Orleans rock n' roll. Annually presenting roughly 150 shows, releasing nearly a dozen records, and featured on TV shows and radio stations everywhere, Cowboy Mouth has been seen and heard by millions of fans worldwide. For more than 15 years, the members of Cowboy Mouth have preached and shouted at the top of their lungs the joys of being alive and the joys of being in and from New Orleans, sharing a slice of Mardi Gras heaven with fans around the world. As frontman Fred LeBlanc has said,"If The Neville Brothers and The Clash had a baby, it would be Cowboy Mouth."
The band's 11 album releases include two records on MCA, one on Atlantic and several on their own Cowboy Mouth Records label. So far, the band has enjoyed domestic sales of over 500,000 units. But the album sales pale in comparison to the number of tickets the band sells to their live events. Cowboy Mouth shows are legendary, and have been witnessed by more than 9 million fans to date. Always on the road, they've toured several times with their friends in Hootie and the Blowfish, BareNaked Ladies, Sister Hazel and Better Then Ezra as well as other well known supporting acts.
Crowd participation is a must at a Cowboy Mouth show. Led by Fred's larger-than-life presence, the band's performances are high-energy and extraordinarily intense, usually leaving audiences as drenched and spent as the band. Cowboy Mouth fans range from ages five to age eighty-five, but they have one thing in common - as Fred confides to the audience, "Cowboy Mouth is about pretending that you're five years old, naked as a jaybird and about to turn the hose on your parents, and there's not a damn thing they can do about it."
A Cowboy Mouth show is always full of surprises, and have included guest appearances by Harry Shearer, Steve Van Zandt, Rob Thomas , John Popper, Art Neville, Johnnie Johnson (Chuck Berry's piano player), Kyle Turley, and Tom Arnold (Best Damn Sports Show), to name a few. Their audience stretches from the festivals and colleges to the clubs and theaters they headline around the country.
The band has also made several film and television appearances, including the Steven Soderburgh film "The Underneath," MTV and VH1, Live with Regis and Kelly, Ellen DeGeneres Show, and The Late Show with Craig Kilborn.
The band is led by Fred LeBlanc, Cowboy Mouth's maniacal drummer/lead Singer (think the Tasmanian Devil playing drums like Keith Moon with a voice like Bo Diddley) and John Thomas Griffith on lead vocals and lead guitar. Fred came to Cowboy Mouth after four years with the southern punk band Dash Rip Rock. Also an accomplished producer, Fred mixed the band's first two studio recordings and also earned a gold record for producing Deadeye Dick hit song from the movie Dumb And Dumber, "New Age Girl." Griffith, (the Griff) had been friends with Fred for years before the two talked about forming Cowboy Mouth together along with two local New Orleans musicians. As the lead singer of the the Red Rockers, Griff had a top-selling album on Columbia Records. Their hit song "China" was one of the first hits on MTV, and is still played on the radio today. Griff has opened on tour with bands like The Go-Gos and U2, and was recently inducted into the Texas Guitar Players' Hall of Fame.