POSTHASTE VS.
DAVID EGAN
By Dege Legg
He’s a singer. A songwriter. A piano man. A family man.
He’s even got his own Wikipedia entry. He’s David Egan. And he knows ancient
secrets about the monolithic stones of Stonehenge that he’s not willing to
share. Here are some other little known facts about Egan. He once calculated the exact location of a
dead star, using only a shoe horn. He does not play a keytar. When asked to provide proof of God’s
existence, Egan produced a Jew’s harp and proceeded to play Mountain’s
“Mississippi Queen.”
Egan is a Louisiana treasure of song. In addition to
fronting his own band and being a member of Lil Band O’Gold, Egan’s tunes have
been covered by the likes of Solomon Burke, Irma Thomas, Joe Cocker, Percy
Seldge, and many others. His albums Twenty
Years of Trouble and You Don’t Know
Your Mind are undeniable, scientific proof that Egan still has some
creative fish to fry in the skillet pan of creativity. And he ain’t done yet!
His new album promises to be a sacred cranial masterpiece full of high strokes,
confident blokes, wiggling worms of mushy tokes.
1. History of Dave
Egan in five words, more or less?
He seldom finishes what he...
2. Why Dave Egan
musician, why not Dave Egan: bearded sorcerer or snake juggling preacher?
That Fortenbery fellow already got the gig.
3. If you could
change careers, what would you be interested in doing?
I would have a Chinese BBQ called Happy Duck on Jefferson
Street with ducks, chickens and crispy pork hanging up in the window, a Chinese
guy with a cleaver up there chopping away, seven days a week. Open late. Packed
with 27-year-old hungry Bohemians.
4. Worst gig ever?
Solo gig at a mom & pop steak house in Frisco, TX. I
subbed for a friend. I had never done a solo gig. I had no repertoire. I was
reading country standard lyrics out of his notebooks. Songs I had never
attempted and never should've. I tried "I Love You More Today than
Yesterday" by Spiral Staircase because I knew the melody and thought I
could read the words and chords at the same time. But what I didn't realize was
how high the vocals would soar at the chorus - out of my range and into the
stratosphere. Two lines into that huevo-busting chorus, I had to end the song.
But my nervous foot, involuntarily hopping up and down, kept setting off the
phony baloney 70's push-button rhythm box. So I had to end it again. A geezer
yelled from his table, "YOU GO TO HELL!"
SPIRAL STAIRCASE
5. Best gig ever?
I'm happy to say there are simply far, far too many of
those. Sometimes huge and sometimes very intimate, but deeply gratifying. But
one among many would be Piano Night at House of Blues a few years back. There
were scores of pianists there who could smoke me, pick my bones and toss me out
onto the dungheap. I did some originals - good ol' "Spoonbread,"
"Twenty Years of Trouble," Clifton's "I'm a Farmer" and
"Dreamer." I took a bow to a raging, standing ovation, packed from
the apron to the balconies, screaming for more.
6. You’re known
for playing piano, and we love it, but do you ever get the primal urge to get
leathered up, grab a BC Rich Warlock guitar, and quench the steel with some
ungodly riffage?
Piano is not exactly a face-melting instrument. But it's
a harsh mistress, and more than enough for me to handle.
7. Worst song ever
heard?
That song from The
Sound of Music where they're performing for the Nazis. It's horrible and
gives me reflux, while at the same time, hitting some twisted funny bone. This
scene must have influenced your buddy, Quentin.
8. Name a song
that has grown on you over the years?
"If I Loved You" from Carousel.
9. Most requested
song when doing piano gigs at restaurants and bars?
Honestly, "Bourbon in My Cup” (from Egan’s You Don’t Know Your Mind.)
10. Piano man:
Billy Joel? Thoughts? Why do Yankees/northerners Billy Joel so much?
He’s a damn fine singer and piano player. There are truly
some lovely songs, but overall, not my cup of tea. Sometimes his songs will
rave on and on over an idea that's simply not so good. “Piano Man” is good, but
a request for it kind of tells me that the requestor has no imagination or
capacity to hear anybody do anything they haven't had passively beat into them
for forty years.
11. What’s up with
the new record? What’s new? What’s the same? What’s different? Give us your
best pitch.
I have fantastical confidence in the new record. It
cannot be denied and will be hard for me to ever top. Lil’Buck, Buddy Flett,
Bruce MacDonald, Dickie Landry and many others bring their gifts. We recorded
and mixed the entire project at Dockside, which was a first. I spent so much
that I had to halt production for months at a time, to gather up more money.
But it was a good thing, because it gave the creative process a chance to
breathe as well. The official release date is June 4th and I don't
want KRVS to peak on it before the rest of the world even hears it. I want
Cecil Doyle to be the first guy to play it on air. I'm doing a special Jazz
Fest "Pre-Release," making it available at Jazz Fest and LA Music
Factory. But I'm selling a few off the gigs, and giving away quite a few. So
many hipsters and home peeps around here. Gotta take care of my peoples. I kept
it under wraps for so long. I can finally start throwing out a few. I think a
lot of folks, if they're honest, will say, "Holy Shit."
12. Something no
one knows about Dave Egan?
I like to watch "Your Health" with the Beckers.
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