Doug Duffey And Badd

Souvenirs

Fort Sumner Music

Doug Duffey, born in Louisiana in the Mississippi Delta, gained his early chops playing in local clubs. He spent time in Little Rock, New Orleans, Hollywood, and Nashville, where he lived and performed on and off from the ’60s to the ’90s, all the while developing his seminal style. His songs charted on Billboard, Cashbox, and Record World. He contributed a wealth of songs to other artists including Marcia Ball, George Clinton, Funkadelic, Rare Earth, Zakiya Hooker, Bill Gregory, John Autin, and Jerry Beach. He has spent the last 32 years performing between Europe and the USA.

Even now, some 50 years later, his music continues to capture the imagery of his storied realms. His virtuosic piano playing reflects the traditions of the Mississippi Delta that’s won him respect and renown throughout a startling, prolific career, on his own, with BADD, and as part of the Louisiana Soul Revival. Given his soulful vocals and incisive, poetic lyrics, he’s become known for sharing dynamic performances interspersed with imagination, improvisation, and a celebratory sense of spontaneity. Having gained acclaim in Europe, he’s become a fixture at such prestigious gatherings as the Montreal International Jazz Festival, the Heineken Jazz Festival, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the Louisiana Folklife Festival, and an impressive array of other music gatherings.

Multi-award-winning Doug Duffey and BADD are a North Louisiana-based quartet specializing in 100% original “Bayou Funk,” “Swampedilic,” Bluesiana, and Delta Soul music. Influenced by old-school ’70s funk and soul classics, as well as their native regional New Orleans funk, Memphis Soul, Louisiana R&B, and Louisiana Delta blues, they’ve recycled, refined, refunked, redefined, and repackaged it all into their own personal post-modern slammin’ jams. “Souvenirs” is the band’s fifth studio album.

Band members include Duffey on keyboards and vocals; Dan Sumner on guitars, bass, percussion, and vocals; Benjamin Ford on bass; and Adam Ryland on drums and percussion. All songs are written by Dan Sumner and Doug Duffey, except for one by Duffey alone. The album was recorded and mixed by Sumner at the Fort Sumner Studio in Monroe, Louisiana. The mastering was done by Michael Rasbury.

These BADD boys open with “Broken Heart And Empty Hand,” a gently swinging regret for a lost love, with some great guitar from Sumner, as Duffey sings “My baby’s gone ain’t comin’ back…feeling like a fool, feelin’ like a clown…though I did nuthin’ wrong, I’m feelin’ guilt and shame, but I know in my heart that I’m the only one to blame.”

On “Bad Luck,” Duffey’s Hammond B-3 and piano add depth and richness to his complaint: “there wasn’t a damn thing I could do..bad luck just keeps on comin’…running me down…my air conditioner got stolen and pickup truck broke down I was sweating like a field hand…I’m talkin’ bout bad luck, jes keep on comin, bad luck ain’t lettin’ go.”

“Better By Me” builds a stinging guitar line by Sumner as it rocks along with a chorus featuring Betsy Shirley, Naomi Holder, and the Sweet-N-Lo-Sistas, as Duffey chimes about his grievance “I was accused, guilty by default, I don’t know what to do, I don’t know what to say, and it really doesn’t matter in a howlin’ way, but one of these days, you’re gonna wish you’d done better by me.”

“Delta Melody” is a gorgeous ballad with Duffey’s aching vocal lovingly remembering the past: “I’m thinking today…back to the Delta, where summer is creepin’ and children are sleepin’…I think of the time we sat and drank wine, down by the river, loving each other, with night as our cover, with moss as our bed, as you thickly spread all your warm love over me.”

“Axe Jes Rite” shifts into a swampy blues groove with sly lyricism as Duffey chants “I got a story for ya…I knows a gal what stays by the mill, she swears she won’t, but I think she will, Iz u axe her jes rite…I don’t think she’ll put up much of a fight if u axe her jes rite.”

“Sinking Into The Blues” is a shuffle with a rocking piano solo leading deep into the blues, as Duffey moans “Well, I can’t stop drinkin’ and I can’t stop thinkin’ I can’t stop smokin’ I keep on toke’n into the blues…I can’t stop cryin’ and baby I ain’t lyin’, but there ain’t no denyin’, I’m sinkin’ into the blues.”

“Love Song” has an old-timey vibe with crisp honky-tonk piano driving a good old-fashioned love song, as Duffey cries “Well, it’s a good time to say I love you, when your heart is filled with love, nothing can be wrong…cause everybody loves a love song, everybody loves to sing along.”

The title track, “Souvenirs,” with some great finger-pickin’, is a delicate farewell, a letting go of memories at the end, as Duffey wails “I’m packing up a lifetimes precious souvenirs, things I’ve acquired through the years, leavin all I’ve known taking what I can, sacred objects held in hands, mama I know ine day I’ll follow you, leaving all I’ve known, leaving without tears, leaving with all my souvenirs.”

The rousing closer, “Don’t Let The Darkness In,” is a New Orleans horn-fueled admonition, with Bob Dowell on trombone, Bert Windham on trumpet, Coby Health on trumpet, Nate Johnson on tenor saxophone, and Wes Rougeou on sousaphone, that builds from its gentle opening bars and then marches off in a rollicking street-parade finale: “I got an uneasy feeling that things aren’t goin’ just right, I just keep tossin’ and turnin’…the phone never stops ringin’, the bills keep comin’ round, don’t let the darkness in, don’t let it take control, open your heart, and let in the light, and let it fill your soul.”

Richard Ludmerer

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