Paul Pigat
Cousin Harley is on a Dutch tour for a week now and will continue until June 13th. A while ago Fiona talked to Paul Interview with Cousin Harley’s Paul Pigat! and Keith: Keith Picot joins the RootsBrothers! Angel reviewed their latest album: Cousin Harley – It’s a sin (album review)
They were visiting Rotterdam, my hometown, so I decided to find out why those Canadians get all the attention Rockabilly-online has been giving them. The Exit (the name of the place where they were playing) was not as packed as I expected. Sad, because this band has a good name, but not so big yet in Rotterdam. But I hope that will change in the future.
The nice thing about Cousin Harley is that they all are very open and friendly. I talked to their manager Kathy who enjoys the Rotterdam harbour and river so much. Guitarplayer/ singer Paul Pigat was sitting at the bar when a psychobilly band before them, the Bodybags were playing. As soon as he knew I was a Rotterdam citizen, he showed me a picture on his phone of a statue he saw that afternoon on the corner of the street, of a giant gnome with a,… uuhhh… let’s say pointy thing in his hand. “What is that?!” he asked. “Well what do you think Paul?” “I think it is a (Beep)” (sorry, I just had to do that). I told Paul the gnome was holding a christmas tree. That’s what we tell our kids, anyway.
Cousin Harley
It was showtime. If you like everything between Brian Setzer and The Reverend Horton Heat, you’ll like Cousin Harley even more. Rockabilly, blues, jazz, all perfectly blend in with Paul’s Gretsch guitar sound and his strong warm voice, Jesse Cahills catchy rhythm and Keith Picot’s wild bass slappin’. His doublebass seemed to have had some rough times, but the sound is perfect. Making faces Keiths job too by the way :).
Keith Picot
Most of the songs are from their latest album “It’s a sin”, but also from “Hillbilly Madness” like My Babe which is one of my favorites. We just could not stand still. Had to move some bodyparts. Slow, jive, fast and even faster songs. Most of the songs are written by Paul Pigat and all very different. Never a dull moment I would say.
After the show Jesse came up to me to talk about photography, his other passion besides music. He loves taking pictures with his Nikon, of musicians in action, and city stuff like graffiti and bikes. Back to music, actually, Jesse is a great jazz drummer, works with great jazz musicians and plays in The Nightcrawlers, which I happen to have an album of. I love that one right away, because it includes a Hammond playing the stars out of heaven (we say in Dutch). Maybe I’ll review that one later. Jesse’s got his own blog:
http://jessecahill.wordpress.com
Jesse Cahill
When you see them, you’ll love the music and you’ll love them. So go while you still can:
June 11th they’ll be in Groeten uit Grollo (NL) http://www.groetenuitgrolloo.nl
June 12th Arnhem (NL) http://www.parkopen.nl
June 12th The Rambler Eindhoven (NL)
June 13th DB’s Utrecht (NL)
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